While it's easy to look back on the decade and remember all the great hardware and new devices that came out from Apple, it's easy to overlook the software that makes the iPhone what it is.

In 2014, iOS 8 was released alongside the iPhone 6, and it came with some huge improvements and new features that would prove to be instrumental in how people use their Apple devices and what direction the company would take in the future.

The start of Continuity

When you ask people why they have stuck with Apple, you'll get a lot of different answers, but one answer you hear a lot is that people love the "Apple ecosystem." The way different Apple devices work hand-in-hand with other Apple devices makes life easier for a lot of people and is a huge draw for Apple. Well, iOS 8 was a huge step forward for Apple's ecosystem since it brought the launch of Continuity.

Continuity is what allows communication between Apple devices. It's the reason you can take phone calls on your Mac and iPad and the reason you can send SMS messages on your Mac and iPad. More importantly, Continuity launched with the Handoff feature, which allowed you to start a task on one device and continue on another. If you started writing a note on your iPhone, you could easily finish typing it on your Mac and vice-versa.

Since iOS 8, Continuity has only become more and more useful, and Apple has doubled down on expanding its ecosystem. The future of how we use our Apple devices (especially different devices together) has forever been shaped by iOS 8.

Apple gets healthy

When Apple launched the Health app (and HealthKit), it may have been pretty barebones compared to what it is today, but there's no question that, when it was announced in 2014, it started Apple on a health journey.

The Health app was about more than just counting steps or how many floors you climbed — which the app would do using the iPhone's internal sensors — but was a place for developers to aggregate health data from different fitness apps. Little did we know at the time that the Apple Watch was going to come out the next year, and completely blow the lid off of Apple's dedication to health.

Over the years, HealthKit and the Health app have gone through a ton of changes, and Apple keeps pumping out new features for iPhone and Apple Watch to help users get a better insight into their health.

A strong year for iOS

You may not think of every new version of iOS is something to write home about, and you'd be right. Plenty of years, the innovation of the newest iOS can feel minimal when you look at it in a vacuum; however, when you look at the bigger picture, something like iOS 8 looks pretty monumental.

Continuity really solidified Apple's commitment to making your workflow feel way more seamless when using multiple devices. The Health app was the very beginning of Apple's commitment to using its products to help people with their health — even if, at the time, it was a little barebones.

Those are only two big changes that were included in iOS 8, plenty of other changes were brought in during the lifetime of iOS 8 that changed the Apple software forever. That's why, when it comes to significant Apple innovations over the years, I'll always remember 2014 for bringing us iOS 8.

More navigation links:

Apple

• Apple across the decade
• Rene Ritchie's product of the decade
• The iPad
• iPhone 4s
• Qi charging
• iPhone 5c
• iOS 8
• Apple Watch
• Pokémon Go
• Nintendo Switch
• iPad Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro
• Nintendo

Google

• Top Google stories of the decade
• Google Home & Google Assistant
• Moto X
• Roku
• Chromecast & Google Cast
• HDR+
• Samsung Galaxy S7
• Alexa & Amazon Echo
• HTC One M7
• Robot Vacuums
• Google Cardboard
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Microsoft

• Top Microsoft news stories
• Surface Pro
• Windows as a service
• The Xbox revolution
• AMD vs. Intel
• OneDrive

Apple has just released iOS 8.4.1, which includes fixes for, among other things, Apple Music. It also includes some improvements to accessibility, primarily where it comes to Apple's screen-reader, VoiceOver.

The improvements should make it easier for people with limited or no vision to access the additional information and controls available in Apple Music. That includes, for example, following and unfollowing artists in Connect.

iOS 8.4.1 is available via iTunes on the Mac or Windows, or on-device via Software Update.

• How to download and install iOS 8.4.1

As part of the iOS 8.4 update, which brought Apple's new Music app and streaming service, Apple has also added a number of improvements to its iBooks app. One of these changes means that iBooks is now the destination for your audiobooks. You can find, download, and listen to audiobooks from the app. Previously, audiobooks were found as a part of the Music app.

iBooks on iOS 8.4 also adds support for iBooks Author-created books, and Made for iBooks content, on the iPhone. Check out below for the full list of iBooks changes in iOS 8.4:

• Browse, listen, and download audiobooks from inside iBooks
• Enjoy the all-new Now Playing feature, designed specifically for audiobooks
• Books that are Made for ibooks now work on iPhone in addition to iPad
• Find and pre-order books in a series right from your library
• Improves accessibility of widgets, glossary and navigation in books made with iBooks Author
• New default Chinese font
• New setting to turn off Auto-Night theme in your library
• Resolves an issue that may have prevented Hide Purchases from working
• Resolves an issue that may have prevented downloading books from iCloud

To take advantage of these new features, be sure to download iOS 8.4.

While Apple is working on a fix for the bug that causes Messages and notifications to crash iOS 8, there are several things you can do right now to help prevent your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch from being affected, and to try to recover if you've already been affected.

1. Unless you have reason to believe you're a target, you probably only need to do this until your friends' attention span lapses and they move on to the next prank.
2. We've had luck with these methods. They may or may not work for everybody. Other people may or may not have had luck with other methods, up to and including a restore with Messages or notifications disabled. Make sure you let us know in the comments what's worthing for you!

Update from Apple

Apple has posted a fix in the company's knowledge base{.nofollow}. It's similar to the Siri fix we listed below, but more specific and worth trying first:

Ask Siri to "read unread messages."

1. Use Siri to reply to the malicious message.
2. After you reply, you'll be able to open Messages again.
3. In Messages, swipe left to delete the entire thread. Or tap and hold the malicious message, tap More, and delete the message from the thread.

How to prevent crashes from the lock screen

1. Launch the Settings app from your or iPad iPhone Home screen.
2. Tap on Notifications.
3. Tap on Messages.
4. Toggle Show on Lock Screen to OFF.
   
   

How to prevent Apple Watch crashes

1. Launch the Apple Watch app from your iPhone or iPad Home screen.
2. Tap on Notifications.
3. Tap on Messages.
4. Tap on Custom.
5. Toggle Show Alerts to OFF.
   
   

How to clear notification center to prevent crashes

If you've already received the bad Unicode string maliciously or as a prank, send yourself or have someone else send you a clean message to the same app.

1. Hold down the Home button to launch Siri.
2. Say "Send a message to [name]".
3. Say "Send it" or tap Send.
   
   

You can also use the Share Sheet.

1. Launch Photos from your iPhone or iPad Home screen.
2. Tap on any Photo.
3. Tap on the Share button.
4. Tap on the Messages icon.
5. Enter the recipient.
6. Tap Send.
   
   

That should fix the notification crashes, but you still won't be able to open any conversation or screen that contains the bad string.

If you've been affected by the bug, or found any other fixes, please let us know.

Nick Arnott contributed to this article.

Updated to include a fix posted by Apple.

The biggest new feature appears to be a revamped Music app that includes a streamlined version of iTunes Radio. It comes amid rumors that Apple is set to debut a new music streaming service sometime around WWDC 2015 this June.

The developer release of the iOS 8.4 beta comes just under a week after Apple released iOS 8.3 to the public, so the company appears to be intent on keeping up momentum through the spring.

While today's beta release is developer-only, iOS 8.3 went through a period of invite-only public beta testing, so it's possible that iOS 8.4 may do the same.

We've not been able to duplicate the problem on any of our devices, but after helping several people, we have come across what looks to be a working Touch ID fix for those affected. Best of all, it's a simple one!

How to fix Touch ID not working in iOS 8.3

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
3. Enter your Passcode or Password
4. Toggle iTunes & App Store to OFF
5. Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.
6. Reboot your iPhone or iPad. (Here's how)
7. Enter your Passcode or Password at the Lock screen
8. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
9. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
10. Enter your Passcode or Password
11. Toggle iTunes & App Store to ON

That should fix any issues with using Touch ID to authorize App Store or iTunes Store purchases.

For in-app use, remember you may have to enter a password in the specific app before Touch ID will work again in an extension (because your iPhone or iPad rebooted during update). For example, you'll have to launch the 1Password app and enter your Master Password at least once before the 1Password action extension will work with Touch ID in other apps.

With any luck, that'll get Touch ID working again for you in iTunes and App Store, and you'll be happily authorizing away! If you're having the problem, let me know if this fixed you up!

The third major update for iOS 8, 8.3 adds a number of improvements, including over 300 new and diverse emoji characters. Also added in this update are a number of performance fixes. You can check out the full list of changes below:

This release includes improved performance, bug fixes, and a redesigned Emoji keyboard. Changes include:

Improved performance for:

• App launch
• App responsiveness
• Messages
• Wi-Fi
• Control Center
• Safari tabs
• 3rd-party keyboards
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Simplified Chinese keyboard

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fixes

• Fixes an issue where you could be continuously prompted for login credentials
• Addresses an issue where some devices disconnect intermittently from Wi-Fi networks
• Fixes an issue where hands-free phone calls could become disconnected
• Fixes an issue where audio playback could stop working with some bluetooth speakers

Orientation and rotation fixes

• Addresses an issue that sometimes prevented rotating back to portrait after having rotated to landscape
• Improves performance and stability issues that occurred when rotating the device between portrait and landscape
• Fixes an issue where device orientation appeared upside down after pulling the iPhone 6 Plus from your pocket
• Resolves an issue that sometimes prevented apps from rotating to correct orientation after switching apps in multitasking

Messages fixes

• Addresses issues that caused group messages to sometimes split
• Fixes an issue that sometimes removed the ability to forward or delete individual messages
• Resolves an issue that sometimes prevented a preview from appearing when taking a photo in Messages
• Adds the ability to report junk messages directly from the Messages app
• Adds the ability to filter out iMessages that are not sent by your contacts

Family Sharing fixes

• Fixes a bug where certain apps would not launch or update on family members' devices
• Fixes a bug that prevented family members from downloading certain free apps
• Increased reliability for Ask to Buy notifications

CarPlay fixes

• Fixes an issue where Maps could come up as a black screen
• Fixes an issue where the UI could be incorrectly rotated
• Fixes an issue where the keyboard could appear on the CarPlay screen when it shouldn't

Enterprise fixes

• Improves reliability of installing and updating enterprise apps
• Corrects the time zone of Calendar events created in IBM Notes
• Fixes a problem that could cause web clip icons to become generic after restarting
• Improves reliability of saving the password for a web proxy
• Exchange out-of-office message can now be edited separately for external replies
• Improves recovery of Exchange accounts from temporary connection problems
• Improves compatibility of VPN and web proxy solutions
• Allows use of physical keyboards to log into Safari web sheets, such as for joining a public Wi-Fi network
• Fixes an issue that caused Exchange meetings with long notes to be truncated

Accessibility fixes

• Fixes an issue where using the back button in Safari causes VoiceOver gestures to not respond
• Fixes an issue where VoiceOver focus becomes unreliable in draft Mail messages
• Fixes an issue where Braille Screen Input cannot be used to type text in forms on webpages
• Fixes an issue where toggling Quick Nav on a Braille Display announces that Quick Nav is off
• Fixes an issue keeping app icons from being moveable on home screen when VoiceOver is enabled
• Fixes an issue in Speak Screen where speech will not start again after pausing

Other improvements and bug fixes

• Introduces a redesigned Emoji keyboard with over 300 new characters
• iCloud Photo Library has been optimized to work with the new Photos app on OS X 10.10.3 and is now out of beta
• Improves the pronunciation of street names during turn-by-turn navigation in Maps
• Includes support for Baum VarioUltra 20 and VarioUltra 40 braille displays
• Improves the display of Spotlight results when Reduce Transparency is turned on
• Adds Italic and Underline format options for iPhone 6 Plus landscape keyboard
• Adds the ability to remove shipping and billing addresses used with Apple Pay
• Additional language and country support for Siri: English (India, New Zealand), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Swedish (Sweden), Thai (Thailand), Turkish (Turkey)
• Additional dictation languages: Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and Hebrew (Israel)
• Improves stability for Phone, Mail, Bluetooth connectivity, Photos, Safari tabs, Settings, Weather and Genius Playlists in Music
• Addresses an issue where Slide to Unlock could fail to work on certain devices
• Addresses an issue that sometimes prevented swiping to answer a phone call on the Lock screen
• Addresses an issue that prevented opening links in Safari PDFs
• Fixes an issue where selecting Clear History and Website Data in Safari Settings did not clear all data
• Fixes an issue that prevented autocorrecting "FYI"
• Addresses an issue where contextual predictions did not appear in Quick Reply
• Fixes an issue where Maps did not enter night mode from hybrid mode
• Resolves an issue that prevented initiating FaceTime calls from a browser or 3rd-party app using FaceTime URLs
• Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented photos from properly exporting to Digital Camera Image folders on Windows
• Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented an iPad backup from completing with iTunes
• Fixes an issue that could cause Podcast downloads to stall when switching from Wi-Fi to cellular networks
• Fixes an issue where remaining time on timer would sometimes incorrectly display as 00:00 on Lock screen
• Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented adjusting call volume

iOS 8.3 was the first version of the operating system to be added to Apple's invitation-only AppleSeed testing program. This meant that more users were able to test the update and send feedback to Apple before public release than previous versions. Hopefully, this practice will lead to more stable software going forward.

Apple has also released OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, which includes the new Photos for Mac app, giving you access to your iCloud Photo Library right on your Mac.

• How to upgrade your iOS device over the air
• How to upgrade your iOS device using iTunes

iOS 8.2 brings support for the upcoming Apple Watch. This includes the Apple Watch app, which will let you pair your watch to your phone, as well as download apps for it. The initial beta release of iOS 8.2 included the WatchKit SDK, which allows developers to build apps for the Watch.

Below is the full list of changes found in iOS 8.2:

This release introduces support for Apple Watch, and also includes improvements to the Health app, increased stability and bug fixes.

Apple Watch support

• New Apple Watch app to pair and sync with iPhone, and to customize watch settings
• New Activity app for viewing fitness data and achievements from Apple Watch; appears when Apple Watch is paired
• Available on iPhone 5 and later

Health app improvements

• Adds the ability to select the unit of measurement for distance, body temperature, height, weight and blood glucose
• Improves stability when dealing with large amounts of data
• Includes the ability to add and visualize workout sessions from 3rd-party apps
• Addresses an issue that may have prevented users from adding a photo in Medical ID
• Fixes units for vitamins and minerals
• Fixes an issue where Health data wouldn't refresh after changing data source order
• Fixes an issue where some graphs showed no data values
• Adds a privacy setting that enables turning off tracking of steps, distance and flights climbed

Stability enhancements

• Increases stability of Mail
• Improves stability of Flyover in Maps
• Improves stability of Music
• Improves VoiceOver reliability
• Improves connectivity with Made for iPhone Hearing Aids

Bug fixes

• Fixes an issue in Maps that prevented navigating to some favorite locations
• Addresses an issue where the last word in a quick reply message wasn't autocorrected
• Fixes an issue where duplicate iTunes purchased content could prevent iCloud restore from completing
• Resolves an issue where some music or playlists didn't sync from iTunes to the Music app
• Fixes an issue where deleted audiobooks sometimes remained on device
• Resolves an issue that could prevent call audio from routing to car speakers while using Siri Eyes Free
• Fixes a Bluetooth calling issue where no audio is heard until the call is answered
• Fixes a timezone issue where Calendar events appear in GMT
• Addresses an issue that caused certain events in a custom recurring meeting to drop from an Exchange calendar
• Fixes a certificate error that prevented configuring an Exchange account behind a third-party gateway
• Fixes an issue that could cause an organizer's Exchange meeting notes to be overwritten
• Resolves an issue that prevented some Calendar events from automatically showing as 'Busy' after accepting an invite

During their announcement of Apple Watch in September 2014, Apple said that the Watch would be compatible with several iPhone models. In addition to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch is expected to be compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s.

Follow the links below for instructions on upgrading your iPhone or iPad, either over the air or through iTunes.

• How to upgrade your iOS device over the air
• How to upgrade your iOS device using iTunes

Apple sped up the animations before release, but for some they still felt too slow. Since iOS 8 didn't fundamentally change the animations curves, that perception has lingered. Recently, to highlight the difference between pre-iOS 7 and post-iOS 7 animations, Omni developer William Van Hecke made a video:

Van Hecke attributes the difference to a change in interruptibility — Springboard previously allowing you to act before an animation finishes versus now making you wait until the animation finishes before you can act.

It's my understanding, however, that iOS animations have never been interruptible. They simply ended quickly pre-iOS 7 and now, post-iOS7, they ease out.

Whether shorting the animation tails or making the animations interruptible is the best way to reverse the feeling and the perception of slowness Hecke refers to, I don't know enough to say. Either way, and to his credit, Van Hecke filed the issue with Apple's bug reporter:

More information on the animations from former UIKit engineer Andy Matuschak:

The iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite beta 2 updates are part of Apple's ongoing efforts to address diversity, and it's extending beyond organization and into software, with a much wider array of cultures and ethnicities for face and hand symbols.

Emoji have become popular because they're efficient, sometimes amusing, but mostly humanizing. They allow for the inclusion of emotion and feeling beyond what plain text can transmit. It's for that very reason that emoji need to be inclusive — so that people everywhere can see themselves reflected in their use.

The way it works is like this: The iOS 8.3 or Yosemite keyboards starts off with a "neutral" (i.e. classic yellow) emoji. Tap/click and hold and you get five alternate skin tone options. These are based on the Fitzpatrick scale for standard dermatological representation, as adopted by the Unicode Consortium.

In addition to the flags and skin tones, there's also greater gender diversity for families, new electronics, and more. No word yet on some of the more controversial elements of the new Unicode standard.

iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3 are still in beta, so it's possible that the exact number, style, color, and character of the new emoji will change between this beta and its release — expected some time this spring.

It's great to see Apple using its popularity and power to push for more and better inclusivity. Hopefully it's just the beginning, and for all platforms.

• How to enable emoji on your iPhone or iPad

3:30pm: Updated with implementation details and OS X 10.10.3 integration.

This how-to is part of our iOS Help feature, where every week I try and help you fix the problems you're having with your iPhones and iPads. If you have a question or need help with something iOS related that you just can't figure out, I encourage you to drop a question in our iMore forums or email ioshelp@imore.com!

This week's question comes to us from William:

William, you definitely aren't the only person having issues with keyboard shortcuts, particularly after updating to iOS 8. Whether they're just not syncing or you find them disappearing from a particular device altogether, here are some suggestions on how to get them back in working order again!

1. Turn off predictive text

Some folks have had luck simply turning off the predictive text feature in the Settings app. It's more of a workaround than an actual solution, but it's the easiest one to rule out first. To turn off predictive text, just follow these steps:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on Keyboards.
4. Turn Off the option for Predictive.
5. Reboot your iPhone or iPad and try using keyboard shortcuts again.

If keyboard shortcuts are back to normal, you're good to go. If not, continue on.

2. Toggle Documents & Data on and off

If you don't have iCloud Drive turned on and you're not on iOS 8.1 or above, you will still see a Documents & Data option under iCloud. If you are on iOS 8.1 or newer, you will not see Documents & Data, so skip to step 3 now.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on iCloud.
3. Tap on Documents & Data.
4. Turn Off the option for Documents & Data.
5. Reboot your iPhone or iPad and turn the option back On.
6. Test to see if your keyboard shortcuts are now working.

3. Toggle iCloud Drive on and off

If you are using iCloud Drive already, complete this step.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on iCloud.
3. Tap on iCloud Drive.
4. Turn iCloud Drive Off.
5. Reboot your iPhone.
6. Turn iCloud Drive back On and test keyboard shortcuts.

If they still aren't working, continue on.

4. Sign in and out of iCloud

A last resort is to completely sign in and out of iCloud. You'll want to do this on all devices linked to your iCloud account, one at a time.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap on iCloud.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Sign Out.
4. Tap Sign Out in the popup menu.
5. Tap *Delete from My iPhone** in the second popup menu.
6. Type in your password to disable Find My iPhone if you're prompted and tap Turn Off.
7. Once you are signed out of iCloud, reboot your iPhone or iPad by holding down the power and Home button until you see the Apple logo.
8. Sign back into iCloud in the Settings app.

What worked for you?

We hope one of these suggestions gets your keyboard shortcuts working again William. And for anyone else out there having issues with keyboard shortcuts, give these a try and let us know in the comments what worked for you!

Apple has just released iOS 8.1.3 for iPhone and iPad devices. The over-the-air update has a number of fixes and improvements, including one that should cut down on the amount of storage needed for future software updates.

Here's the change log for iOS 8.1.3, the download for which should be around 240MB, depending on which device you're downloading it on.

• Reduces the amount of storage required to perform a software update
• Fixes an issue that prevented some users from entering their Apple ID password for Messages and Face Time
• Addresses an issue that caused Spotlight to stop displaying app results
• Fixes an issue which prevented multitasking gestures from working on iPad.
• Adds new configuration options for education standardized testing.

If you'll recall, the iOS 8.1.1 update returned some 500MB of free space to users. The free space needed to implement the many major under-the-hood changes that comprised iOS 8 did cause some grief for many updaters, so hopefully after installing iOS 8.1.3 we won't have to resort to less civilized means of updating when the next update comes along.

Update: The installation for iOS 8.1.3, by all accounts so far, has been exceptionally quick and easy.

Non-interruptive as well:

And space-saving:

Three months ago we reviewed iOS 8, arguably the most jam-packed versions of the iPhone and iPad operating system we've seen since the introduction of the App Store back in 2008. Since then we've gotten updates — up to iOS 8.1.2 on the production branch and iOS 8.2 beta 2 on the developer branch. We've gotten bug fixes, performance enhancements, and even more new features. But with the good comes the bad. With new possibilities come new frustrations and with new workflows come new bugs. So, how has it held up? How are we liking iOS 8 now, some three months later?

Continuity

Peter: I'm impressed with Continuity when it works, and angered when it doesn't — which is still much more often than I'd like. Of all of iOS 8's new features, Continuity is arguably the most important for Mac users, because it enables us to make better use of both our devices than we can separately. I want Apple to iron the bugs and inefficiencies out here and get the fundamentals right. This is such important technology. Apple can't afford to screw it up.

Ally: Continuity is the missing piece between iOS and OS X and when it works, it's amazing. The keyword here is when it works. I've had fairly good luck with it myself but I know that isn't the case for everyone. Hopefully over time the bugs and kinks not only get worked out, but developers find new, creative, and amazing ways to meld together workflows that make it even more valuable.

Ren: Echoing Ally and Peter: When Continuity works, it's a fantastic little tool. I still haven't integrated it fully into my day-to-day routine, but I find that I'm using it a little bit more each week. I don't really use Continuity calling all that often, but Handoff's been a big winner for me, especially when it comes to Pixelmator. I've been a longtime Photoshop user, but being able to quickly swap Pixelmator canvases from iPad to Mac via Handoff has convinced me to give the indie app a daily spot in my workflow.

Rene: I'm spoiled. My job affords me the incredible luxury of working with almost entirely new Apple stuff, and all Apple stuff. As such, Continuity has worked really well for me. I use Instant Hotspot all the time, and it's a giant leap ahead of personal hotspot. Likewise, Relay. My green-bubble friends are now with me everywhere (hi Phil!). AirDrop has been incredibly convenient, and Hand-off I just want for iTunes and media already.

Widgets and extensions

Ren: I haven't been using widgets and extensions all that much on the Mac, but they've been game-changers on iOS. I love my Notification Center's Today view widgets (though I have far too many): There's ETA, which gives me a list of frequent destinations and average travel time with traffic; Dark Sky's next hour forecast; Clips, which allows me to save snippets from my clipboard for use whenever; Sky Guide with its planetary charts; Fantastical's excellent calendar preview; iTranslate's auto-clipboard translation… there are too many to name. On the extension front, I've mostly been using photo and video extensions, though Workflow has introduced a few new custom extensions to my day.

Peter: I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't used widgets or extensions nearly as much as I should have since iOS 8 was released. The two that have become the most frequently used include Fantastical 2, a superb alternative to Apple's own Calendar app; and ESPN SportsCenter, which helps me keep track of all the sportsball things.

Ally: I've become somewhat of a widget fanatic since iOS 8 was launched. It's also urged me to use the Notification Center Today view a heck of a lot more than I ever did prior to iOS 8. Actually, I rarely used Notification Center unless it was to quickly view incoming messages. Now with Fantastical, Dark Sky, TeeVee 3, and many other great apps that show me info at a glance, I know what's going on in just a single swipe and I couldn't be happier to have the option.

Rene: Extensibility has transformed the way I use iOS. Previously, any time I wanted to do anything else, I had to leave what I was doing and the app I was doing it in, go to another app, do something else, and then find my way back. Now, I pull swipe a widget, do a quick calculation, and swipe it away. I edit a photo using filters from 3 apps all in one place. I use an action extension right inside Safari or share from any app I'm in to any service I want. Rather than hunting around my iPhone or iPad for functionality, it now all comes right to me, wherever I am and whenever I want it. It's a whole new age.

QuickType and Keyboards

Ren: I love the idea of third-party keyboards, but so far I've mostly just added GIF keyboards to my roster. I haven't really been able to work Swype or SwiftKey into daily use — not enough time in the day to devote to a new way of using a keyboard — though I keep meaning to set aside a few hours to really give them a go. GIF keyboards, though, I've been loving. My current favorite is PopKey, though Riffsy's GIF Keyboard is also pretty great. And I recently started playing around with Slated, which offers an auto-translation of anything you type — the grammar may not always be perfect, but it's an awesome way to keep another language in the forefront for either learning or communication with someone whose first language isn't English.

I use QuickType… when I remember to. My virtual typing is so fast these days that it's hard to sit still long enough for the engine to give me recommendations. But when I'm doing something one-handed, I find it very useful indeed.

Peter: To be frank, I haven't found a lot of use for third-party keyboards. In fact, I find them more of a distraction than a really useful tool. After some futzing around with some of the ones that Ally and my other colleagues recommended, I ended up removing them all together.

QuickType, on the other hand, is something I find very useful. I find iOS 8's suggestions to be quite often on the money, and it saves me a lot of time to tap the suggested word instead of writing it out.

Ally: I've found QuickType to be more convenient and easier to use than older versions of auto-correct. I actually don't really think about it often and just find myself using it. But I guess that's the point.

As for third party keyboards, I think at this point I'm so used to the iOS stock keyboard, it's a hard habit to break. When I use a third party keyboard, I find myself using either Minuum or Text Expander. I use a lot of snippets so Text Expander makes sense when I'm writing on the iPad. Minuum makes using the iPhone 6 Plus one-handed somewhat bearable, so I switch to it here and there when I need to.

Rene: I like the idea of custom keyboards a lot. Different ways to type will suit different kinds of typists, and if you can get the keyboard you want on the iPhone or iPad, that's a win. I do think Apple needs to improve the installation process a lot. I'd like to tap and hold the keyboard change key (globe icon), see a + sign to indicate a new keyboard is available, and then install it right there, like you can with widgets in Today view. That'd be much easier.

That said, I still find myself using Apple's keyboard most of the time, and ignoring QuickType as I do. Much like Ren, I'm so used to it after all these years, I just type first and notice suggestions later.

iCloud Drive and storage providers

Peter: iCloud Drive is great if you want to sync data between your Macs and iOS devices. And that's exactly how I use it. iCloud Drive doesn't replace Dropbox for me, which is a much more effective cross-platform sharing technology that I use with friends and coworkers. I think there's room for a lot of different solutions when it comes to cloud storage, because people are always thinking up new ways to use it. And I don't think iCloud Drive is going to replace them all, because of Apple's platforms-specific focus.

Ally: I have yet to pry myself away from Dropbox, mainly due to how many people I already collaborate and share with. Mobile Nations is a cross-platform company and we have so many people using so many devices, solutions like iCloud Drive just won't ever make sense in that capacity.

That being said, I do use iCloud Drive for personal files and find it to be a super simple way to keep files I'm working on in sync between devices. I can work on a how to in Napkin from my MacBook Air, hit the save button, and pick it up again right where I left off on my iMac. Then again, I've been able to do this with Documents in the Cloud for quite some time. I haven't yet migrated a ton of files to iCloud Drive and still think I'll wait for that until I have a Files.app option on iOS.

Ren: I'm with Ally here. Dropbox for life.

I do want to trust iCloud Drive, but the implementation is just too shoddy right now. Files.app would fix a lot of concerns I have, but at the same time, I know Apple's trying to move away from people messing with the storage of their documents. The problem is that people (me) still want to have access to their files — moving them, storing them, sharing them — and I don't know if obfuscating everything is the right way to go about doing it.

But iCloud's document sync, as Ally described, is pretty nifty. I love not having to worry about saving or transferring my documents and files between Mac and iOS. Unfortunately, it's not implemented in every app I use, only some of them, and when the experience breaks down, it's a bit of a bummer.

Rene: For years I've been begging Apple for Files.app and DocumentPicker. This year I got the latter, but not the former. I still want a Files.app for the same reasons I'm glad to have a Photos.app, but I'm also incredibly impressed with storage providers. Like Ally and Ren, I use Dropbox a lot, and with storage providers, Dropbox can be a first class citizen on iOS, on equal footing with iCloud. Yes Apple still has bugs to fix with their online services, and with the file sharing system, but we're well on our way to that mattering less than ever.

Messages

Ren: All hail SMS relay. I can't count the number of times SMS messages had gone unanswered in the past because my phone was across the room, or I looked at a message and didn't want to answer it on my phone because it would require too much typing. It's a nice little addition, and it takes away the whole SMS second-class-citizen feeling.

I also really love the new details screen; not only does it make finding old attachments easy, but I use the quick buttons for sharing and sending location all the time when meeting with friends. By largely taking Find My Friends out of the app, location sharing becomes a lot less "creepy neverending locator" and a lot more of a useful utility.

And though I don't get stuck on too many never-ending group threads, Do Not Disturb has proved essential for the few I have been on. It makes it easier to keep named group conversations around, too, for occasional coordination.

Peter: Some long overdue improvements with group message naming and the ability to leave group chats, or just activating do not disturb for those times you don't want to be bothered. But the big game changer for me is SMS relay, which makes it possible for me to text with all those folks using non-iPhones without leaving my Mac. I love that feature most!

Ally: I can now be friends with green bubble people again. If I haven't responded to your texts in years, I apologize. Due to SMS relay, we can now be friends again.

Rene: I both love and hate the new Messages. Many of the new features are fantastic, including the Details view, the group message naming, do not disturb, and leave conversations are superb.

But the instant sending stuff scares me. I'm not of the sticker generation. I'm not comfortable with touch-and-release to send. I really, truly want to have to confirm before that unintentional half-selfie leaves my phone, or that careless soundbite hits the air.

Photos and Camera

Ally: Photo extensions are literally the best thing to ever come to the Photos app. I use them all the time, particularly Afterlight and Camera+. Manual camera controls have also brought some of the best camera replacement options we've ever seen. All of which enhance what we can do with the great camera we carry around in our pockets. I frequently find myself checking the photography section of the App Store since iOS 8 and I never fail to find awesome filter, editing, and camera apps that are new, wonderful, and unique in their own way.

Ren: God, yes, photo extensions. They're fantastic and give the Photos app so much more flexibility for editing, tweaking, meme-ing, the works. I'm so happy they exist — though I'm still waiting for that Waterlogue extension!

Manual camera controls and the iPhone 6's slow-motion are my two iOS 8 photographic winners, though. I use Manual all the time to get the correct exposure on pictures I wouldn't otherwise be able to shoot, and I love trawling the App Store for new camera apps. Regarding video: I didn't think I'd be able to do as much with it as I have. The iPhone 6's video sensor is pretty good, but paired with iOS 8's software rendering it's one of the best in its class. 240FPS slow-motion is clear even at low light levels, and digital video stabilization has seen large improvements over iOS 7 and the 5s (at least in my tests). Pair it with an app like Hyperlapse, and you're looking at Steadicam-esque stabilization — from a phone!

Peter: With iOS 8, I've finally stopped fighting the iPhone to take a good photo, because I can use manual camera controls when I know I can do better than the software. I'm still waiting for the end-to-end workflow Apple promised with Photos on the Mac, due sometime in 2015, but I'm already happy with the improvements.

Rene: Manual camera controls by themselves were worth the iOS 8 update. While the iPhone takes the very best everyday photos in mobile already, being able to override it when I really do know better — getting that long exposure or that shifted focus or that custom balance — means I can use it for more than just the everyday. I can use it for the extraordinary.

Complementing that are the new editing tools in Photos.app which let me default to the grossest Magic Wand if I'm in a rush, or go totally granular for color and light if the mood strikes me.

iCloud Photo Library, when it comes out of beta and hits the Mac, will hopefully complete that circle as well, making all my photos and videos available on all my devices all the time. That, I really want Apple to nail.

Health and HealthKit

Peter: There was so much hype about Health before iOS 8's release, and it really hasn't lived up to it. This isn't as yet a transformative app; there's too much siloing of information in the health care field for that to happen, unless you're lucky enough to be affiliated with one of the few institutions that's working with Apple to gateway their own electronic systems to Apple's HealthKit technology. For the rest of us, it's a novelty to get our exercise apps synced and so on, but seems to have few truly useful applications yet.

Ally: I've yet to really use HealthKit. Actually, it's buried in a folder on my second page of apps. Typically, this is where apps go to die. Instead, I've found third party apps like the Up by Jawbone app still serve my needs better. Maybe that'll change with the Apple Watch, but only time will tell.

Ren: I'm with Peter and Ally here — HealthKit's delay and super-soft launch really took the wind out of its sails. I'm sure we'll see more when the Apple Watch comes to market, but until then, I don't see much use in it personally; I don't think I've launched the app since I upgraded to iOS 8.1 and entered in my medical information.

Rene: Health ended up being far more complicated than I expected. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a difficult thing. Right now I have step and stair climbing information in Health, but I want more. That means better support from apps and accessories, but it also means some additional help from Apple. Staring at those long lists is just so imposing right now. I don't know how it could be simplified — and won't dare use the dreaded wizard word! — but if anyone can do it, Apple can.

Family Sharing

Peter: I've yet to set up Family Sharing, which is ironic, since I have a wife and three kids and we all share media content. I suppose I really should, but at this point it'll require a lot of retraining of habits we developed during the years when Family Sharing wasn't around, and that's just more effort than it's worth for us all right now.

Ally: We set up Family Sharing in our home and for the most part, it works just as advertised. We've experience some annoying issues along the way and some bugs, but nothing that makes us not want to use the service. The best part for me is being able to access and download each other's movies. No longer do we have to swap Apple IDs to avoid having to pay two times for a movie that is shared in one household.

Rene: I've helped friends set up Family Sharing and while the initial process required the development of some new habits — it forces you to stop doing a lot of the workarounds that lack of Family Sharing in the past forced you to come up with — it's been smooth ever since. The only drawback has been apps that either accidentally or intentionally don't play nice. Developers need to opt in, and when they don't, Apple needs to make shunning them easier.

Ren: Not having any use for Family Sharing, I can't really speak to its merits. I do know that my mother and father have been using it a ton at home to watch movies and download apps, however.

Siri and Spotlight

Ren: Siri has certainly gotten faster (especially when paired with an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus), and the "Hey Siri!" feature ensures that it gets a whole lot more use while I'm driving. Not having to press any buttons to trigger my device is great, and Siri's increased speed makes looking up locations a whole lot more painless. I still get a ton of ridiculous dictation errors, however, especially in a car with plenty of road noise.

Spotlight's actually gotten worse for me in iOS 8 — which is a shame, because I use it all the time to launch applications that aren't on my first Home screen. There's some sort of strange bug that comes and goes: You'll pull down on Spotlight and everything will be fine, but if you change that query, the results screen will disappear entirely, and searching a new query just brings you a blank interface. I'm not sure what error is going on behind the scenes here, but it's a disappointment, especially in a feature that used to work so flawlessly.

Peter: "Hey Siri" helps me do things with my phone while I'm driving that I couldn't otherwise, and even comes in handy around the house. Siri is faster than it was with iOS 7, and it's also a big advantage to actually see how Siri translates my speech into action.

Ally: I don't think iOS 8 has changed much for me in terms of how I use Spotlight and Siri. I think muscle memory still tells me to launch Safari to search for things. When it comes to Safari though, I find myself using the suggestions quite often.

Rene: Streaming Siri is a huge improvement. Instead of talk, wait, worry, work or fail, I now talk and see it working almost immediately. That's greatly increased my confidence in the system. (And watching words change as the sequential inference post-processes them is a sight to behold.) "Hey Siri" is nice, but I'd like to be able to customize my activation phrase so as to reduce the chances for accidental or unintentional triggering.

Spotlight was greatly improved in iOS 8. I'd still like it to become a full-on text-based front-end for Siri's contextually awareness, but tying it into maps and suggested search results is already a step in that direction.

Mail and Safari

Peter: I find myself frequently using Handoff to open a web page on my iPhone or iPad that was open on my Mac, or vice versa — it's a really useful feature that I thought might be a novelty, but has worked itself into my workflow. Mail's improved contextual awareness is quite helpful when it comes to sorting my schedule.

Ally: I love Safari's new search suggestion feature and use it regularly. iOS 8 also encouraged me to switch back to the native Mail app. The fact that Mail can pull out context and create events and upload important info in just a tap to my calendar, that's awesome and invaluable to me. I also like being able to set alerts for specific threads. I don't however use Handoff for mail with my Mac since I still prefer third party mail apps on the Mac over the native option.

Ren: Agreed with Ally on Mail. Mail's additional context-aware highlights are super-useful, especially when it comes to work emails, and per-alert threads are a godsend. I do use Handoff, and I really like being able to start an email on my phone and swap over to my Mac — I find I use it a lot at the beginning of the day to begin triaging emails over breakfast, then finish up the drafts at my computer when I sit down.

Rene: If Safari would quit reloading even single tabs when I switch away from it for more than a few seconds, we'd be best friends for life. Everything about it has gotten better, from the way tabs are handled to the favorites screen to private browsing to… well, you get the idea. It's clean, it's fast, and I feel like I have better control over my privacy than any other browser currently provides. Plus, with iCloud, iCloud Tabs, iCloud Keychain, and all the other ancillary services, I'm never more than a tap or two away from everything I need, from any device I need it from.

Mail remains Mail to me. The new features are nice, but they had me at universal inbox. I do wish search was better, but that's true of Apple search in general. It needs to be sloppier, it needs to understand nearest neighbor and next-best result. It needs to be better.

Apple Pay

Ren: There are many things (cough-Continuity-cough) I wish were stable enough to follow Apple's old "It just works" mantra. Apple Pay is, amazingly, one of them. Yes, there are issues with some retailers — CVS, you're dead to me — but for supported stores, Apple Pay is stupidly simple. I've used it to buy groceries, get tea at Panera, pick up gas, and more. I can't wait until more stores support it, because I could really get used to not bringing my wallet around. (Though Apple still needs to solve the digital driver's license problem before I can truly go wallet-free.)

Peter: I've only had a chance to use Apple Pay a few times, but it's worked out very well each time I've tried it. Apple Pay is still new enough that it's a novelty for the cashier to see it work, and often elicits a conversation about what I'm doing. I just wish Apple Pay use was more widespread, and that Apple wasn't fighting for dominance with CurrentC, an as-yet-nonexistent but competing system that's the reason why CVS and Rite Aid shut down their NFC payment terminals.

Ally: We only have about three places where I live that accepts Apple Pay but that hasn't stopped me from using it wherever I can. Each time the process is smooth and painless. I can't wait for a day when I can actually leave my cards at home and not worry about whether or not Apple Pay and NFC payments are accepted where I'm headed.

Rene: Can we please have it in Canada already?

The bottom line

Ren: iOS 8 teased a ton of wonderfully promising features when it was first previewed in June, and I'm glad to say that most of those features work just as well as advertised. iOS 8.0 was definitely a little buggy at launch, but the company has made good strides to improve upon it with iOS 8.1, 8.1.1, and 8.1.2 — now if only they would fix poor Spotlight!

I am a little concerned with Apple's back-and-forth over iOS 8 tools like extensions, Notification Center widgets, and iCloud Drive. The company's created such wonderful tools for developers to use, but it's still not quite sure how developers should be using them — I'm hoping this trend goes away, because I'm not thrilled to see great developers being stifled by sporadically-applied rules.

Peter: iOS 7 looked different but under the hood, there wasn't a huge sea change to how things actually worked. iOS 8 is the second half of the story — adding a ton of new functionality and paving the way for the future. It's made all the eligible iOS device I use it on much more integrated and powerful.

Ally: iOS 8 brought with it lots of new and exciting features. More importantly, it's the most Apple has opened up iOS to developers, since ever. To me, this was the real news of the year, not the iPhone 6 Plus or the iPad Air 2. Hardware is only as good as the software that runs it. And in this case, bugs and all, Apple still hit it out of the park. I'm excited to see what amazing things developers do with iOS 8 in 2015.

Rene: When iOS 8 launched back in September, it felt like it was the biggest release since iOS 2 (iPhone OS 2) back in 2008. And it was. From the built-in features to all the new apps and all the new things they can do, my iPhone and iPad have never been as useful, as powerful, or as integral to my life.

Bugs still needs to be fixed, yes, and App Store review absolutely needs to get their Extensions act together, but given the recent high profile reversals, and the fixes afforded by iOS 8.1.1 and iOS 8.1.2, it looks like both of those things are well underway. Three months later, there's no longer any reason for anyone to even consider not updating. This is the iOS you've been waiting for.

Apple has released a new iOS 8 to the public, this time iOS 8.1.2. The update is available for download over the air on your device or through iTunes. This update is supposed to correct an issue that may have caused ringtones purchased through iTunes to be removed from devices.

You can restore your lost ringtones by going to this link, which redirects you to iTunes. From there, you can recover any of your lost tones. To update to iOS 8.1.2 over the air, go to Settings > General > Software Update, and select Download and Install. The update comes in at around 28MB on the iPhone, and 25MB on the iPad.

If you upgraded your iPhone or iPad to iOS 8.1.1 only to find that your ringtones or text tones had gone missing, you aren't alone. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common problem around iOS update time. However, there are a few ways you can try and get them back, and even better — something you can do to help prevent lost ringtones and text tones from ever bothering you again!

1. Sync with iTunes

The easiest solution is to sync ringtones and text tones back from iTunes. Of course, that only works if you've synced them to iTunes in the first place. However, if you normally plug your iPhone or iPad into iTunes in order to sync movies or other content, or you use iTunes to back up, your tones should be there.

1. Plug in your iPhone or iPad.
2. Launch iTunes on your Mac or PC.
3. Click on your iPhone in the top navigation.
4. Under the On My Device section, click on Tones.
5. Check the box for Sync Tones.
6. You'll get a prompt asking you to agree to removing and replacing your tones.
7. Make sure that your tones are all in the list of tones before clicking Sync or Apply.
8. Let iTunes sync and then check to see if your tones are back.

If your tones are there again, you're good to go. If not, continue on.

2. Restore from an iCloud or iTunes backup

This particular issue doesn't seem to be caused by the tones actually being removed from your iPhone or iPad, but more of a glitch where they don't show up. Some users have reported that performing an iCloud restore seemed to bring their tones back. You'll need to back up one last time, wipe your device, and then restore from an iCloud backup. If you aren't sure how to do either of those things, you can follow our directions in the following order:

• How to manually trigger an iCloud backup on iPhone or iPad
• How to wipe all your personal data off of an iPhone or iPad
• How to restore your iPhone or iPad from an iCloud backup

3. Don't purchase again, they may still disappear

Unfortunately ringtones and text tones aren't like tv shows, books, music, and movies. You can't simply download them again from your purchased section. A few people have that after simply trying to purchase them again, the ringtones and text tones only disappeared a few hours later again. So whatever the issue is, it's not with the actual purchase itself.

However, if you already tried to re-purchase only to find your items mysteriously disappearing again, you can request a refund through iTunes. If you don't know how, you can follow our directions:

• How to request a refund for an App Store or iTunes purchase

How to prevent ringtones and text tones from getting lost again

While iCloud backups should technically keep your ring and text tones safe from harm, bugs and glitches happen. The safest possible way to keep your ringtones safe is to simply transfer them to iTunes. This way if anything ever happens to your device, or you have to restore, you always know that your purchased tones are safe.

It's as simple as plugging your iPhone or iPad into your computer, launching iTunes, and clicking on the Back Up Now button as shown in the photo above. That's all there is to it. iTunes will import the tones so they're available in the future, should you ever need to manually re-sync them like you did in step 1.

Your favorite and recent contacts are now easier to get to than ever, thanks to their inclusion on the iPhone and iPad app switcher screen. Double-click the Home button and they're right there at the top, ready and waiting for you to tap. But what if you don't want your contacts showing up there? What if you want to keep your private contactsfrom prying eyes? Luckily you can turn favorites, recents, or both right off!

How to remove favorite and recent contacts from the multitasking screen

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap on Show In App Switcher under the Contacts section.
4. Toggle Off the options for Phone Favorites and/or Recents.

If you ever want to re-enable either option, just follow the same steps again, and toggle them back On.

I personally prefer just having favorites show up so they stay static in the app switcher and don't continuously change, but you can set it up any way you like.

When you launch a new app for the first time, you'll often get a popup asking you for permission to access your location, contacts, calendars, photos, etc. Some people, however, are getting the popup multiple times. Over and over again. If you're running iOS 8 and you're getting multiple popups, don't worry — here's the fix!

How to stop multiple app permission popups

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on Reset.
4. Tap on Reset Location & Privacy.
5. Type in your passcode if you have one.
6. Tap on Reset Settings to confirm.

After you do this, all location and privacy permissions will be reset. You'll have to re-authorize everything again the first time you launch an app that needs access to your location or other default apps, but it's a small price to pay in order to stop the popups from happening continuously.

I've done this on two devices and afterwards I only had to authorize things one time for them to stick. If you are having the same issue, give this a try and let me know if it works for you or not!

NSFW is a weekly op-ed column in which I talk about whatever's on my mind. Sometimes it'll have something to do with the technology we cover here on iMore; sometimes it'll be whatever pops into my head. Your questions, comments and observations are welcome.

Everyone's had that experience where you're promised something, and when you get it, what you get doesn't live up to your expectations. That's the way I've been feeling with OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.

Every operating system release has growing pains, and Apple has boxed itself into a corner especially this year by rolling out two new OSes that are so closely mated to one another. When it works, it works spectacularly. The problem is that it's so damnably inconsistent.

Getting my Mac and my iPhone to work with Handoff features has probably been the single biggest pain point. Instant Hotspot took me days to get working. It ultimately did start working once I changed the name of my phone (changing it back again still allowed connections) — clearly a bug.

AirDrop is supposed to work seamlessly between Mac and iOS device now, but "seamlessly" isn't the word I'd use — there are random dropouts and sometimes devices are just not able to see each other. What's worse is that Mac-to-Mac AirDrop transfer, which worked just fine before, is now sporadically unavailable. My wife and I spent an hour troubleshooting an AirDrop issue between our two machines the other night before I just gave up and asked her to send me the files a different way.

Thank goodness Dropbox still works.

iOS 8 got off to a rocky start, too. We all recall the iOS 8.0.1 debacle.

I've read pages and pages of complaints and problems from customers who have installed Yosemite and iOS 8, and have all sorts of problems, ranging from Wi-Fi issues to trouble connecting to Microsoft Exchange servers, problems with Handoff and more. And some of you have e-mailed me to let me know of the difficulties you're seeing; posted to discussion threads on our articles and elsewhere. So I know this isn't isolated.

I won't go as far as some to declare these releases the worst or the buggiest that Apple has ever released; that's ridiculous. I've lived through much worse. But it is annoying, when you're given a bill of sale and an expectation of how your gear should work, and the software isn't able to deliver.

Certainly doing a "clean install" can eliminate some of the problems that we're collectively having, but that's a painful and traumatic process on the Mac, at best. And it shouldn't have to be that way.

I'm an early adopter. I expect problems, and I'm not naive enough to think that everything that Apple ships is going to be flawless. I also recognize that operating systems are incredibly complex things comprising millions of lines of code.

But Yosemite and iOS 8 are fraught with enough difficulties for enough users that I feel like neither of them are fully baked.

Apple made the decision a few years ago to adopt an annual upgrade cycle for its operating systems. That's brought tremendous innovation to the Mac and to iOS in a relatively short amount of time, but it's also brought a lot of pain for users. Here's to hoping that Apple can iron out the problems with iOS 8 and Yosemite in less time than it took them to get us a reasonably stable release of Mavericks.

Following the release of the first Yosemite 10.10.1 beta, Apple is rolling out the iOS 8.1.1 beta to developers. The update features a host of bug fixes as well as stability and performance improvements for older devices like the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s.

The update comes two weeks after the launch of iOS 8.1, which introduced Apple Pay support, SMS forwarding to Yosemite, iCloud Photo Library Beta and more.

The 8.1.1 beta, classified a build 12B432, is now available for download from the iOS developer center.

Source: Apple

Since upgrading to iOS 8, many users have reported issues when it comes to syncing music with iTunes. For some reason, all their music is gone and no matter how many times they try and sync, no music ever gets transferred. Here's what worked for us!

Before continuing, you will want to make sure that you don't have iTunes Match enabled in Settings > Music. If you do, keep in mind that it will always override whatever you have hard synced from iTunes. Actually, iTunes won't even let you attempt to sync music if iTunes Match is turned on. If that's the case, simply disable iTunes Match and try syncing again with iTunes like normal.

If you don't have iTunes Match or already know it's disabled, continue on.

How to fix music syncing issues with iTunes and iOS 8

1. Plug in your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher and launch iTunes.
2. Select your iPhone from the dropdown menu.
3. Select Music in the side navigation panel.
4. Uncheck the box for Sync Music and then click Apply or Sync.
5. Once the sync is complete, recheck the box for Sync Music and hit Apply or Sync again.
6. Unplug your iPhone or iPad and see if your music is back.

For most folks, this fix seems to be doing the trick. It worked for me on my iPhone 6 Plus that didn't seem to want to sync any of my music from iTunes. So give it a try and let me know whether or not it works for you! And if you've found another way to fix iTunes syncing issues in iOS 8, be sure to let me know that too!

Zip files—that is, single-file bundles that contain multiple items—are incredibly useful tools. On my Mac, I use zip files for all sorts of tasks: shrinking document sizes, transferring data from one place to another, and collecting various files together into a single bundle.

On the iPhone and iPad, zip files are a bit less convenient, due to iOS's lack of central file system. You can't currently open downloaded files in iCloud Drive, so you're left to rely mostly on third-party apps for viewing, unzipping, and compressing your own zip files. Here are a few of my favorite ways to handle zip files on iOS.

If you get zip files in an email or iMessage

It used to be that if you got an emailed zip file, the only way to handle it was to use iOS's "Open In" feature to send the file to a third-party app. Not so anymore: As of iOS 7, the Mail and Messages apps automatically decompress zip files after downloading, so you can view each component file within the bundle using the Quick Look feature. From there, you can individually select files to send to other apps on iOS, or send the entire zip bundle to a third-party app.

Mail and Messages are currently the only iOS apps that offers this Quick Look feature; Safari just prompts you with an "Open In" command, should you stumble across a zip file while browsing.

If you get zip files from anywhere else

If you're downloading a zip file from Safari, AirDrop, or in any other place on iOS that can't handle opening zip files, you'll more likely than not be presented with an "Open In" command. This offers you a list of zip-file-compatible apps; you can then choose which one you prefer by tapping it.

Of all the apps I've tested over the years, Transmit and GoodReader are my personal favorites for dealing with zip files, though Dropbox isn't bad if you just want to host a zip file for someone else to download. (The app won't unzip files, sadly.)

Goodreader and Transmit work very similarly, downloading the zip bundle to the app's local file repository. From there, Goodreader offers to automatically unzip your file, while Transmit requires a tap on the zip file and a subsequent tap on "Decompress" to unzip.

You can also zip folders in both GoodReader and Transmit. In GoodReader, select the folder and tap Zip; in Transmit, tap the checkmark in the upper right corner, select the folder or multiple files in question, then tap the Actions > Compress.

Zip like a pro

What about you, folks? Have you any need for zipping or unzipping files on your iOS device? Have a way to make this even easier? Let's chat in the comments.

If you're running iOS 8.1 on your iPhone or iPad and have OS X Yosemite on your Mac, you can now use your cellular connection for a new feature called Instant Hotspot. The main appeal is that it can automatically detect all your devices so you don't have to fiddle with tethering settings. However, some people have been experiencing connection issues or can't get the feature working at all. Here are some steps you can try in order to get Instant Hotspot working correctly!

Before beginning, remember that you must be running OS X Yosemite on your Mac and iOS 8.1 or newer on your iOS devices in order for Instant Hotspot to work.

1. Ensure your device is compatible with Instant Hotspot

In order to use Instant Hotspot, you need to have a compatible iOS device and a compatible Mac running OS X Yosemite. Be sure your devices meet this requirements.

• iPhone - iPhone 5 or later
• iPad - iPad 4 or later, your iPad must have cellular connectivity — this means wifi only models will not work
• iPod touch - iPod touch 5th generation only
• iMac - 2012 models or newer
• MacBook Air - 2012 models or newer
• MacBook Pro - 2012 models or newer
• Mac Pro - 2013 models or newer
• Mac mini - 2012 models or newer

If you're sure that your model falls within these requirements, continue on.

2. Assure you are on a compatible data plan with your carrier

In order to use Instant Hotspot, you'll need to be using a data plan with your carrier that supports tethering, since that's essentially what Instant Hotspot is. In order to do this, check with your carrier to make sure that you're on a plan that allows tethering. If you aren't, you'll need to change your plan before being able to use the feature.

3. Make sure both wifi and Bluetooth are enabled

You'll need to make sure you have wifi and Bluetooth enabled on both your Mac and your iPhone or iPad in order for Instant Hotspot to work. So be sure both are enabled on all your devices before moving on any further. If they are and you still can't get a connection, continue on.

4. Reboot all the things

Many times, a simple reboot fixes many problems and for some folks, this is all it'll take to get Instant Hotspot working. So completely shut down your Mac and reboot it. Then reboot your iOS device that you're trying to use Instant Hotspot with by holding down the Power button and Home button until you see the Apple logo.

5. Change the name of your iPhone or iPad

For some users, simply changing the name of their iPhone or iPad via the Settings app seems to get Instant Hotspot working. Follow these steps to change the name of your iPhone or iPad:

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on About.
4. Tap on Name
5. Type in the new name and tap Done on the keyboard.
6. Refresh your wifi connections on your Mac to see if your iPhone or iPad shows up now. If not, reboot all the things again and check one more time.

If it's still not working, proceed to the next step.

6. Reset network settings on your iPhone or iPad

Resetting the network settings on your iPhone or iPad can sometimes clear up issues with how your devices are communicating not only with your cellular carrier, but with other devices. Just remember that this will clear out all wifi hotspot passwords and connected Bluetooth devices as well, so you'll have to re-enter those.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on Reset — it's located all the way at the bottom of the page.
4. Tap on Reset Network Settings.
5. Type in your passcode if asked.
6. Confirm you'd like to reset your network settings.

Were you able to get Instant Hotspot working?

After trying the above steps, were you able to resolve your issues with Instant Hotspot? If so, be sure to let me know in the comments what step worked for you! And if you didn't, or found something else that worked, let me know that too!

Apple Pay lets you use multiple credit and debit cards, so you can easily switch between them when you want to make a transaction. The default credit or debit card, however, is always the fastest and easiest to use. So, you'll want to make that card the default. Luckily, Apple Pay makes that fast and easy to do as well.

How to choose a default credit card for use with Apple Pay

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad that's compatible with Apple Pay.
2. Tap on Passbook & Apple Pay.
3. Tap on Default Card.
4. Tap on the card you want to use as your default.

That's it! Unless you manually change the card you're using when making a purchase, the selected card will always be used.

iOS 8.1 was released a short time ago. Among the hallmark features are the addition of Apple Pay support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, along with new features and functionality like MMS/SMS Handoff support on supported Macs. There's a lot of other stuff besides. Here's the complete list, according to Apple's release notes:

• Apple Pay support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (U.S. only)
• Photos includes new features, improvements and fixes
  • Adds iCloud Photo Library as a beta service
  • Adds Camera Roll album in Photos app and My Photo Stream album when iCloud Photo Library is not enabled.
  • Provides alerts when running low on space before capturing Time Lapse videos
• Messages includes new features, improvements and fixes
  • Adds the ability for iPhone users to send and receive SMS and MMS text messages from their iPad and Mac
  • Resolves an issue where search would sometimes not display results
  • Fixes a bug that caused read messages to not be marked as read
  • Fixes issues with group messaging
• Resolves issues with Wi-Fi performance that could occur when connected to some base stations
• Fixes an issue that could prevent connections to Bluetooth hands-free devices
• Fixes bugs that could cause screen rotation to stop working
• Adds an option to select between 2G, 3G or LTE networks for cellular data
• Fixes an issue in Safari where videos would sometimes not play
• Adds AirDrop support for Passbook passes
• Adds an option to enable Dictation in Settings for Keyboards, separate from Siri
• Enables HealthKit apps to access data in the background
• Accessibility improvements and fixes
  • Fixes an issue that prevented Guided Access from working properly
  • Fixes a bug where VoiceOver would not work with 3rd party keyboards
  • Improves stability and audio quality when using MFi Hearing Aids with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
  • Fixes an issue with VoiceOver where tone dialing would get stuck on a tone until dialing another number
  • Improves reliability when using handwriting. Bluetooth keyboards and Braille displays with VoiceOver
• Fixes an issue that was preventing the use of OS X Caching Server for iOS updates

Have you updated? Let me know in the comments!

Notification Center changes things up in iOS 8 and one of the newest abilities iPhone and iPad users have is the option to add widgets to the Today tab. This means that if app developers decide to include a widget with their app, you can access information they provide right through the Today tab in Notification Center. This information could be sports scores, weather data, and lots more. To get started, just enable the widgets you'd like!

How to add and remove widgets in the Today view of Notification Center

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher.
2. Tap on Today if it isn't already selected.
3. Scroll towards the bottom and tap on Edit.
4. Add and remove widgets as you'd like by tapping on the plus icons or the delete icons next to a widget's name.
5. You can drag widgets up and down to change the order in which they appear in the Today tab of Notification Center as well.

It's a good idea to check Notification Center periodically to see if some of your favorite apps have added support for widgets. If they have, an option to add it to the Today tab will show up. Simply add them and remove them on demand whenever you'd like!

If you've found some awesome apps that already support widgets in Notification Center, be sure to let us know which ones in the comments!

The Mail app has gotten even smarter in iOS 8 thanks to smart data detection notifications. If an email contains items such as addresses, phone numbers, or even things like flight information, the Mail app can make calendar and contact suggestions based on the context. For example, entering an upcoming flight into your calendar can now be done in as little as three taps. Here's how:

How to add events and contact info through the Mail app in iOS 8

1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher.
2. Open an email message that contains either contact information or appointment details.
3. The Mail app should automatically detect information relevant information by presenting a notification banner at the top of the screen.
4. Tap on the banner to view your options.
5. Tap on of the actions you'd like to perform. In this example, I can choose to add any one of the flights in my itinerary to my calendar by tapping Add to Calendar on any one of them.
6. Once I'm done editing details if necessary, I can tap Add and I'm done.

If you have multiple events in one email, you can just repeat the process for each one you want to add. Unfortunately there isn't currently an option to bulk add all of them.

Requests to add contacts work much in the same way as event notifications. However, you'll get two button options — Ignore, and Add to Contacts. Pretty self-explanatory and works the exact same way as the event detectors laid out above. All in all, data detectors in the Mail app make collecting both types of information much less painful.

Give it a try and let me know how data detection works for you!

If you're running iOS 8 on your iPhone or iPad, it's never been easier to access the contacts you call and message the most. From most recent contacts to the people you've got marked as favorites, iOS 8 makes it quicker and easier than ever to get in touch with them.

How to access your favorite and most recent contacts in two taps with iOS 8

1. Double tap your Home button in order to launch the app switcher.
2. You'll see a list of your recent and favorite contacts along the top. Scroll from side to side in order to siphon through them.
3. Once you find the person you'd like to call, message, or FaceTime, tap on their contact bubble to expand your options.
4. Tap on the method you'd like to use to contact them.

That's it! Keep in mind that what contacts show in the app switcher can be customizing in Mail, Contacts, Calendars through the Settings app. If you use Favorite contacts frequently it may be more beneficial for you to disable recent contacts from showing so you always see a list of your favorites without having to scroll very far. You can also do the opposite and disable Favorite contacts if you choose.

One of the most annoying bugs I've experienced thus far with iOS 8 is an issue where notification banners don't seem to want to disappear from the top of the screen. No matter how purposefully I flick them away, they just sit there silently mocking me. From a quick web and Twitter search, I don't seem to be alone. However, I've managed to find a temporary solution that should get rid of particularly persistent notification banners.

How to make stuck notification banners in iOS 8 go away

When a banner gets stuck in iOS 8 at the top of the screen and flicking doesn't seem to rid you of it, press the Home button once instead. I've been experiencing this issue since day one of beta one and unfortunately as of iOS 8.0.2, I'm still experiencing stuck notification banners.

Hopefully this is an issue Apple addresses in an update, but until then, pressing the Home button once when a banner is stuck should make it finally roll away. If you're running iOS 8, how often are you seeing notification banners get stuck on you? Have you found a pattern to what banners are sticking and what ones aren't? Let me know in the comments!

Whether you have a 16 GB iPhone or iPad, or you simple store a ton of stuff, deleting old iMessage images and MMS is a great way to reclaim storage space — sometimes gigabytes of it at a time! Luckily, Apple makes it easy to do!

How to clear out old iMessage images and MMS on iPhone or iPad

First, lets get rid of any and all old iMessages clogging up your storage.

1. Launch Messages on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on the conversation containing the images you want to delete.
3. Tap on Details at the top right.

4. Tap and hold on one of the images you'd like to delete under the Attachments section.
5. Tap on More in the popup menu.
6. Select all the images and attachments you'd like to delete.

7. Tap on the Delete button in the bottom right when you've got them all selected.
8. Tap on Delete Messages in the popup menu to confirm the delete.

How to keep messages from piling up on iPhone and iPad

If you have a low-storage device, you may want to make sure iMessage auto-deletes everything after a specified period of time. Think of it as Snapchat-style cleanup!

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Messages.
3. Tap on Keep Messages under the Message History section.

4. Tap on either 1 year or 30 days, whichever you'd like.
5. Tap Delete in the popup menu to confirm you'd like iOS to delete any messages older than the specified time period. You can not undo this action.

How to make video and audio images expire even faster on iPhone or iPad

Video and audio messages are fun but also take up the most space. If that's where all your storage is going, you can set them to expire super fast.

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Messages.
3. Tap on Expire under the Audio Messages and/or Video Messages section.
4. Choose After 2 Minutes.

Your space saving tips?

If you've got any other great space-saving tips, let me know in the comments!

NSFW is a weekly op-ed column in which I talk about whatever's on my mind. Sometimes it'll have something to do with the technology we cover here on iMore; sometimes it'll be whatever pops into my head. Your questions, comments and observations are welcome.

iOS 8 has been out for a few weeks now, and I've been hearing a similar complaint come from quite a few users: They can't install it because it's too big. Is that their fault, or is it Apple's?

It's a problem that's trivial to work around if you have a Mac or PC with iTunes on it: Simply plug in your phone to the computer, launch iTunes, and tell iTunes to update the phone. The computer does the heavy lifting for you instead.

But that's not an intuitive way to do it, especially for the many (millions) of iPhone users who have never once connected their device to a computer. That includes many users who are actually afraid to connect their iPhone to a computer, thinking it will instead cause problems. (Will a virus or malware infect my phone? Will I lose my pictures?)

It would have at least helped if iOS told you somewhere along the way that you could do this, but to the best of my recollection, it doesn't. iOS 8 has rather more hefty installation requirements than iOS 7 did, which seems counterintuitive: After all, iOS 7 was the big physical makeover — shouldn't it have been the bigger download?

Nope. Apple rewrote a lot of underlying code in iOS 8. Because iOS 8 is such a major change in the way that iOS actually works,, its initial installation is rather more sizable than its predecessor.

When you do an over the air update, the iPhone needs to download it all, decompress it, and stage the installation so you're not left with a brick afterwards. And this takes up precious storage space on the phone.

For many of us, that's more storage space than we have available. We've filled our iPhones to the hilt with photos, videos we've shot, music, apps, and movies. The idea of keeping 5 GB free on a 16 GB phone (or in some cases, an 8 GB phone) seems absurd.

I'm sympathetic to the complaints, I really am. We have a natural tendency to fill up our spaces, virtual and real, with stuff. I don't blame Apple for its ambition, however, and sometimes that progress costs a bit of momentary discomfort for the rest of us. If Apple bears any responsibility at all, it's that they should do a better job of informing iOS device users of what their upgrade options are, instead of making it a binary situation: Either free up the space or GTFO.

Do you get mad at Toyota because your Corolla can't carry as much lumber and sheetrock as a pickup truck? It's equally unreasonable to expect that your 8 GB or 16 GB iPhone is going to download and install a huge operating system upgrade the same way that a 32 GB, 64 GB or (now) 128 GB iPhone can manage. People who buy iPhones with low storage capacity need to understand that their devices are inherently more limited in some operations than devices with more storage capacity.

Apple, for its part, should do a better job of letting people know what their options are, but in the end, this is squarely a case of caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware. Buy an iPhone with more storage capacity than you need, and be prepared to either offload the stuff you've put on the phone temporarily or find another alternative like iTunes when big updates happen.

Did you get caught without enough free space to install iOS 8? Did you dump stuff or go the iTunes route to get it installed? Sound off in the comments — I want to hear from you.

Prior to iOS 8, you only had two options when it came to sharing your location with App Store apps, share or don't share. That meant if you wanted an app to use your location while you were actively using it, but never in the background, you couldn't have both without changing settings. Now, you can have the best of both worlds by just changing a few settings.

How to restrict apps to only use your location while they're open

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher.
2. Tap on Privacy.
3. Tap on Location Services.
4. Find the app in the list you'd like to change location settings for and tap on it.
5. Choose which option you'd like that app to abide by.

Keep in mind that some apps may not show all three options. This is most likely because the developer has not yet implemented the while using this app option. If they do, you should see the option. It's not clear whether or not Apple will eventually require developers to use this setting. Personally, I don't think it's a bad idea. Do you?

Normally when you're walking around with a WiFi-enabled device, if it's not connected to a network, it's broadcasting probes in order to try and find known networks. These probes would be sent using your phone's WiFi MAC address, which is a unique and normally persistent value. This means that anybody monitoring these probes, say in a department store for example, can persistently track you through a store and across multiple visits. This information isn't tied to your personal identity, but a lot of information about your shopping habits could be gleaned from this data by analytics companies, and some users aren't thrilled about not having a say in this. And remember, this isn't just an iPhone thing, this is a WiFi thing. This is what devices do. But Apple decided they could do better.

How it's supposed to work

Starting in iOS 8, devices are supposed to randomize their MAC address when broadcasting these WiFi probes. The OS is responsible for creating random, locally administered MAC addresses. The hope is that so long as you aren't connecting to wireless access points, your device can't be used to track you anymore. Because these are WiFi probes, their range is limited. Somebody wanting to track the presence and movement of your device would need to be in relatively close proximity. One place we've seen devices like this used is in department stores to monitor the shopping habits of customers. With a new random MAC address periodically being generated for your device, there would no longer be a persistent token for passive monitors to track your device with.

How it seems to work

Unfortunately, it looks like Apple's changes to the behavior of these probes isn't quite what we had hoped for. A couple of weeks ago a representative from an indoor navigation and location analytics company, GISi Indoors reached out to us saying that they had been testing this change of functionality in every iOS 8 beta, and had yet to see it work. We fired up Wireshark to take a look for ourselves.

Sure enough, we saw our device gleefully firing out WiFi probes using its real MAC address, and we weren't alone. Security researcher, Hubert Seiwert responsible for the tool iSniff saw the same behavior. Initially it looked as if MAC randomization didn't work at all, which was confusing because Apple has made a point to publicize this feature.

After a lot of digging and a lot of late nights monitoring Wireshark captures, it looks like Apple has shipped this feature as advertised, but not quite as expected. In the WWDC session on user privacy, the slide said "The MAC address used for Wi-Fi scans may not always be the device's real (universal) address". They didn't say it would never be a device's real MAC, only that it may not always be.

Last week, analytics company AirTight Wireless published extremely detailed reports of their testing of iOS 8 MAC randomization and found similar results. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly encourage you to go take a look. Their testing seems to be very extensive, though their findings didn't completely align with ours.

In our testing we found that in order for the MAC randomization functionality to work, supported iOS 8 devices must meet two criteria. First, the device must not be connected to WiFi, which makes sense. Second, the device must be asleep. AirTight concluded that Location Services and cellular service also have to be disabled, but after taking a close look, I don't think this is the case. I think what's happening is the "device must be asleep" requirement makes it difficult to tell what's going on when monitoring this traffic.

On an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.0.2, I was able to observe WiFi probes being sent with a randomized MAC address with Location Services and cellular service enabled. The problem is if you have a cellular connection, your phone doesn't tend to stay asleep for very long. Even if your screen is asleep your phone may not be as it, for example, receives a new email via push. Even if you have notifications turned off, your phone wakes up when that email comes in, despite the screen staying off.

Unfortunately, the requirement of the phone being asleep makes this feature nearly useless, albeit within the description of what Apple advertised at WWDC. In order to get random MACs to be used I had to turn off notifications for multiple apps, turn off push email, and stay up late at night when there was a greater chance of my phone getting to sleep, uninterrupted, for more than a minute or two. Even under these circumstances, I would only encounter one or two rounds of probe beacons (which seem go to out every couple of minutes) with a random MAC before seeing my phone blast a bunch of probes with my real MAC. My best guess is this would happen when some process of push had woken the device up. With cellular data turned on, only about 50% of the probes I saw go out had a randomly assigned MAC.

Rendering this feature even more useless, when the probe requests went out with a random MAC, the probes contained SSIDs of 5 networks that the phone had previously connected to. This means even when my MAC is random, the SSIDs it's broadcasting can act as a fingerprint for my phone. My MAC can be different every time probes go out, but if it broadcasts the same set of 5 network names every few minutes, it may still be possible for monitors to track my device.

Should we be worried?

Ultimately this feature wasn't something Apple had to do, it's something they decided to do to help user privacy. While it was a great idea in theory, the execution seems to have fallen short of anything really useful. Users aren't any worse off than they were with iOS 7, and this information still doesn't tie directly to a person, but it does give companies (and individuals) the ability to track an anonymous person without their consent. This is primarily only useful to stores, marketers, and analytics companies for analyzing trends and habits of consumers, but ideally it's something users have some control over. This data effectively amounts to information about us, and we should have the final say in who can use that data. Hopefully Apple can make adjustments to when MAC randomization occurs to increase the scenarios in which an iPhone's real MAC address is used. While not practical for many, people looking to avoid being tracked in the meantime can disable WiFi or enable airplane mode.

One of the main reasons I've used third party mail apps such as Mailbox for such a long time is because the stock iOS Mail app has never made it easy to use archive and trash simultaneously. Sometimes I don't want to archive an email, I want to delete it. And other times I want to archive but not delete. If I can't have both options conveniently at my fingertips, that doesn't work for me. Luckily, iOS 8 brings swipe options that actually let archive and trash play nice together for the first time. You've just got to change a few settings first!

Note: All email services are different but this method should work with any service that lets you have the choice between trashing and archiving messages. I've tested it and have been using Mail this way with both a Google Apps account (Gmail) and an iCloud account since early betas of iOS 8. So I can verify Gmail and iCloud work well with the below method.

How to use trash and archive options at the same time in iOS 8 Mail

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap on any of your accounts that you want to use trash and archive options with under the Accounts section — if you're using iCloud mail, scroll to the bottom instead and tap on Mail under Advanced and skip to step 5.
4. Tap on Account at the top.
5. Tap on Advanced at the bottom.
6. Under Mailbox Behaviors, make sure you have options set for Deleted and Archived boxes to where you want them.
7. Under the Move Discard Messages Into section, choose Archive.
8. Tap Account at the top to return to the previous menu.
9. Tap Done at the top of the next screen to save any changes.
10. Tap the back button in the upper left corner to return to the previous menu.
11. Tap on Swipe Options under the Mail section.
12. Set Swipe Right to Archive.

While this seems a little funny, it does work. You'll notice when you choose Archive, a small note will appear underneath that reads —

This means that since we've set up archive as the default option in step 7, choosing archive for swipe right will actually allow it to become a trash option instead. This means swiping right offers trash functionality now and swiping left offers archive options. Voila! You can now use both in one quick swipe in one direction or the other!

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you! Does it make the default Mail app for useable? Let me know in the comments!

Apple has released iOS 8.0.2. It's available now via Settings > General > Update or over Lightning to USB tether to iTunes on your Mac or PC. This comes just one day after the iOS 8.0.1 update left iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus customers unable to use Touch ID or connect to cellular networks. Apple promised a fix within days and delivered it with a day. Apple also once agains apologized for the bugs:

I've completed the update on my personal iPhone 6 Plus and both Touch ID and cellular data are working fine. We'll test the rest of the fix list shortly and let you know if anything comes up.

If you still have 8.0.1 waiting to install and you're not seeing 8.0.2, go to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage and delete it. If you get a verification error, update via iTunes instead.

Otherwise, if you install it, let me know what it fixes for you, and if any issues pop up.

Apple has now pulled its iOS 8.0.1 software update from circulation, after a ton of reports hit the Internet that said the first update to iOS 8 crippled Touch ID and cellular service on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

While the iOS 8.0.1 update was supposed to fix a number of bugs that had been discovered in iOS 8 since it launched a week ago, the code apparently is causing more problems than it solved for all those new iPhone 6 owners. Other iOS devices such as the iPad and older iPhone do not seem to be affected.

If your iPhone 6 device still shows that it is available for download, it is highly recommended that you do not download the software. If you have already downloaded and installed iOS 8.0.1, we have a way to restore your device to iOS 8.

Update: If you've already updated, here's how to restore in iTunes and fix iOS 8.0.1 Touch ID and cell issues. If you haven't, Apple has pulled iOS 8.0.1 — even if it shows as available on your phone, don't do it.

Do not install the recently-released iOS 8.0.1 update, especially if you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. The update brings with it several bug fixes, including fixes to HealthKit, keyboards, and extensions, but it also comes with one show-stopping bug: it kills cellular service and Touch ID on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

We've been able to confirm that iOS 8.0.1 seems to work fine on the iPhone 5s, iPad Mini with Retina Display, and other older iOS devices. As best as we can tell, the issues with disappearing Touch ID support and cellular service are isolated to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which isn't exactly a great showing for Apple.

If you've installed iOS 8.0.1, let us know how it's working for you — and if you happen to know of a fix!

Skype for iPhone just got an update to version 5.5 that has enabled interactive notifications in iOS 8. The update allows users to take advantage of the enhanced notification actions, including declining calls, composing responses, and more — all right from the notification.

Since Skype supports video, voice, and text messaging and notifications come in lock screen and banner form and can be viewed after the fact through Notification Center, here's a run-down of what's new for Skype for iPhone notifications:

Audio and Video Calls

From the lock screen and the notification center:

• For incoming voice calls – swipe left on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – swipe left on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed voice and video calls – swipe left on the notification to call back or send a message.

From a banner notification:

• For incoming voice calls – pull down on the notification to answer or decline.
• For incoming video calls – pull down on the notification to answer with voice or video.
• For missed calls – pull down on the notification to call back or send a message.

Messages

• From the lock screen and the notification center:
• For new messages – swipe left on the notification to reply.
• From the lock screen:
• For new messages – pull down on the notification to reply.

Nothing much else about Skype for iPhone has changed, but this update will make it even easier and faster to use. Let us know what you think!

• Free — Download Now

iOS 8 brings something similar to OS X Mavericks-style battery usage — aka battery shaming — to the iPhone and iPad. Located in the Settings, General, Usage section, it tells you which apps and system services are using power, and how much. Obviously the ones using the most power are doing something wrong and should be shut down, right? Wrong. Like many things, the answer is far more complex and nuanced than simple power bad, quit good. So, what does iOS 8 battery usage really mean and how should you use it?

Battery usage is best thought of as a sanity check. It lists each app (or service) you've used in the last 24 hours or 7 days, not including apps used while charging, along with the percentage of power drain they've been responsible for.

There are at least four reasons why apps will use a lot of power:

1. You used the app a lot. (Messaging, reading, watching, etc.)
2. The app remained active in the background a lot. (Downloading content, streaming audio, providing location, etc.)
3. Poor signal strength or some other technical issue affected performance.
4. The app misbehaved.

Reason 1 is nothing to be concerned about. You're using power because you are using power. You're Tweeting or surfing, or streaming the latest season of Arrow or otherwise keeping the screen on and the radios working. That's what your device is for. So, if you've spent an hour in Tweetbot or Safari or Netflix and they're top-of-the-list, that's fine. If you've been rearranging your folders and Home screen is up there, that's fine. As long as you've been using it, it's fine if it's there.

Reason 2 is likewise the result of proper activity. If you'd rather have extra battery life, you can turn off background refresh, turn off location access, or kill audio streaming, but you'll have to wait longer for new content when you open apps, you'll disrupt navigation and checkin apps, and you'll lose out on listening to internet radio, podcasts, and more.

Reason 3 is because of things like low phone signal, which means the cellular radio needs more power to connect. If that's the case, the Phone app will appear there and list low signal as the reason, making it easy to understand. Poor Wi-Fi performance can likewise cost power though I've yet to see it noted in battery usage. Likewise, firing up the GPS for turn-by-turn navigation is a huge drain I've yet to see noted.

Reason 4 is where battery usage shines. Let's say you go to battery usage and see Google Hangouts, Facebook, Skype, etc. near the top of the power consumption list, and you find it strange because you haven't been using them. That's when you know there's a problem and that you can likely do something about it, be it quitting the app or rebooting the device.

Again, if Tweetbot or Twitterrific is at the top, and you've spent much of the day tweeting, you have no problem. If Hangouts or Facebook is at the top and you've barely opened them all day, then thanks to battery usage, you now have a potential solution!

There are a couple of important things to remember before you get too busy with battery usage, however. First, a usage percentage is just that. If your iPhone is at 80% but YouTube used 50% of that, that's still only 10% of your power. Do the math before you panic.

That's why battery usage should be an occasional tool, not a frequent obsession. Only check when and if you suspect you're draining power faster than normal, and then only take action on apps you suspect are causing that drain for no legitimate reason.

With great power stats comes great responsibility, so check out battery usage on iOS 8 and tell me how it works for you!

• How to fix battery life issues with iPhone 6 and iOS 8

Handoff and Wi-Fi calling are two new features of iOS 8 (and the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus). Unfortunately they don't play very well together. If you've run into problems getting Handoff to work right after trying Wi-Fi calling, here's how to fix it.

Handoff is a new set of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite integration tools that let your Mac and iOS devices to work better together. Handoff is what makes it possible for you to start typing an email on your iPad and finish it on your Mac without missing a beat.

Handoff also what will allow you to make and receive phone calls using your iPad or Mac (once OS X Yosemite is out in the world). And that's where we run into a bit of a wrinkle.

Wi-Fi calls are another new feature of iOS 8. The feature lets your iPhone use your local Wi-Fi network to send and receive calls, instead of relying on your cell carrier's closest tower. The feature has debuted in iOS 8 with T-Mobile in the United States and EE in the U.K., and it's coming to other carriers in the coming months.

Wi-Fi calls and Handoff both depend on a common element: Wi-Fi. Which is why when you turn on Wi-Fi calls, you'll see this message pop up on your phone:

Handoff's ability to let other devices use your iPhone to make and take calls is interrupted when you turn on Wi-Fi calls. When you try to initiate a call from another device that's supported by Handoff in iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, you'll get an error message like this one:

Here's the fix.

To restore Handoff calls on your iPhone

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap FaceTime
3. Tap iPhone Cellular Calls to turn it on.
4. A notification will appear telling you that Wi-Fi calling will be turned off. Click OK.

That's it! You should now be able to send and receive calls on your Handoff-connected devices, through your iPhone. The next time you use Wi-Fi calling you'll need to reset this setting in FaceTime before Handoff calls will work again.

It seems a bit confusing. Hopefully over time Apple will figure out a more elegant way to handle this. But for now, this should help. If you have any questions, fire away!

See also:

• Handoff — Everything you need to know!
• Can't get Continuity calling or Handoff working in iOS 8? Here's the fix!
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• How to use Wi-Fi calling in iOS 8

Continuity and Handoff are both new iOS 8 features that make for a more seamless experience than ever when it comes to using multiple devices. Continuity lets you answer phone calls that come in on your iPhone on your iPad, and soon on your Mac as well through Yosemite. Handoff, one of the major elements of Continuity, lets you start a task on one device, and pick up where you left off on another. Unfortunately, some folks seem to be having issues using either of them after upgrading to iOS 8. Luckily, there's a pretty easy fix!

How to fix Continuity and Handoff issues with iOS 8

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8.
2. Tap on General.
3. Tap on Handoff & Suggested Apps.
4. Turn the Handoff option Off and then back On again.
5. Tap General at the top to return to the previous menu.
6. Tap Settings at the top to return to the previous menu.
7. Tap on FaceTime.
8. Turn the iPhone Cellular Calls option Off and then back On again.
9. Reboot your iPhone or iPad.
10. Repeat this process with every device you'd like to use.
11. Try placing a test call to see if the issue is resolved.

For most folks, this seems to be solving the problem. Keep in mind that both your iPhone and iPad must be running iOS 8 and be supported. Per Apple's website:

So give the fix above a try and let me know in the comments if it worked for you!

One consequence of upgrading to iOS 8: You're no longer going to be able to use the iOS version of iPhoto. From here on out you're supposed to use Photos. What's worse, it may be a very painful transition if you invested in some of iPhoto's features. Read on for details.

It's an ex-parrot

Apple's made no secret of its intent to move away from iPhoto. The company announced at WWDC this past June that iPhoto and Aperture are being discontinued on the Mac in favor of a Mac version of it Photos app, which is due in early 2015. Still, iPhoto on the Mac will still work when OS X Yosemite is released — Apple has pledged to keep it running at least through OS X 10.10.

By comparison, upgrading to iOS 8 is the end of the line for iPhoto on iOS altogether. Trying to launch the application after upgrading your device with iOS 8 simply produces an error message: "iPhoto is not supported on iOS 8. Your photos and image adjustments will be preserved in Photos."

You're allowed to migrate your iPhoto library to Photos or cancel, but using iPhoto under iOS 8 simply doesn't work.

Potentially painful transition

Photos in iOS 8 includes new editing tools that were clearly inspired by much of iPhoto's functionality, but the transition isn't seamless. If you used iPhoto to create Photo Books, Web Journals and Slideshows, for example, they're converted into regular albums in Photos. The text and the layouts from those projects is out the window.

Apple has detailed the move in a support note posted to their web site.

Migrating your iPhoto library adds any photos that aren't already in Photos, and image adjustments made in iPhoto are included. What's more, iPhoto image adjustments made to photos synced from iTunes will be retained, after a fashion: A duplicate of each photo is made in Photos, with adjustments applied. There are some other gotchas, too, outlined at the Apple support note I linked above.

This transition from iPhoto to Photos is the latest example of a recurring philosophy we see practiced by Apple: The company is willing to impose some short-term discomfort on customers to suit their long-term vision.

In fairness to Apple, digital photography has changed a lot since iPhoto was developed, even iPhoto for iOS. It never played well with iCloud integration and syncing — those features were bolt-on and poorly integrated. Forcing a change to Photos enables Apple to streamline its customers' digital photo workflow.

This sure ain't magical

The problem is that Apple hasn't done a great job — or any job, really — of communicating these changes to us, their customers. Most people jumping on iOS 8 are just finding out about this now, after it's too late to do anything about it. After all, you can't downgrade to iOS 7 once you've upgraded to iOS 8. Upgrading your iOS device to a new operating system is, and long has been, a one-way trip.

Apple pays a lot of lip service to the customer experience. The phrase we've heard Tim Cook use over and over again is "surprise and delight." In this context, "surprise and delight" is worse than a joke. And there's certainly no magic in it either, another favorite descriptor of Cook's. It's an insult.

Some iPhoto users have used the app to remember and share special moments of their lives — vacations, kids' birthdays, weddings, anniversaries. Apple has suddenly made iPhoto obsolete, and worse, its replacement won't allow us to keep everything we've made.

The photos are intact, at least. If we've bothered to delve into using any of iPhoto's other features besides photo cataloging and adjustments however, we've essentially wasted our time. Apple is either unable or unwilling to make it work.

Short term pain, long term gain

If you're a Mac user, you've seen Apple's "short term pain for long term gain" gameplan in action fairly recently, when Apple radically revamped its iWork apps in late 2013 — Pages, Numbers and Keynote got major new builds that sacrificed features and functionality in order to improve document workflow with their iOS counterparts. Apple has done it with iMovie, too. Not to mention Final Cut, its pro video editing software.

It's never easy, and it's going to cause frustration for some of us who have invested a lot of time and effort to produce great content using iPhoto, but unfortunately Apple's not giving us any choice in the matter. It's iOS 8 or bust.

Your thoughts?

Are you mad at Apple for disallowing iPhoto to work in iOS 8? Are you happy with the transition? Tell me what you think about this latest twist in the comments.

Epic Games has released its Epic Zen Garden demo for iOS 8 users, a few months after the game developer showed off the Unreal Engine 4-based graphics demonstration at WWDC 2014 in June.

The free demo is set in a Japanese zen garden which has a number of interactive elements but isn't really a game. Epic Games states:

If you have installed iOS 8, what do you think of this example of high end graphics via Unreal Engine 4 and Metal?

*Free Download now

Source: Epic Games)

Apple has posted a new version of their terrific white paper on iOS security, this one updated for iOS 8 an dated September, 2014. I haven't had time to read through it yet, but if last year's version is any indication, encryption enthusiasts should be in for a treat. The timing, immediately following iOS 8's release, and Tim Cook's letter on privacy, probably isn't a coincidence. Apple is making privacy and security both a differentiator and they want this information out there.

A quick look at the differences between this year's and last year's security white papers turn up the following:

• Additional info on Secure Enclave: "The Secure Enclave's microkernel is based on the L4 family, with modifications by Apple."
• Updates to Touch ID and third-party access in iOS 8: "Third-party apps can use system-provided APIs to ask the user to authenticate using Touch ID or passcode. The app is only notified as to whether the authentication was successful; it cannot access Touch ID or the data associated with the enrolled fingerprint. Keychain items can also be protected with Touch ID, to be released by the Secure Enclave only by a fingerprint match or the device passcode. App developers also have APIs to verify that a passcode has been set by the user and therefore able to authenticate or unlock keychain items using Touch ID."
• iOS Data Protection: Messages, Calendar, Contacts, and Photos all join Mail in the list of system iOS apps that employ Data Protection.
• Updates about shared keychain items for apps: "Keychain items can only be shared between apps from the same developer. This is managed by requiring third-party apps to use access groups with a prefix allocated to them through the iOS Developer Program, or in iOS 8, via application groups. The prefix requirement and application group uniqueness are enforced through code signing, Provisioning Profiles, and the iOS Developer Program."
• New: Information on the new keychain data protection class kSecAttrAccessibleWhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly - "The class kSecAttrAccessibleWhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly is available only when the device is configured with a passcode. Items in this class exist only in the system keybag; they do not sync to iCloud Keychain, are not backed up, and are not included in escrow keybags. If the passcode is removed or reset, the items are rendered useless by discarding the class keys."
• New: Keychain Access Control Lists - "Keychains can use access control lists (ACLs) to set policies for accessibility and authentication requirements. Items can establish conditions that require user presence by specifying that they can't be accessed unless authenticated using Touch ID or by entering the device's passcode. ACLs are evaluated inside the Secure Enclave and are released to the kernel only if their specified constraints are met."
• New: iOS allows apps to provide functionality to other apps by providing extensions. Extensions are special-purpose signed executable binaries, packaged within an app. The system automatically detects extensions at install time and makes them available to other apps using a matching system.
• New: Access to Safari saved passwords - "Access will be granted only if both the app developer and website administrator have given their approval, and the user has given consent. App developers express their intent to access Safari saved passwords by including an entitlement in their app. The entitlement lists the fully qualified domain names of associated websites. The websites must place a CMS signed file on their server listing the unique app identifiers of apps they've approved. When an app with the com.apple.developer.associated-domains entitlement is installed, iOS 8 makes a TLS request to each listed website, requesting the file /apple-app-site-association. If the signature is from an identity valid for the domain and trusted by iOS, and the file lists the app identifier of the app being installed, then iOS marks the website and app as having a trusted relationship. Only with a trusted relationship will calls to these two APIs result in a prompt to the user, who must agree before any passwords are released to the app, or are updated or deleted."
• New: "A system area that supports extensions is called an extension point. Each extension point provides APIs and enforces policies for that area. The system determines which extensions are available based on extension point–specific matching rules. The system automatically launches extension processes as needed and manages their lifetime. Entitlements can be used to restrict extension availability to particular system applications. For example, a Today view widget appears only in the Notification Center, and a sharing extension is available only from the Sharing panel. The extension points are Today widgets, Share, Custom actions, Photo Editing, Document Provider, and Custom Keyboard."
• New: "Extensions run in their own address space. Communication between the extension and the app from which it was activated uses interprocess communications mediated by the system framework. They do not have access to each other's files or memory spaces. Extensions are designed to be isolated from each other, from their containing apps, and from the apps that use them. They are sandboxed like any other third-party app and have a container separate from the containing app's container. However, they share the same access to privacy controls as the container app. So if a user grants Contacts access to an app, this grant will be extended to the extensions that are embedded within the app, but not to the extensions activated by the app."
• New: "Custom keyboards are a special type of extensions since they are enabled by the user for the entire system. Once enabled, the extension will be used for any text field except the passcode input and any secure text view. For privacy reasons, custom keyboards run by default in a very restrictive sandbox that blocks access to the network, to services that perform network operations on behalf a process, and to APIs that would allow the extension to exfiltrate typing data. Developers of custom keyboards can request that their extension have Open Access, which will let the system run the extension in the default sandbox after getting consent from the user."
• New: "For devices enrolled in mobile device management, document and keyboard extensions obey Managed Open In rules. For example, the MDM server can prevent a user from exporting a document from a managed app to an unmanaged Document Provider, or using an unmanaged keyboard with a managed app. Additionally, app developers can prevent the use of third-party keyboard extensions within their app."
• New: "iOS 8 introduces Always-on VPN, which can be configured for devices managed via MDM and supervised using Apple Configurator or the Device Enrollment Program. This eliminates the need for users to turn on VPN to enable protection when connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Always-on VPN gives an organization full control over device traffic by tunneling all IP traffic back to the organization. The default tunneling protocol, IKEv2, secures traffic transmission with data encryption. The organization can now monitor and filter traffic to and from its devices, secure data within its network, and restrict device access to the Internet."
• New: "When iOS 8 is not associated with a Wi-Fi network and a device's processor is asleep, iOS 8 uses a randomized Media Access Control (MAC) address when conducting PNO scans. When iOS 8 is not associated with a Wi-Fi network or a device's processor is asleep, iOS 8 uses a randomized MAC address when conducting ePNO scans. Because a device's MAC address now changes when it's not connected to a network, it can't be used to persistently track a device by passive observers of Wi-Fi traffic."
• New: "Apple also offers two-step verification for Apple ID, which provides a second layer of security for the user's account. With two-step verification enabled, the user's identity must be verified via a temporary code sent to one of their trusted devices before they can make changes to their Apple ID account information, sign in to iCloud, or make an iTunes, iBooks, or App Store purchase from a new device. This can prevent anyone from accessing a user's account, even if they know the password. Users are also provided with a 14-character Recovery Key to be stored in a safe place in case they ever forget their password or lose access to their trusted devices."
• New: "iCloud Drive adds account-based keys to protect documents stored in iCloud. As with existing iCloud services, it chunks and encrypts file contents and stores the encrypted chunks using third-party services. However, the file content keys are wrapped by record keys stored with the iCloud Drive metadata. These record keys are in turn protected by the user's iCloud Drive service key, which is then stored with the user's iCloud account. Users get access to their iCloud documents metadata by having authenticated with iCloud, but must also possess the iCloud Drive service key to expose protected parts of iCloud Drive storage."
• New: "Safari can automatically generate cryptographically strong random strings for website passwords, which are stored in Keychain and synced to your other devices. Keychain items are transferred from device to device, traveling through Apple servers, but are encrypted in such a way that Apple and other devices cannot read their contents."
• New: In a larger section on Spotlight Suggestions - "Unlike most search engines, however, Apple's search service does not use a persistent personal identifier across a user's search history to tie queries to a user or device; instead, Apple devices use a temporary anonymous session ID for at most a 15-minute period before discarding that ID."

In addition to the changes outlined above are sections detailing stash keybags for OTA updates, iPhone Cellular Call Relays (for answering phone calls from devices other than your phone), Handoff, Instant Hotspot, Spotlight Suggestions, the iOS pairing model, Device Enrollment Program (MDM for organizations buying device directly from Apple), and Location Services among other items. If you have the chance, give the white paper a read and then let me know what you think about the changes and additions.

Source: Apple.com

Apple has just posted some updated privacy policies that were changed due to the launch of iOS 8. The changes were accompanied by a letter written by Apple CEO Tim Cook.

According to Apple, "The changes were made predominantly to cover new features that will be released with iOS 8 or to provide additional information on current data use such as date of birth and third party user data provided by our users (for example when sending products or gift certificates). None of the changes are retroactive."

Here's the full letter from Tim Cook:

At Apple, your trust means everything to us. That's why we respect your privacy and protect it with strong encryption, plus strict policies that govern how all data is handled. Security and privacy are fundamental to the design of all our hardware, software, and services, including iCloud and new services like Apple Pay. And we continue to make improvements. Two-step verification, which we encourage all our customers to use, in addition to protecting your Apple ID account information, now also protects all of the data you store and keep up to date with iCloud.

We believe in telling you up front exactly what's going to happen to your personal information and asking for your permission before you share it with us. And if you change your mind later, we make it easy to stop sharing with us. Every Apple product is designed around those principles. When we do ask to use your data, it's to provide you with a better user experience.

We're publishing this website to explain how we handle your personal information, what we do and don't collect, and why. We're going to make sure you get updates here about privacy at Apple at least once a year and whenever there are significant changes to our policies.

A few years ago, users of Internet services began to realize that when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product. But at Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn't come at the expense of your privacy.

Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don't build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don't "monetize" the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don't read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.

One very small part of our business does serve advertisers, and that's iAd. We built an advertising network because some app developers depend on that business model, and we want to support them as well as a free iTunes Radio service. iAd sticks to the same privacy policy that applies to every other Apple product. It doesn't get data from Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, iMessage, your call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail, and you can always just opt out altogether.

Finally, I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.

Our commitment to protecting your privacy comes from a deep respect for our customers. We know that your trust doesn't come easy. That's why we have and always will work as hard as we can to earn and keep it.

Tim

Source: Apple

Today iOS 8 launches, and along with it, a whoooooole bunch of apps are being updated to support the new software. It's a veritable avalanche of updates, but we're going to dig up the very best ones for you. Give us a shout in the comments if you find any more!

iOS 8 app updates

• TextExpander - Set custom shortcuts (snippets) which expand to full phrases with this custom keyboard.
• Screens VNC - Use Touch ID and 1Password to unlock, and send rich text through a shared clipboard between devices.
• Transmit - Share files directly from your iPhone or iPad to your Amazon S3, FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV server.
• Epic Zen Garden - See what Metal graphics rendering can do with the tech demo.
• Slack - Share items directly to Slack channels and fellow collaborators from outside apps thanks to Extensions. Also gets 1Password integration.
• 1Password - Log into websites securely with a mere touch. Free for a limited time.
• Clear - View your latest tasks in the Today view.
• Camera Plus: Family Share pictures to other devices, haul in pictures for editing via Extensions, hop between devices for editing with Handoff.
• Instapaper: Read anything in a clutter-free environment thanks to Extensions. Saved articles show in Notification Center.
• TouchPal - A theme-friendly custom keyboard.
• Mint - Use Touch ID to access your personal finances.
• EyeEm - Follow friends and reply to comments on shared photos directly from notifications, and share pics for editing directly from the Photos app.
• OmniFocus 2 - Task manager lets you see what's next in the Notification Center. Also, shoot new tasks to the app through sharing Extensions.
• Facebook - Ubiquitous social networking app optimized for the iPhone 6's bigger screen.
• Color Keyboards - Stick close to the original keyboards, but add in your favorite colors.
• KuaiBoard - Use this custom keyboard to drop in chunks of preset text easily for those really repetitive e-mails and form letters.
• Yahoo Weather - Access the latest forecast from the Today widget.
• Dropbox - See latest activity in Today widget, plus new sharing controls for Pro and Business users.
• Minuum - A resizable keyboard perfect for those sticking with the smaller screen.
• Finish - Complete or stall tasks from the Notification Center.
• Swype - Another fantastic custom keyboard that focuses on gestures.
• Wdgts - A whole collection of useful notification tray widgets.
• Pocket - Handoff support lets you keep reading where you left between devices, and add new stories directly through Safari thanks to Extensions.
• Simple - Get access to your banking information through Touch ID.
• Find my Friends - Apple's location-sharing app can now move your friends list to iCloud.
• Find my iPhone - Now ties in with iOS 8 Family Sharing.
• iTunes U - Automatically add assignment due dates to calendar.
• Retro - Instagram viewer for iPad adds Today widget for keeping tabs on timeline and adds 1Password integration thanks to Extensions.
• Day One - Today widget offers flashback to previous entries, Extensions allow for easy importing from other apps, and Touch ID enabled to unlock.
• Evernote - Save notes with Notification Center widget, and clip content from all over with Extensions. Touch ID unlock for premium users.
• Badland - Visual optimizations for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screen size.
• Vimeo - Easier uploading and sharing thanks to Extension support.
• Asphalt 8 - Exclusive iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus season plus switch to Metal graphics engine.
• SwiftKey - Hugely popular custom keyboard finally on iOS.
• Fleksy - One of the first custom keyboards for iPhone.
• OpenTable - Notification Center widget to let you know about upcoming reservations.
• Fragment - Resume editing between devices using Handoff.
• Endomondo - HealthKit integration and interactive notifications for challenge requests.
• Microsoft OneNote - Clip all sorts of content to the cloud with new Share Extension.
• Buzzfeed - Catch the latest from the Today widget and bookmark from notifications.
• Box - Access Box files in other apps thanks to new Document Provider extension.
• Duolingo - Lesson progress widget added to language-learning app.
• pCalc - Quick calculation widget added.
• Snapguide - Recipe and home decor app adds iCloud Drive integration.
• Redfin - Real estate reference adds Today widgets.
• MyFitnessPal - Fitness tracker adds HealthKit integration.
• App in the Air - Flight tracker adds widgets.
• Amazon - Online shopping app adds Touch ID signin option.
• Carrot Fit - Fitness tracker adds HealthKit integration and iPad support.
• Pinterest - Pin to your collections from Safari, support bigger iPhone screens.
• Calendars 5 - Check your schedule with a new Today View widget.
• Scanner Pro - Can now scan photos directly from the photo library thanks to Extensions.
• PDF Expert - Zoom Writing, AirTurn support, bookmarks management and iOS 8 exclusive features.
• Documents 5 - Open, view, and edit files stored in iCloud Drive.
• Printer Pro - Wirelessly print documents from your iCloud Drive.
• PDF Converter - Save iCloud Drive files in other formats as a PDF locally.
• LastPass - Safari extension for remembering passwords and Touch ID integration.
• Sky Guide - Sunrise, sunset, and lots of other information available in a Today widget.

New iOS apps

• Goat Simulator: Achieve a trans-species nirvana in the greatest sim game of all time. - $4.99 - Download now

Discounted iOS apps

• Numerics: Business statistic visualizer. $19.99 Free - Download now

Other iOS app updates

• Ascension: New Darkness Unleashed expansion available for this dark fantasy card game. - Free, IAPs - Download now
• Rules!: Two new game modes added to this memory-testing puzzle game. - $1.99 - Download now
• Real Racing 3: Classic Lamorghinis added in this beautiful racing gaming. - Free, IAPs - Download now
• Snipp3t: Catch celebrity Tweets and Instagram pictures from within the app. - Free - Download now
• Twitch: Chromecast support added to help you watch live video gameplay on the big screen. - Free - Download now

If you've somehow managed to get iOS 8 loaded up after all of the traffic today, and you're eager to get started with Notification Center widgets, we've dug up a bunch of notable apps that started supporting them today. There's a lot more to read about widgets in iOS 8, if you're interested.

Of course, it's a busy, busy time in the App Store, so leave a comment if you've found any other great new iOS 8 apps sporting a widget or two. If you're looking for more apps that make use of new iOS 8 features, be sure to dig into our master list of updates from earlier today.

• Hours - Keep tabs on billable hours, now with a start/stop widget.
• LinkedIn - See who's been checking out your profile in Notication Center.
• LinkedIn Pulse - See news items coming in from your professional social network in Notification Center.
• Yahoo News Digest - Catch up on the latest happenings with a new widget.
• forScore - Check your instrument's pitch from Notification Center.
• News360 - Stay up to date with the latest news stories through a dedicated Today widget.
• Magisto - Start generating videos from your local media right from the notification tray.
• Wunderlist - See what's next on your to-do list from a dedicated widget.
• OmniFocus 2 - Task manager lets you see what's next in the Notification Center. Also, shoot new tasks to the app through sharing Extensions.
• NYT Cooking - Check out the recipe of the day in the Today widget.
• Yahoo Weather - Access the latest forecast from the Today widget.
• Dropbox - See latest activity in Today widget, plus new sharing controls for Pro and Business users.
• Wdgts - A whole collection of useful notification tray widgets.
• Retro - Instagram viewer for iPad adds Today widget for keeping tabs on timeline and adds 1Password integration thanks to Extensions.
• Day One - Today widget offers flashback to previous entries, Extensions allow for easy importing from other apps, and Touch ID enabled to unlock.
• Evernote - Save notes with Notification Center widget, and clip content from all over with Extensions. Touch ID unlock for premium users.
• OpenTable - Notification Center widget to let you know about upcoming reservations.
• Buzzfeed - Catch the latest from the Today widget and bookmark from notifications.
• Duolingo - Lesson progress widget added to language-learning app.
• pCalc - Quick calculation widget added.
• Snapguide - Recipe and home decor app adds iCloud Drive integration.
• Redfin - Real estate reference adds Today widgets.
• App in the Air - Flight tracker adds widgets.
• Calendars 5 - Check your schedule with a new Today View widget.
• Sky Guide - Sunrise, sunset, and lots of other information available in a Today widget.

iOS 8 brings with it a new feature that can let your iPhone or iPad suggest apps to you that it thinks are relevant. For example, if you're near Starbucks, you may notice that your iPhone presents a small Starbucks app icon in the lower left corner of your Lock screen. Or perhaps a lot of people around you are installing a particular app, your iPhone or iPad can recommend it to you both on your Lock screen and via the app switcher. This feature is enabled by default, but you can easily turn it off if you don't want to use it.

How to turn app suggestions in iOS 8 on or off

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher.
2. Tap on iTunes & App Store.
3. Under the Suggested Apps section, turn On or Off the options for My Apps and App Store — you can view a description of each below.

Here is a description of what both options are for:

• My Apps - This option allows your iPhone or iPad to display apps that are relevant to your current location. For example, if you're at Starbucks, the Starbucks app will appear on your Lock screen if you already have it installed. Or if you're at the grocery store and you have that particular app, it will show up on the Lock screen.
• App Store - Leaving this option turned on will allow iOS to offer suggestions for App Store apps that you do not already have installed. These can be based on what you already have installed or what people near you find interesting.

You can choose to disable or enable each of these individually. Just turn them on or off in whatever order you'd like, and then let me know in the comments if you plan to use either feature!

iOS 8 is finally available to the public and brings with it lots of new features, as well as some updates and enhancements to existing ones. From custom keyboards to new ways to silence and send messages, there's a lot of new stuff to explore and learn about. So once you've upgraded your iPhone or iPad, these are the coolest new features in iOS 8 that we think you should check out before anything else!

1. How to quick-reply to a message

iOS 8 finally brings one of the most wanted messaging features to your iPhone and iPad, no jailbreak required. Now when you receive a text message, simply slide your finger down from the top to reveal a quick-reply field. Just type in your message and send it on its way. You can then get back to doing what you were previously, without ever having to launch the Messages app.

• How to use quick-reply messaging in iOS 8

2. How to leave a group message

Ever been stuck in an annoying group message that keeps blowing up your iPhone or iPad? Wish you could just get out of it completely? Well now you can, thanks to iMessage and iOS 8.

• How to quickly leave group messages with iOS 8

3. How to silence individual message threads

Sometimes message threads can get out of hand, group and individual. While we've had a general Do Not Disturb option available in iOS for a while now, you know have the ability to silence individual message threads. That means you can mute a single person or conversation and still receive notifications from everyone else.

• How to quickly mute message threads with iMessage for iOS 8

4. How to send photos, videos, and selfies quicker than ever

Most of us share our photos through the Messages app. iOS 8 has made it easier than ever to snap a selfie, record a video, or share what's going on in front of us. Literally, with as little as a swish and a flick, your picture or video is on its way to the recipient, no fumbling around with the Photos app required.

• How to quickly take photo and video selfies in iOS 8

5. How to enable and use Notification Center widgets

The Today View in Notification Center now allows you to add widgets so you can get even more information at a glance. Apple has also opened up this ability to third party apps, many of which will undoubtedly take advantage. From sports scores to the latest tweets, the possibilities are going to be endless. So make sure you frequently check to see what apps you've got installed have updated to add widget support.

• How to add widgets to Notification Center in iOS 8

6. How to share your location via iMessage

iOS 8 has much better location sharing options, particularly in the Messages app. Need to give someone directions to your current location? You don't even need to launch a Maps app anymore. Simply share your location in an iMessage and the person on the receiving end can tap on it and immediately be given directions to where you are and how to get there. You can even control how long they'll be able to see your location if you choose.

• How to quickly share your location in iMessage for iOS 8

7. How to use QuickType and custom keyboards

Apple has greatly expanded upon how to communicate in iOS 8. Not only does the default keyboard come with a new feature called QuickType, you can also choose to install custom keyboards for a unique typing experience you can call your own.

• How to use the QuickType keyboard in iOS 8
• How to install and use custom keyboards in iOS 8

8. How to quickly save contact and event info from an email

Our email houses a lot of information and with iOS 8, Mail can smartly detect flight itineraries, contact information, and more. Instead of having to manual enter all of it into the Contacts and Calendars apps, Mail can make smart suggestions using data detection. From there, you can schedule appointments and events, or even add contacts, in as little as three taps.

• How to capture contact and calendar info automatically in Mail for iOS 8

9. How to use draft cards in Mail for iOS 8

What happens when you are composing an email and suddenly realize that you need information from another email. Before iOS 8 you had to save as a draft, fumble back to your inbox, and then go back to your saved drafts. With iOS 8, you can kiss your drafts folder goodbye. Instead, just flick your email down and it'll save as a draft card at the bottom of the screen. You now have full access to your email and when you're ready to resume composing, just tap on it in the bottom of the screen to continue where you left off.

• How to use draft cards in the iOS 8 mail app

10. How to access your contacts via multitasking

In iOS 8, access to your favorite and most recent contacts is always only two Home button presses away. Just double press your Home button to open up the multitasking tray and you instantly have access to your most recent and favorite contacts along the top. Tap on any of them to expand your options and choose a contact method. Easy as that.

• How to use multitasking contacts in iOS 8

Your favorite iOS 8 features?

We know most of you are just now getting your hands on iOS 8 for the first time. While we recommend checking out the above features, there are definitely lots more buried in iOS that are sure to make using your iPhone or iPad even easier than ever. If you've stumbled upon a great one, be sure to let me know in the comments!

See also:

• Everything you need to know about iOS 8
• All iOS how to's, tips, and tricks

Apple will release iOS 8 in a few short hours. Many of us will download it as soon as it's available, and millions more will reflexively install it as soon as a notification pops up on our iPhone or iPad. Here's my customary plea to wait. Let me explain why.

You may remember that I had the same advice for you last year. The advice stands, though not for the same reasons.

iOS 7 was a major upheaval: A different user experience for iOS. People using low-end devices found that the upgrade was a little too much for their systems to handle, and some of the new features broke compatibility with existing apps.

Even though iOS 8 isn't as major a change as iOS 7 was, there are still good reasons to wait. Here are a few:

You haven't backed up

If you haven't synced your iOS device to your Mac or PC, or if you haven't used iCloud Backup, please don't upgrade yet. Make sure you have a backup of your device before you install the upgrade.

If something goes wrong, and your phone is bricked or you have to restore it, you don't want to be put in a situation where you will lose precious information, family photos and other irreplaceable content.

Things will break

Sure, developers have had months to get their ducks in a row, and already we've seen updates to apps that list "improves compatibilility with iOS 8" (or some variation thereof) among their features. Expect that trickle to become a torrent starting today.

But there are still plenty of applications that won't work right, out of the gate (like Dropbox), and it's going to take some time for developers to find all those problems and iron them out.

Upgrading to iCloud Drive will cause headaches for Mac users and others

Upgrading to the new operating system will prompt you to convert your iCloud storage to iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive is terrific — Apple's making it easier than ever to share files in the cloud between Mac and iOS. But iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are core requirements to use iCloud Drive. Yosemite isn't out yet, and likely won't be out until October.

Have a Mac or iOS devices that won't make the iOS 8 cut? You might want to punt on iCloud Drive, at least, until you've worked out how you're going to share files between them, or until they're all ready to handle the transition.

Upgrading to iOS 8 is a one way street

Let's say you upgrade to iOS 8 and immediately regret it, and want to go back to the way things were. Nuh-uh-uh. Upgrading iOS is a one-way street, as far as Apple is concerned. Once you've upgraded, there's no mechanism for downgrading to a previous iOS.

Apple allows devices running beta versions of iOS 8 to be downgraded to the official iOS 7 release — our own Ally Kazmucha outlined how to do it this past June — but that's going to stop as soon as iOS 8 is out in the world officially.

iPhone 4s, iPad 2 and iPad 3 users miss Continuity

Continuity is a new feature of iOS 8 that helps to make a seamless transition between using your Mac and using your iOS device. You can make phone calls from your Mac if your iPhone is nearby, for example. You can start an email on your iPhone and continue it on your Mac without skipping a beat.

Only one problem: Continuity doesn't work on the iPhone 4s or the iPad 2 or iPad 3. If you're using one of those devices and had hoped to see Continuity in action, you're out of luck. What's more, Continuity won't work until Yosemite is ready, and it's not. Yet.

Your IT staff may not be ready to support it

If you work for a business or organization that supports iOS devices, or one that has a "Bring Your Own Device" policy, and you're dependent on your iPhone or iPad to get work done, it's worth a call to your organization's help desk to find out what their official position is on iOS 8 support.

You may be setting yourself up for a world of hurt if you update your device only to find that crucial apps or services necessary for your job have stopped working, or that the folks supporting your device may not be ready to support the new software.

You're interested in jailbreaking

Some of us like to jailbreak our devices to customize them and have more total control over our devices than Apple allows. There are no jailbreaks for iOS 8 yet, so if that describes you, put off upgrading for now.

Are you ready to update?

In the end, you need to compare the advantages of having iOS 8 installed with the possible pitfalls you may encounter on the way. Obviously my advice isn't one-size-fits-all. If you've taken appropriate precautions and you're ready, willing and able to deal with first-day issues, then by all means update your device. But hopefully I've given at least a few of you food for thought to postpone upgrading until you're more ready.

Are you going to pull the trigger as soon as iOS 8 is available? Or are you going to wait? Let me know.

SwiftKey has been one of the most popular alternative keyboards on Android for years, and one of the best selling apps of all time in Google Play. With an incredibly fast and accurate prediction engine, SwiftKey can not only correct misspellings, but make suggestions based on actual context. SwiftKey Flow lets you drag your finger effortlessly across keys in order to form words faster than ever. And with the introduction of iOS 8 and third-party keyboards, SwiftKey brings smarter and more efficient typing right to your iPhone and iPad!

Once you've downloaded SwiftKey to your iPhone or iPad, you'll need to install it. This will be the case with all third party keyboards. Luckily the process is easy enough, and the SwiftKey app does a great job of explaining it to new users. Just tap on the SwiftKey app from your Home screen and follow the instructions.

After you've installed SwiftKey, you can use it anytime you'd like by holding down the globe key on your keyboard and selecting it. It will remain as the default until you switch to something else. As for the SwiftKey app, you can use it to change themes, switch languages, manage your SwiftKey Cloud account, and more.

SwiftKey Cloud allows you to sync secure and encrypted usage statistics with SwiftKey so your personalized settings stay in sync across devices. For example, if you type a lot on your iPhone, SwiftKey starts to learn and better predict words and strings. Instead of starting over on your iPad, simply sign into SwiftKey Cloud and all the knowledge SwiftKey has gathered is when available in both places.

It's also worth noting that SwiftKey added a new Facebook login option for Cloud but if you've previously used it on Android, you'll want to sign into your existing SwiftKey Cloud account via Google instead. For anyone migrating from an Android device to a new iPhone, if you've used SwiftKey as your keyboard of choice, all your SwiftKey usage habits will be right where you left them on Android.

SwiftKey currently supports English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. In order to use a different language, just launch the SwiftKey app itself and download the language packs you need. Unlike many other keyboards that require you to switch languages on the fly, SwiftKey is great at detection and can tell what language you're using. So just download languages once and use them whenever you'd like, no switching required. You can also use the SwiftKey app to switch between keyboard layouts such as QWERTY, AZERTY, and more.

One of the most popular features of SwiftKey is Flow. This is the style of text entry where you simply trace your finger in patterns to form words. For many folks, this is a faster method of entry than tapping. SwiftKey also does a wonderful job of learning your tracing habits, as well as tapping. There are certain situations where SwiftKey Flow is not available for use, such as password fields or when typing proper email addresses in the "to" field of an email. These exclusions are for obvious reasons, as SwiftKey can not reasonably predict them. And if you don't want to use Flow at all, you can of course turn it off via the SwiftKey app itself.

While SwiftKey is universally available for both iPhone and iPad, SwiftKey Flow is currently only available for iPhone. This isn't due to the inability to integrate Flow for the iPad, but because of memory restrictions Apple has in place.

Since not every user is the same, SwiftKey also takes into consideration you're unique typing style. For instance, there are numerous times when I hit the "P" key when I meant to hit "O". Over time SwiftKey will pick up on this behavior and automatically correct it without any effort on my part. The same goes for swipe patterns. This same principle applies for situations where you may be left hand dominant and favor tapping or swiping on the far left of keys instead of the right. All this data makes SwiftKey more and more accurate over time.

Keep in mind that to use all the features SwiftKey offers, you'll need to allow full access via the keyboard settings in your iPhone or iPad. While it isn't necessary in order to use SwiftKey, it renders any kind of prediction inoperable. This includes SwiftKey Flow. So remember to make sure you've enabled full access in order to take advantage of all SwiftKey has to offer.

The good

• Amazingly fast predictions
• SwiftKey Cloud syncs predictions to all your devices via one login, including cross-platform
• Light and dark theme to suit everyone's taste
• Multiple languages on the fly — just start typing in any downloaded language and SwiftKey takes care of the rest, no keyboard settings to toggle between
• Flow will be tremendously beneficial for many people on the larger screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

The bad

• No complaints so far

The bottom line

SwiftKey is one of the best selling Android apps of all time for a reason. With the combination of Flow, SwiftKey Cloud, and some of the best on the fly language detection you could ask for, SwiftKey is well positioned to become one of the most popular third party keyboards for iOS as well.

• Free - Download Now