Questions on iOS8 for iPhone

gino76ph

Hiya. I'm kind of tempted to get an iPhone (the 5S) now that iOS8 is out. Heard of some new features & improvements so i want to find out more:

1. Photos - Found out on my iPad Air post-iOS8 that one can only send a limited amount of photos and share/forward it to social or cloud services such as Mail, Facebook, Flickr and pretty much that's it. Can't even send it to Google Drive, Whatsapp or Dropbox. is this true for the iPhone? Do i have need to go to the app itself to upload these files?
2. Handoff - I have a Macbook Air with the latest OS X Mavericks. Can i now send files (such as .pdf, .doc, .mp4 or .mp3 format) from my Macbook via Airdrop to an iPhone?
3. Music player - I heard the only improvements is the ability to delete entire albums (and same goes with individual songs) via a swipe action? Is creating a Playlist still as easy (i.e. on-the-fly) as before or is it faster & better? Still no custom equalisers?
4. Widgets & Apps - Without being too technical would this mean with iOS opening up will it be easier/better active widgets implementation on the Notifications panel than Android?
5. Camera - Does the camera have minor improvements when it comes to stability & clarity? And does the 5S record in mono or full stereo? And are the videos compressed in a way that i can share/upload them easily to Google Drive or Dropbox?
6. Is there an online mode for Safari so i can still read what i have read earlier even without 3G/4G/Wifi signal?
7. Security - Any improvements on this front?

As an Android user i am interested to know. Please advice. Thanks.

Would appreciate any advice please. Thank you.

Handsome90

gino76ph wrote: »

Hiya. I'm kind of tempted to get an iPhone (the 5S) now that iOS8 is out. Heard of some new features & improvements so i want to find out more:

1. Photos - Found out on my iPad Air post-iOS8 that one can only send a limited amount of photos and share/forward it to social or cloud services such as Mail, Facebook, Flickr and pretty much that's it. Can't even send it to Google Drive, Whatsapp or Dropbox. is this true for the iPhone? Do i have need to go to the app itself to upload these files?
2. Handoff - I have a Macbook Air with the latest OS X Mavericks. Can i now send files (such as .pdf, .doc, .mp4 or .mp3 format) from my Macbook via Airdrop to an iPhone?
3. Music player - I heard the only improvements is the ability to delete entire albums (and same goes with individual songs) via a swipe action? Is creating a Playlist still as easy (i.e. on-the-fly) as before or is it faster & better? Still no custom equalisers?
4. Widgets & Apps - Without being too technical would this mean with iOS opening up will it be easier/better active widgets implementation on the Notifications panel than Android?
5. Camera - Does the camera have minor improvements when it comes to stability & clarity? And does the 5S record in mono or full stereo? And are the videos compressed in a way that i can share/upload them easily to Google Drive or Dropbox?
6. Is there an online mode for Safari so i can still read what i have read earlier even without 3G/4G/Wifi signal?
7. Security - Any improvements on this front?

As an Android user i am interested to know. Please advice. Thanks.

Would appreciate any advice please. Thank you.

1) It depends on whether those apps are taking advantage of extension APIs. I don't have those apps on my phone and hence can't answer your question. If you already have those apps, you can quickly check it on your iPad. But, you need to turn on that extension first. Tap the share button, scroll right and then tap more. Now you can see a list of apps that can access the photos app. If Google Drive, Whatsapp or Dropbox are present in that list then you can share your photos directly to those services. Also, it's early days and perhaps they didn't update their apps to iOS 8.

2) Is it a 2011 Macbook Air or newer? Then most likely it will work.

3) There seems to be a bug in iOS 8 and I can't create a playlist using the Music app. The process is still the same as before. You are right, there is still no custom equaliser.

4) Don't know which one is better. I prefer Apple's implementation of widgets. I get lost in Android with their multiple desktops (one for widgets, one for apps, etc).

5) I haven't noticed in any improvements in stability or clarity. I guess this could be because you can't improve them without adding a new camera module. It has a new feature called Time Lapse. I made a few videos using the clips from my iPhone but I didn't check whether the audio was mono or stereo.

6) There is no offline mode but adding articles to reading list achieves the same thing. Maybe apps like pocket or instapaper allow you to do that.

7) iOS 8 fixed a lot of security issues.

Sorry I couldn't answer all of your questions. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will answer them for you

gino76ph

Thank you Handsome90. You are one of the few people who have helped and helping me with my quest to "try again" iOS.

When you mean "Turn-on" extensions is this deep within Settings? And how do i do it?

I have installed Google Drive and Dropbox on my iPad Air and yet when i click "More" I can't see them. Does this mean/safe to say that GD and DB hasn't updated their apps for iOS8?

My Macbook Air is 2-months old and is the early 2014 model. So far i could not find a way to share/transfer a file to an iPad (which is my test subject before i buy an iPhone). Any help please? You said with a Macbook its possible but may i ask how? Am i missing something here?

Also, is it "safe" to buy a used/mint, fully unlocked phone on sites such as Ebay or Amazon? The reason why i ask this is because i have not bought an iPhone on these sites (only an iPad or via store) and i'm worried about the issue of the 5S's Touch ID being hacked & all.

Handsome90

gino76ph wrote: »

Thank you Handsome90. You are one of the few people who have helped and helping me with my quest to "try again" iOS.

When you mean "Turn-on" extensions is this deep within Settings? And how do i do it?

I have installed Google Drive and Dropbox on my iPad Air and yet when i click "More" I can't see them. Does this mean/safe to say that GD and DB hasn't updated their apps for iOS8?

My Macbook Air is 2-months old and is the early 2014 model. So far i could not find a way to share/transfer a file to an iPad (which is my test subject before i buy an iPhone). Any help please? You said with a Macbook its possible but may i ask how? Am i missing something here?

Also, is it "safe" to buy a used/mint, fully unlocked phone on sites such as Ebay or Amazon? The reason why i ask this is because i have not bought an iPhone on these sites (only an iPad or via store) and i'm worried about the issue of the 5S's Touch ID being hacked & all.

You don't have to go into settings to turn on extensions. When you click on more (the process I described in my above post), you should see buttons beside the name of the apps. In my phone I can see Facebook, Pocket, Flipboard, Evernote, Flickr, etc. If you want to see how that function work, you could download the above apps and play with them. I was reading about the new features of the latest dropbox update and it says "New for iOS 8 - See your recent activity in the Today view widget in the Notification Centre, easily save files to Dropbox and open your files directly from within other apps." So I reckon it was updated for iOS 8 compatibility. You could email them and seek technical support from them. Google Drive hasn't been updated for iOS 8 as the latest update was released on 3rd of September (before the release date of iOS 8).

First, congrats on buying a mac. It's a beautiful engineered machine and it will last many years. You can't send files from iPad to mac or iPhone to mac yet. You will be able to do this with OS X Yosemite (which will be released around mid October). So, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few more weeks for all iOS 8 features to work with the mac.

There is always an element of risk of buying used phones from sites such as eBay. It could be a stolen phone and blocked after you receive it. People do that for insurance fraud. However, hundreds of people buy used phones and don't have any problems. Also make sure it's the UK model and not the US model because I don't think the 4G in UK may not be compatible with the US model (but 3G will work). Before you buy from such sites, look at the sellers feedback ratings.