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iOS 8 reviewed (arstechnica.com)
218 points by guardian5x on Sept 17, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 194 comments



Credit where credit is due, the lack of customisable keyboards was a major gripe of mine when people asked me why I'd never buy an iOS device.

A Swype-like keyboard (I actually use Google Keyboard's Swype mode, even though I own Swype) is a "must have" on my phone and has been for over three and a half years (since Swype beta was available on the original Galaxy Note).

While there are definitely thumb typists who can type quite fast, for me personally Swyping is significantly faster than tapping. I refuse to go back to that, it is bad enough things like passwords require tapping (although thanks to LastPass working with Chrome on Android, that too might be a thing of the past).

Now all we need is Microsoft to get with the program. Windows 8/8.1 still lacks a Swype-like keyboard and third party keyboards don't really exist. Kind of sucks on the Surface (you don't ALWAYS have the keyboard cover on).


Two things have kept me away from iOS: the tiny phone screens and the lack of Swype. I can see myself moving back since I switched to Android from my old 3GS. The Android fragmentation is out of control, the app quality is usually sub-par, and making sure to keep buying a Nexus to avoid OEM crapware gets tiresome.

I also find that bugs that would have gotten Apple mocked in the press and caused a massive outrage are ignored in the Android world. Namely the year or so Google Play Services would randomly lose its mind and drain your battery and the never ending Chrome bug where clicking a link just leads to an immediate page not loading condition (blank page appears and the spinning loading icon stops immediately). Heck, even the new version of Chrome does this. Thankfully not as often.

If either of these happened in the iOS world, there would be a lot of yelling a demands for fixing, as opposed to the current state where serious bugs persist for months at a time.

I'm willing to give Android L a chance before I leave. Hoepfully, we'll be seeing a higher quality of product here.


I am thinking about switching to iPhone 6 after using my Nexus 4 for two years only because of poor battery of Nexus 4.

Unlike some other iOS users' and ex-Android users' claims, I never experienced any significant lags or bugs in the new Android OSes on Nexus 4. I had some issues with WIFI on beta Jelly Bean, but that was a beta release for a reason. The so called scrolling problem on Android never happened to me at all.

I find that gripes people have with Android are the one that's overblown out of proportion. They probably used Android years ago back in 2.X days, and still have a bad taste from it.

Newer Androids are so much better than 2.X days, I would urge iOS users to try them out.


Interestingly Windows Phone 8.1 already has a Swype-like keyboard which works really well. I hope they will include it in Windows 8.1 or maybe Threshold as well.


I am not an apple fan, but this update (based on reading this review) is very impressive. Maybe Apple will win over some Android/Other users without alienating their base. It seems likely.

It's a good development for iOS and WP to have more flexibility without comprising the essence of what they are.

When I got the Lumia 635, I didn't know about the swype-like functionality. I used it from time to time, without thinking, but never noticed it until someone else pointed it out.

It works well, and would be nice on the Windows tablets.


I noticed that. I guess they figure people don't want to type on a tablet? I'd like to have that choice however.


When I had an android device, I thought this feature was over-hyped.

I installed as many keyboards as I found and tried every single one for about a day. I hated all of them. They were all different and some added interesting features, but I found that I could type fastest on my iphone's stock keyboard.

It just worked.

On my android device, I ended up restoring the stock keyboard and never looked back until I sold it and bought another iphone.

This was about 3 years ago, so maybe things changed since then.


They were all mostly terrible until Google Keyboard came around with swipe support.


My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between third party keyboards. I like SwiftKey, but I use about three languages daily and SwiftKey is not good enough for two other languages I use (Japanese, Thai), so I have to use other keyboard.

Switching between multiple keyboards in Android is totally pain. This was over a year ago, but back then I have drag down the notification area, choose Change Keyboard, select keyboard I want to use and go back to typing (maybe optionally switch the layout to the correct one before that) instead of a single button press. Some keyboard do provide a way to switch to other keyboard, but they're mostly non-obvious (e.g. in Google Japanese IME, you have to long press the layout switch [A/あ] button for few seconds, then choose "Change keyboard"). Even though most non-English keyboards also provide English layout, but most of time they're simply half-baked or just downright bad.

I don't know how Apple designed their third party keyboard API, but I truly hope they have some kind of guideline regarding the keyboard switcher, and that third party keyboards in iOS are per-language so all non-English keyboards out there don't ended up implementing a half-baked English keyboard. Either way, I'm really happy to see SwiftKey coming to iOS, even more so when my favorite Japanese IME (ATOK) announced they're going to release a keyboard for iOS.


The Nokia N9 had a fantastic way of switching keyboards. In keeping with the "Swipe UI" theme you would just swipe the keyboard horizontally and it would roll over to the next one. Brilliant, elegant, buttonless, consistent.


Apple's keyboard API requires that you implement a button for switching to the 'next' keyboard, in the same way that existing iOS keyboards have the button for switching.


You can switch keyboards just like you would when changing from English to Emoji, etc.


you can switch keyboard layouts like that (i.e. swiftkey english to swiftkey japanese), but he wanted to (my example) change from aosp keyboard for japanese to swiftkey for english. This is often also possible, but the way differs for keyboards.

i believe aosp keyboard put a button left to space which you can long-press in order to get the switch keyboard popup. but his biggest gripe was probably the settings which default for some keyboards after changing the standard...


+1. This has been my longest standing complaint after switching to Android a couple of years ago.


I don't know about SwiftKey, but the Google English, French and Japanese keyboards all bring up the input method dialog when you long-press space. So these three at least are consistent.


I'm a little surprised that Apple included custom keyboards. They've always been an "our way or the highway" company, and custom keyboards seem like a very geek-specific feature, even if they are better to type on. Not that I'm complaining! I can finally build a couple of new apps that I wasn't able to before. :)

(If anyone is interested, I'm working on a clone of the existing Apple keyboard for use as a base for developing 3rd party keyboards: https://github.com/archagon/tasty-imitation-keyboard)


Apple has had a very long history of absorbing user hacks/extensions into its OS. Pre OSX there were lots if extensions that were bought out or blatantly ripped off that made it into the core of the OS. I'm a bit surprised it's taken them so long on this. I'm a bit surprised that some of the features of XtraFinder haven't been absorbed. Auto adjusting finder column widths are a huge pluses for me


See also: the Quicksilver/Launchbar/Alfred ideas that are being folded into Spotlight in Yosemite.

The big surprise is not that iOS8 is getting Swype, but that they are opening the APIs up for arbitrary third-party keyboards (albeit heavily curated, I'm sure).


They've always been an "our way or the highway" company

Under Tim Cook I'm not sure that maxim will apply to design any more, it certainly didn't apply to software/hardware in the 90's pre-jobs. Perhaps Cook will still apply it to services like apple pay where it helps them lock in profits and customers, just like most other corporations.


I don't think Apple objects to geeky features in general--OS X ships with a pretty robust CLI and it doesn't get much geekier than that.

I think they just want to first make sure that the default user interface is totally solid and easy to use, and that the geeky stuff will not harm that. That way geeks can opt into power user stuff, but regular users don't even have to know it's there.

iOS has seen a steady progression of power-user functionality: SDK, cut/copy/paste, app switching, detailed notifications settings, cloud storage and syncing, etc. But if you go back to the original iPhone UI, the basics will still work that way in iOS 8.


Good to know that you feel a BSD UNIX variant is "pretty robust" ;-)


Well I didn't want to oversell it. :-)

Seems like every time someone compliments the OS X Terminal, someone else pipes up with a list of commands and utilities it's missing or several versions back on, compared to a Linux distro.


Homebrew has pretty much solved that problem for me, and iTerm 2 is pretty spiffy.

I'm not super hardcore about shells or whatever though so I probably don't get exposed to many of those issues.

I do get the feeling that Apple is trying to take the approach of the Ubuntu LTS series and be fairly conservative on what they're including in the OS.


Someone designing an old-school iOS6 keyboard might find a lot of interest - some folks I know still haven't warmed to the iOS7+ keyboard.


Hmm! That's not a bad idea, actually. Once I finish with my project, should be a fairly simple graphics swap and metrics adjustment. :)


It might be geek specific for us/European customers, but my impression in China and japan is that most people use 3rd keyboards. In china all my Mac friends even used 3rd party keys on OSX!


TouchPal has a customizable, swipe keyboard for Windows 8: http://www.touchpal.com/downloads.html#win8


That doesn't work with 8.1 which the Surface 3 ships with.


The lack of a Swype-style keyboard was for me the most difficult part of the transition from Android to iOS. After a few weeks I became comfortable with the iOS keyboard, but never really fluent.


I've found that as Apple gradually made the keyboard smarter and more predictive my ability to thumb type has gotten worse. I've noticed myself hitting letters perfectly and Apple 'thinks' I meant the letter next to it instead. I've been using their iOS 8 keyboard for a while and honestly it's not great. It still has the above issues and the prediction row is n't very predictive. I'm looking forward to switching to Swype as I love it when I play with my Android device.


Does anyone know whether it's possible to add keys for undo/redo functions? I find the shaking gesture extremely inconvenient, especially on iPads.


I've had exactly the same thoughts. Swype is a godsend for me and generally just works. It knows how I type, and gives excellent suggestions so a significant percentage of the time I tap a suggested word rather than have to swype it out.


For some reason Swype is not available in the US App Store, which is bugging me.


It has been pre-announced but not yet released.

Ditto SwiftKey (although they announced a hard release date: tomorrow).

EDIT: I spoke too soon: Swype for iOS 8 is out now:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swype-keyboard/id916365675


LastPass just updated on iOS to include Safari integration, so it’s gone here too.


I really wish I could block ads somehow on my iPad Air. I'm pretty invested in the Apple ecosystem and use an LTE iPad Air almost every day on public transit, and the inability to block ads really makes mobile Safari a shitty experience. I mean, I'd never run (and I'm sure a lot of people here don't either) a desktop browser without some sort of ad blocking going on. That and being able to have two apps run side by side would be a great boost to my commuting productivity, but I've long since resigned that I'll finally have to move ecosystems if I want any of that.


I'd never run (and I'm sure a lot of people here don't either) a desktop browser without some sort of ad blocking going on

I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy to support the sites I use.


I used to, but got tired of it. ABP just seems to make everything slower. Back in the day, an ad blocking hosts file worked like magic. No memory leaks from the browser or other problems. Ad loads failed at name resolution time and failed very quickly.

Also, to be fair to internet marketers, ads are much better than they used to be. The old 'punch the monkey style' ads are long gone outside of.. how do you say, questionable sites. Auto-playing videos are rare. Once in a blue moon I actually click on ads that are targeted to me. The system sometimes works.

Railing against ads just seems like a poseur-ish thing nowadays. I also feel especially bad blocking ads from sites I visit regularly. Its a dick-ish thing to do. It just seems better to keep open a dialogue on what we consider acceptable ads and what we consider unacceptable ads. Or help the site owner understand that they're better off with targeted ads or selling their ad space themselves, than joining some shady affiliate group with generic "This school teacher is making $900 a day" crap or, heaven forbid, video auto-play ads (which are pretty rare nowadays outside of news sites/youtube where the content is video but you're forced to sit through 35 seconds of ad before you can see it.)

A lot of annoying content isn't ads at all, its dhtml/css 'pop ups' asking you for your email address or facebook login or survey or whatever. ABP doesn't usually stop those either.

Loudly proclaiming you must use ABP is almost like saying, "Well, I visit tons of shady porn and torrent sites, where its more or less required." The non-shady web just seems like a better place than during the early 2000s when Flash ads ruled. YMMV of course.


It's not just ads though - as someone who runs NoScript in Firefox the number of 3rd party ad targeting and "audience enhancement" stuff I see that gets pulled in to most sites is crazy - some sites pull in stuff from like 20 different providers. It's this ad retargetting that follows you around the web that personally bothers me - I know not everyone cares (and some even welcome it) but seeing how much tracking is going on makes me really glad I'm running NoScript and ad blockers.


It's kind of like when you stop watching TV for years — encountering a TV commercial is a horribly memorable and distracting event. You also develop a hypersensitivity to ads on the web after blocking them for a long time.

If you are used to them and can block them out you're probably mentally doing the same job as an ad blocker.


iOS is a special case for ad-blocking, because until iOS8 Safari could be induced to redirect you to the Appstore app, and (less reputable) ads would frequently take advantage of this. (http://www.tuaw.com/2014/06/18/ios-8-safari-can-block-ads-fr...)


It would be better to support the sites you use by paying for them without an advertising middleman[1].

If only we all focused on solving this direct payment problem[2] instead of actually actively working to further embed the advertising industry[3].

Sadly my comments along these lines always get downvoted because, as Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8008337

[3] "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks." – Jeff Hammerbacher, fmr. Manager of Facebook Data Team, founder of Cloudera


I'm in the same boat, I don't run an ad blocker, but I do block flash and java-script from running until I enable them per-website. I personally don't have a problem with ad's, but my home laptop is pretty slow and ad's on most websites eat a ridiculous amount of resources.


I don't use an ad blocker but I also don't have Flash installed. That last step was transformative a few years back when Flash was even slower and unreliable on OS X but it's still a surprising win even now.

The main difference I see now is that people with ad blockers talk about frequenting sites which have tons of ads, which doesn't send a message to the owner and probably actually exacerbates the problem since they'll toss bigger, more intrusive ads in ads the clicks-per-visitor rate drops. If I hit a site like that, I'll just leave and go somewhere else which respects its visitors more, particularly if they're savvy enough to follow the lead of sites like ArsTechnica which allow subscribers to disable ads.


I can't read text on screens that have animations on them.

Well, I can, but it requires a noticeably higher level of focus not to be distracted by movement in my peripheral vision - noticeable enough to be unpleasant.

I just tried disabled my adblocker temporarily; Ars Technica itself has exactly the kind of animated ads that I can't stand.

It's not just ads, though. It's all animations. I use image.animation_mode=once in Firefox to disable looping gif animations, use Flashblock, and generally disable anything that auto-starts whenever possible. The only thing I want animated on my screen is the cursor.


Going to android forums on an android device (with no ad blocking) made me really appreciate how much ad blocking does for me. On those forums I'd see an add fixed at the bottom, a floating ad at the start, and ads in between posts. Even Ars Technica shows me full page click-through ads every time I visit. It's awful!


For whatever it's worth, I'm about the same. I never bothered with any of the blockers, and just browse sites normally. I don't pay much attention to the ads. I call it my wetware ad blocker. Some sites can be really awful, but I just don't visit those anymore.


Some of my browsing habits lead me to sites where there are literally popups upon popups. Sure, maybe I could only enable it for those sights, but that takes time - and I'm lazy.

So whilst I see where you're coming from, you can't just rule out annoying ads all together.


Minor point of contention: Are you actually supporting the sites if you aren't clicking on the ads?


Yes.


The ad is an idea that someone knows what you need better than yourself. I prefer need-based research.


The only ad blocking I use or need is disabling Flash, and iOS comes with that out of the box.


The progress marches on. The major annoyance are "talking" ads which disabling flash used to neuter. Nowadays, I see more and more autoplayed video ads served as a fallback. Almost at the point where need to do something to preserve some sanity. I like the "support the sites" mantra, but those publishers need to try to choose reputable ads networks and enforce the policy of cutting clearly obnoxious ones


It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.


Try uBlock, it is much faster than ABP and uses way less resources. Or do it the good old fashion way and use a HOSTS file with the added advantage that ads will be blocked on your entire computer and not just your browser.


Does uBlock block Youtube ads? I tried its precursor and I remember it wasn't working on YT.


I was actually completely unaware that Youtube had ads for a long, long time. I'm not sure I could move to a solution where I would be forced to watch them.


Youtube has ads?

click ew

Adblock ftw.


True, which is why I tried to be agnostic on the actual means of adblocking in my op. Regardless, it requires a level of openness on Apple's part that I'm being slightly delusional about wanting.


I'm using HTTP Switchboard which uses much less memory has offers a lot more control over what to block and what to allow through, but it does take a bit more configuration than ABP.


µBlock is from the same author and a whole lot easier to use:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock


I'm getting really close to switching back to AdBlock for Safari (the one based on an old fork). It did a decent job my machines feel much older with ABP. I can see rendering delays on large pages.


You can set up a Privoxy server or a VPN through a server that blocks connections to known ad servers. There are publicly available blacklists of ad and other unwanted servers.

Takes some elbow grease, but the benefits of not loading ads should more than make up for the slowdown from going through a proxy.


I second this approach. Privoxy can be run on a machine or potentially the router. This way whatever device you use ads are blocked. No need to install something on each device.


Ars offer subscriptions[0] which remove the adverts (amongst other things)

http://arstechnica.com/subscriptions


Ironically, Ars is a site that is really atrocious on mobile Safari, ad wise. I visit there regularly, and often I get full page ads that block the view.


I recommend the Reader mode in safari. It's the closest I've come to "ad block" on an iPhone. It can take an article on an absolutely atrocious website, with hovering top and bottom bars, hovering ads, etc., and transform it into pure heaven: beautiful text, on a clean background, with relevant images.


Thanks, I never use it so I forgot about it.


Fortunately, iOS8 (IIRC) allows apps to finally use the full power of the JS engine, so 3rd party browsers should be able to run as fast as Safari. If you don't mind switching, I'm sure there are 3rd party browsers that allow you to block ads.


Check out the Atomic Web Browser - I think it's getting a bit older but works well, and blocks ads:

http://atomicwebbrowser.com/


I have been trying the Mercury Browser lately because some pages just don't load anymore on my iPhone 4. Give it a try.[1]

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mercury-web-browser/id331012...


I came here to suggest this one as well, lots of control (including setting user agent) as well as solid pop up and adblock extensions.


What do you think of the scrolling? It's different from the one used by the system and I kind of feel like it's better but I'm not yet sure about it.


I don't use ABP because I like to support the websites I visit, other than Youtube. The recent changes really made me turn against them.


Two more options for ad blocking on iOS: Weblock is an app/service that works via Proxy configuration, so it blocks most in-app ads as well. For web browsing, iCabMobile is a web browser with build-in ad blocking. (There are others as well, iCabMobile is just the one I like most).


Why can't you just avoid sites that use advertising? How is it fair to companies to give you free content without having to pay for it.

If you find a site has annoying advertising then stop browsing it and find an alternative. Vote with your browsing habits.


it is fairly easy for a site to block most users that use ad blockers ... but it is much harder to not use a site that use advertising when you have an ad blocker...


I use OpenDNS from my router to block ads on all my devices. You have to add some custom domains to hit the major sources, but it works reasonably well when you're at home.


iCab Mobile for iOS used to support ad filtering, e.g., http://www.icab-mobile.de/iCabMobileFilters.html?lang=en but not sure if v8 still does that.


Is there an equivalent of AdAway on Android that blocks ads in apps?


Jailbreak and there's almost definitely a tool to do it.


disconnect.me now has an ipad app. I've been using it to block ads (an extra fee). It works fairly well, but doesn't catch everything.


Maybe I'm just a corner case, but the "Spotlight, multitasking" section didn't address whether Apple has changed the refresh settings when multitasking between apps. Not a day goes by that I don't switch between open apps (say, Mail and Safari) only to watch the browser content disappear under my fingers while it decides to hit the network and refresh the screen with the same content. This is especially frustrating when out of network/wifi range which happens frequently in NYC.


That simply mean that the app was killed usually for memory reasons, you see the old content because the app shows you a screenshot that was taken before going in the background, and then starts again, thus refreshing


Who cares why it happens? I've gone back and forth between iOS and Android over the years and it never happens to me on my Android devices. Both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses obviously, but this used to piss me off to no end on iOS.


It's kinda strange, honestly: 2011's state-of-the-art Android phones (Galaxy S2) had 1GB RAM, and yet Apple is still stuck on that maximum, while Android has long moved on to 2GB on flagships. Kind of a shame :(


Perhaps Apple can afford to keep iiOS devices at 1 GB of RAM and thus save battery life because iOS uses automatic reference counting rather than garbage collection, so applications' memory high watermarks stay lower. I imagine that's what Drew Crawford would argue, anyway (see http://sealedabstract.com/rants/why-mobile-web-apps-are-slow...).


Why would they save any notable battery life?

I was under the impression that RAM had only negligible differences in consumption per-module, and capacity per-module has increased dramatically.

Besides, the main source of power usage is the screen.


Isn't RAM more of a factor for power consumption when in standby?


I understand that additional RAM chips onboard would cause increased power consumption, but I am confused about why a chip with the same physical footprint and more storage would cause increased standby consumption.

Does a DRAM refresh for a denser chip draw substantially more power, or something?

(Legitimate question, I am obviously not an expert and I'd just love to learn more about this)


I'm no expert either. Honestly, I was just guessing. I observed that Apple was sticking with 1 GB of RAM for the third iPhone model in a row, and figured there must be a good reason. But maybe they're just being cheap because they think it doesn't matter.


The Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB of RAM and that was released a year ago.


And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package. So how do you explain it? Ram is cheap and small. Yes it uses power but not all that much and certainly it would be worth it for a more powerful device.

The only logical explanation I can come to is... more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience. More ram is the cure-all on a desktop but that's not apples-to-apples.


>more RAM won't make a meaningful impact on the experience

Except when it would, as in, the case we are discussing right now.


>And yet they continue to pack more power into a smaller package.

Well, not this time =p


The A8 is fabbed using a new 20nm process, so part of the phone is more power in a smaller package.


> Who cares why it happens?

People who are curious about system internals. Probably some of the people who read a site like HN. Even my dad likes to understand where these limitations originate and he's not a 'computer person' (though he is an engineer in another field).


I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter. No one is going to do a 180 and say "oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I guess it doesn't bother me anymore." It's still a PITA and there's no good reason for it anymore. I get great battery life on my M8 and don't have to deal with this stupid quirk.


>>I think you missed the point. I like understanding the why as well, but it doesn't actually matter.

Of course it matters. If you understand why, you can take steps to mitigate it or work around it. In this particular case, one workaround is to close unused programs and browser tabs every now and then to clear up memory so that the active tabs don't go through a forced-refresh. This is what I do on my 4S, and I haven't had to deal with the problem the OP describes in a long time despite being a "heavy" user.


Right... or I could just use a phone which doesn't force me to micro-manage my memory usage. That's a workaround at best, not a solution. iOS has always been subpar in regards to multi-tasking.


It's far worse on low-memory Android, in my opinion. iOS apps have to support being suspended and resumed (although bad apps still do it badly). This forces apps to deal with this eventuality on day 1.

Android, on the other hand, doesn't force this. All apps assume they can do whatever they want in the background, without being shut down. This means, on my low-memory Android, that opening an intense browsing session followed by Google Maps kills all of my background chat apps, making me unavailable. This is far more unacceptable in my opinion then having to wait for an app to reload.

(I would agree that iOS is too aggressive when it comes to memory management, though)

Edit: Formatting


I agree with you there, I was only thinking of flagship android devices because they are in the same class add the iPhone. I've never owned a lower end android phone, but I imagine that they don't scale downward as well as iOS would.


Good luck with that.


My M8 fits that bill nicely, but thank you for your concern.


I'm happy for you. It's great that you can buy the device that works best for you and I can buy the device that works best for me.


No one is going to do a 180 and say "oh, yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I guess it doesn't bother me anymore."

I think you're underestimating one's capacity to accept a tradeoff. Once a person learns that RAM is constantly consuming power as it's being refreshed – and that a device with more RAM is going to have less standby time – they might appreciate the decision to try to do more with less.


Did you file something with Apple? That is a genuine gripe.


iOS is a little more strict about how applications use memory. Apps need to expect to be terminated at any time and be able to suspend their state with a few seconds' notice.

The reason is to give you better battery life and fewer issues caused by limited available memory.


That's not a reason, that's an excuse. The solution is that Apple implements a reliable pause and resume system so that its multitasking experience isn't inferior.


The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome.

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit


The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug).

[1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392


This bug, which continues to cripple HTML5 apps on the App Store but not ones accessed in Safari, seems almost too perfect to be unintentional.


But Safari doesn't load local files, so the bug wouldn't be noticed there. Makes perfect sense.


The point of including WKWebView in the iOS 8 SDK is to make it accessible to non-Safari apps. They must have actually tested this new component.

I don't doubt that there is probably an explanation that makes sense, but based on what we know, the least malicious explanation is that they forgot to test WKWebView with local files, which doesn't make sense.


"They must have actually tested this new component."

Honestly, with Apple sometimes I wonder. Safari had so, so many bugs when iOS7 launched that I no longer believe they spend a meaningful amount of time testing Safari before launch.


I agree completely. IOS7 screwed over html5 devs so hard. IOS8 is just as bad. Putting overflow:hidden on a text area in IOS8 Safari makes it so the user can no longer scroll within to edit the text at the top. It also causes it to draw extremely weird on the screen (you see the border appear way above it). Putting a height of auto on an input is causing Safari to pop the keyboard open when trying to scroll (the page and happen to touch that element). File uploading is completely messed up too (http://blog.fineuploader.com/2014/09/10/ios8-presents-seriou...). We also have issues clicking buttons when the app is using a cache manifest and saved to the home screen. I will be having a few drinks over the next few weeks.


I'm not sure what apple gains here. "Native" apps suck, so developers continue pushing web apps, which work just as well on android. Doesn't sound like the greatest lockin plan.


You _could_ run a local webserver, but that may not be worth it speed wise. Depends on your code.


Has anyone tried loading from Blob URLs? That might be a way to make Cordova work.


Wow. What a downer.


Good breakdown on the Sencha blog, with some benchmarks and a discussion of the few major bugs that prevent replacing UIWebView at this time: http://blog.sencha.com/blog/apple-shows-love-for-html5-with-...


To pick on just one point of this massive article: The quick actions on notifications are going to be very useful. I hope other OSs implement them too (I'm a WP user myself). They're unobtrusive, and they can make the entire phone feel more natural. They also enable new kinds of quick interaction: imagine an 'OK' button on a text message that lets the sender know you've seen it, without the need to send a message saying just that yourself.


Android has had them for some time, and as you say, they are fantastic.

When implemented. It's a weakness of Android that few developers take advantage of all the features - I suspect a lot of apps are made iOS-first, so if a feature isn't available in iOS, it isn't implemented on Android. I hope that iOS gaining this feature will mean it is used a lot more on Android, too.


That's a good point. We'll have to see if this means it'll be picked up more on Android too, it could get very interesting.


Yes, though they are more limited in Android: they are just buttons that can jump to the app (= launch a specific intent). On the contrary, the new iOS notifications can have a real interaction; e.g.: you can answer to a message within the notification itself and never switch context.


Yes and no - Android also allows apps to draw standalone windows on top of the OS, like this one does:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.everything...

So it isn't quite the same, but nor does it require switching apps.


AFAICT, that's because it's a SMS application, so it's got a special hook being called when a SMS arrives. For normal notifications (delivered through GCM), that's not possible.


Android has had this for quite a while, though not to many apps make full use of it. http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/notifications.h...


I wasn't aware of this, despite having used enough Android in the past. Shows you how many implement it, I suppose :)


Or how well you advertise it. Apple heavily promotes every feature tiny or large, while usually most of the cool Android ones get ignored even by the tech writers who are supposed to know about Android, let alone regular people or press.


Or that lots of Android apps are shoddy iPhone ports by developers who approach it as a second class citizen, and so are unaware of what it can do.

And then they complain that Android users don't buy their apps...


For example with emails you see this – get a new email, in the notification you can click on "delete" (as I get far too many unnecessary mails) or, if accidentally deleted, undo it again. Or click on Reply and directly write a reply.

This works with AOSP Email and Gmail (maybe others as well).


> imagine an 'OK' button on a text message that lets the sender know you've seen it, without the need to send a message saying just that yourself.

That already exists in the form of "read notifications".

That's why I really like them. If I go away for 5 minutes in the middle of conversation, I don't have to tell the person about it, they'll see their messages were no longer read.


I never found those to be an adequate solution. It's fine for an ongoing conversation, but for a singular message it's useless. I might get it and see it, but not read it yet. Just because I'm at my computer or phone doesn't mean I'm reading and acknowledging the message.


Blackberry 10 has this feature also for BBM and SMS. It's great.


It's ironic - the addition of extensions, custom keyboards and the like was possibly going to be enough to bring me back to iOS from Android - I always preferred the hardware, just wanted a little more flexibility from my software.

But now Apple has totally ditched the 4" hardware factor - the main reason I liked the hardware so much. To me, Apple has lost an edge by doing that.


What do you get from an iPhone 6 4" over the current models there? Better processor, NFC, nicer camera? While the screen is a big part of battery drain, I'll bet that moving to the A8 also justified a bigger battery, and all these things got more room to fit in. You might have to give up something for a 4" form factor. But I'll also bet that as they hone the new architecture, you'll see it trickle down to the lower price slots, a la iPad mini Retina.


The ability to USE them? I for example can barely use my Moto G with one hand, most of the time holding it with two hands (one in the top left, one in the lower right) so I can access all of the screen easily. My hands are just too small, I can't use a Nexus 5 at all without two hands, really annoying.

So, for all us people with small hands, what do you think we should do? Buy a 5.5" phone and use it like a tablet? That's not really practical :/


Sorry, I meant, "What would you get from an iPhone 6 4" over the current 4" models?" Trying to determine what's actually important in the new models aside from screen size, beyond the feeling that you're not buying something "old".


Funny, I feel the same way about the new Moto X. I think the larger screen was a mistake, and Motorola would have been better served to update the existing 4.7" phone and release a 5.5" or larger separate device.

I will be very interested to see if Apple continues having 4", 4.7", and 5.5" phones in its line-up over the next few years. It seems like a natural spread that covers a good number of different use cases.


eh, totally ditched? the 5s and 5c remains available.


Apple's iPhone support cycle is such that there are significant downsides to getting a device from an older generation.

For example: The iPhone 4S was released in October 2011. In October 2013, Apple released iOS 7. While iOS 7 supports the 4S, it increases RAM overhead to the point that switching from app A to app B kills app A the vast majority of the time. (This is terribly annoying when you're writing, you switch to a web browser to look something up, and when you switch back the thing you were writing disappears.)

The user adoption rate of new OSes is ridiculously high. This means you will have maybe 3-6 months after the new OS comes out before apps no longer support the old one.


Really? iPhone 4S can't handle iOS7? I'm using an iPhone 4 on iOS7 without any problems whatsoever, and I'm a heavy user+developer.


I use a 4S with iOS 7. I can't wait to get the new phone, iOS is so slow now on my device. I guess there aren't any problems per se except that I pretty much hate using my phone.


32GB model?

The 8GB really bogs down and the 16GB has noticeable lag.


Aren't the differences only in storage?


Presumably that also affects the amount of swap space available.


iOS doesn't swap like traditional OSes, although it does persist a small cache of metadata about running app instances. The file system is not particularly fast, though, so I could see low space conditions (that might trigger reclamation or defragmentation) slowing things down in general.


Yes, 32GB. Although I don't know why it would make a huge difference (not saying it wouldn't).


i have a 4s that i got in 2011 that works fine on iOS 8. frankly their support cycle is far better than with any other options. perhaps the year old phone won't last quite as long as the new phone, but it will probably last long enough to want a new phone. the 5s is a great phone and will be supported for at least the next 3+ years


Anecdotally, my old 4S on iOS7 runs great. I almost can't tell the difference between that and my iPhone5 (well, other than screen size).

I know folks using iOS7 on a 16GB iPhone4 with no issues either (it's slower, but quite usable).


They're old models, though - and they won't get updates.

So I could go through the process of switching from Android to iOS for... one phone generation. Doesn't seem quite so worth it then.

EDIT: by updates I mean hardware updates. The 4" form factor is still alive in terms of devices you can buy, but it's dead in terms of development.


The 4s is supported by IOS 8, it seems reasonable to expect that the 5s would be supported by IOS 9 and possibly 10.


The fact that Apple still sells iPhone 5S at 32Gb in addition to 16Gb means that there might still be hope for 4" fans.

If you're about to switch ecosystem and hate anything but 4", I'd get the 5S, it's still a fantastic phone with a top-class processor, top-class camera, awesome screen, good battery, and whatnot. It'll still be updated for 2-3 years software-wise, so it's more than enough for an ecosystem jump; after all, in 3 years, you might want to jump again somewhere else for different reasons.


Why do you assume that there won't be a 4" model going forward? Do you know how many of those devices they sold? Its dead in terms of development is unwarranted exaggeration at the least.


I assume there won't be a 4" device because they didn't announce one. I'd love to find out that I'm wrong.


It's possible that the 4" model will continue to be updated as a lower-end version. So the iPhone 6c will be an A8 while the 6S/6S+ will have an A9.


The 5S is an excellent 4" device which is more than powerful enough to run iOS8. Sales numbers will determine whether they produce new 4" models next year.



I hadn't heard about the "family sharing" thing. My wife and I use the same Apple ID, because we're not going to buy apps twice. Mostly it works fine, every once in awhile we run into a hiccup though. If the family sharing works well it'd be a nice help.


Has anyone considered if the iPhone is a good choice of you are a Gmail user?

I have noticed that the Gmail app load time, on the iPhone, is unusably slow but it is one of the apps I need to use daily.


Is there a specific reason you are using the Gmail app instead of the OS provided mail app?


For me it's because I've come to rely on the Gmail tabs (primary/social/promotions/updates), which the built-in Mail app just ignored. I could probably duplicate the effort with folders (though I use those also, in parallel to the tabs), but I just started using the Gmail app instead which handled it all fine.


There's that - and the fact that Gmail app can prevent the non-Primary tabs from sending notifications.

Also there's search... Mail.app does not handle search well for Gmail.


A year or so ago Google removed the Exchange support necessary to do push via Apple's mail app (well, it's complicated: if you set up GMail via Exchange on the mail app prior to that point in time your device is grandfathered. Otherwise you've got to use the GMail app).


Not the OP, but I noticed the same and in my case the reason it's simple: I have all my email/attachments since 2004/2005 in gmail. I use full archive search way more often than I care to admit.

I love how gmail works/syncs across all platforms (my iPad on iOS, two Android devices, PC laptop and Mac desktop) and doesn't limit me to the Mac/iOS platform.


Shouldn't it work the same way if you are just using IMAP? I never used the gmail app that's why I'm not familiar with it's inner workings.


Unfortunately search barely works for me on Mail. That is a big one. Also, in the mornings before work I like clean out my mail but I don't have access to my Gmail primary tab so I tend to tons of unnecessary email. Labeling also doesn't work.


I would also recommend Mailbox for managing Gmail. It is one of my favorite apps I have ever used.


I cant seem to get push notifications to work with the OS app, is there a way around this?


Push notifications, I believe, don't happen in Mail.app?


I use the Gmail app on my iOS device daily, it works great.


Consider using Mailbox, an app by Dropbox. It is quite fast and has all the features I need for GMail. It makes checking email a joy.


This update requires 1.1GB download and 5.5 GB Free space to install!.

Did iOS7 also have similar requirement? I dont record that happened last time.


Apparently if you update through itunes it requires less space. The space for the upgrade is one thing, but the additional 700 mb+ used after the update is much worse. The iphone 8gb had 6gb free under iOS 7. Under iOS 8 that goes down nearly to 5. And to make matters even worse, the apps will double in size due to the use of 3x images. I don't understand why apple is still selling 8gb devices, because the user experience on those is going to be horrible.


iOS did have a sizable requirement, although I forget how much space was required to do the install. I had many friends who had difficulty upgrading due to it.


Because I remember iOS7 had the quickest update rate ever. It slows down the Internet as well as router around places.

However to have that kind of update rate their iPhone must have been able to update, I am not so sure everyone had 5GB free space


> Mobile Safari also picks up support for WebGL, an API that has been supported in recent mobile versions of Chrome and Internet Explorer for a while now.

For me, that's the feature of iOS 8 I'm most excited about.

I'm really looking forward to do some hobby graphics/game development using Go and have that run on my iOS device.


WebGL support on iOS 8 is the best new feature for me.

It looks like there are still some limitations that Apple could fix: http://codeflow.org/entries/2014/jun/08/some-issues-with-app...

about 75% of all user already have a browser with WebGL support: http://webglstats.com/


Now that the iPhone has a big screen, there's only one feature it's missing before I'd be happy to trade in my Android: background camera upload syncing for Dropbox that doesn't cut out after 10 minutes.

Edit: would appreciate an explanation for the downvote. Does iOS already allow this and I missed it?


As a Blackberry user, I was just thinking today how I could never go back to the iPhone. Multitasking is much faster on the BB10 OS. No button mashing and drilling down menus - not like I remember with the iPhone.

Of course, the iPhone has it's strengths too, but I just want to get work done.


A Blackberry strikes me as more of an impediment to work these days, but then I guess that's why the market exists.


"This update cannot be installed because it requires at least 6.9 GB of storage."

That's over _half_ of the maximum available capacity on my 16 GB model. No wonder they're releasing 128 GB iPhones now.


That is simply the "slack" space needed to download iOS 8 and install it inline on your phone. The OS does not consume 6.9 GB of your 16 GB model. See the Ars Technica review


I know that (it still does consume more than iOS 7 did, but not 6.9 GB of course). But it's pretty inconvenient to have to delete more than half of the contents of my device for the update.


Then don't update over-the-air. If you plug your iPhone into your computer and update via iTunes you don't have to delete anything from your device.


Well, 1.1GB for the file, and 5.5GB for the installation.

That's still huge.


I think that if you tether your phone to a computer and use iTunes to do the upgrade, you don't need as much space, since the install files can be buffered on the computer instead of your phone.


Yea, now I'm seriously considering the 64GB version for my iPhone 6 upgrade.


Is this the same case if you upgrade using iTunes and USB connection?


I was able to upgrade via iTunes and USB with only 1.5GB free space on the phone.


Nope.


Would you install it on an iPad 2 with iOS6?


I've been using it on my iPad 3, which is functionally slower than the iPad 2, and it's fine.

The biggest annoyance is the password screen animation doesn't really work at all, and I'm sure other animations aren't as fast as they could be but the login is the only place I notice it. The iPad 2 has more GPU/pixel so I wouldn't expect it to be worse.

Apps work fine, Safari is better than ever.




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