Apple By Russell Holly Jun. 24, 2014 10:00 am
Apple’s multi-stage testing and optimizing setup for iOS 8 reached Beta 2 last week, and after several app updates the platform is almost totally usable.
There are some incredible things coming to iOS 8 this fall. Apple is laser-focused on delivering a uniquely inclusive experience with their products, and that is great for anyone who happens to be rocking all of Apple’s products for their computing needs. The Apple developer program allows app developers to check out iOS 8 before users, which makes it easier to ensure apps are ready to go when the update rolls out. The beta program for iOS has only recently reached its second update, but this release has already shown significant improvements and offers some clear insight into what we can expect this fall.
Like most of Apple’s beta releases, iOS 8 Beta 1 was near unusable. Apps crashed left and right, the camera seemed to only work when it felt like it, and there were some really strange issues with streaming video of any kind. This is all to be expected, as it’s a work in progress.
The worst crashes from Beta 1 came from Google’s apps, which on my Retina iPad mini all seemed entirely broken. Beta 2 is here now, and in just a few short weeks the beta has become almost entirely functional, which is great news for developers.
Apple’s camera app is now fully functional, and there’s more than a couple of new features that weren’t part of the WWDC announcements. The new camera modes allow for manual control, as well as a time lapse and burst mode with a timer mode built into the main menu. Apple’s new Spotlight Search is working as intended now, and when using the iPad mini in landscape it is incredibly convenient to just swipe down and start typing to search for something.
The service is already quite fast and does a great job grabbing relevant search results. It’s curious that Apple chose to place such extreme focus on Spotlight Search during WWDC, but no focus at all on these camera modes. It’s entirely likely that those features just weren’t stable enough at presentation time.
Notification controls are easily the biggest part of day to day use improvements in iOS 8. The ability to add widgets to Notification Center and the ability to control how and when notifications show up for specific apps creates a level of control over your device that has eluded Apple until now, and it works exactly the way it should here. For the first time, it feels like Apple has a better notification delivery mechanism than Google does on Android, because you’re able to go in and manually determine how each app behaves when delivering notifications. This is one of the big things that has always set Android apart from iOS in my mind, and it’s something Apple has absolutely nailed in iOS 8.
If you have been waiting for iOS 8 to get more stable before trying out the beta, you can safely back up and give it a try now. Apps including Chrome and Hangouts still misbehave regularly, but they actually work now which is a huge improvement. In the last 24 hours alone several apps have updated to support iOS 8, and more seem to be flowing in all the time.
There’s no guarantee that future beta updates won’t break more things as Apple continues to chase bugs for their fall release, but if you’ve got a developer account with Apple you’ll find there are only a handful of issues in daily use.
More...
There are some incredible things coming to iOS 8 this fall. Apple is laser-focused on delivering a uniquely inclusive experience with their products, and that is great for anyone who happens to be rocking all of Apple’s products for their computing needs. The Apple developer program allows app developers to check out iOS 8 before users, which makes it easier to ensure apps are ready to go when the update rolls out. The beta program for iOS has only recently reached its second update, but this release has already shown significant improvements and offers some clear insight into what we can expect this fall.
Like most of Apple’s beta releases, iOS 8 Beta 1 was near unusable. Apps crashed left and right, the camera seemed to only work when it felt like it, and there were some really strange issues with streaming video of any kind. This is all to be expected, as it’s a work in progress.
The worst crashes from Beta 1 came from Google’s apps, which on my Retina iPad mini all seemed entirely broken. Beta 2 is here now, and in just a few short weeks the beta has become almost entirely functional, which is great news for developers.
Apple’s camera app is now fully functional, and there’s more than a couple of new features that weren’t part of the WWDC announcements. The new camera modes allow for manual control, as well as a time lapse and burst mode with a timer mode built into the main menu. Apple’s new Spotlight Search is working as intended now, and when using the iPad mini in landscape it is incredibly convenient to just swipe down and start typing to search for something.
The service is already quite fast and does a great job grabbing relevant search results. It’s curious that Apple chose to place such extreme focus on Spotlight Search during WWDC, but no focus at all on these camera modes. It’s entirely likely that those features just weren’t stable enough at presentation time.
Notification controls are easily the biggest part of day to day use improvements in iOS 8. The ability to add widgets to Notification Center and the ability to control how and when notifications show up for specific apps creates a level of control over your device that has eluded Apple until now, and it works exactly the way it should here. For the first time, it feels like Apple has a better notification delivery mechanism than Google does on Android, because you’re able to go in and manually determine how each app behaves when delivering notifications. This is one of the big things that has always set Android apart from iOS in my mind, and it’s something Apple has absolutely nailed in iOS 8.
If you have been waiting for iOS 8 to get more stable before trying out the beta, you can safely back up and give it a try now. Apps including Chrome and Hangouts still misbehave regularly, but they actually work now which is a huge improvement. In the last 24 hours alone several apps have updated to support iOS 8, and more seem to be flowing in all the time.
There’s no guarantee that future beta updates won’t break more things as Apple continues to chase bugs for their fall release, but if you’ve got a developer account with Apple you’ll find there are only a handful of issues in daily use.
More...
