The latest operating system update that was launched by mobile phone producer Apple, to compliment and accompany the release of the much expected iPhone 6 brought quite a few changes to the way your iOS works, though it did not end up being a long shot away from its predecessor visually.
If you’re still holding onto your iOS 7 or earlier versions of the iOS 8 and not sure whether you should make the change or not, I’m going to give you a broader overview of what to expect from the new operating system, iOs 8.1.2 update included.
Quick Overview: How the 8.1.2 Came to Be
iOS 8 introduced some impressive new settings for camera such as time-lapse straight on your phone, a capture timer, burst mode on front facing camera on the iPhone 5s and panorama for iPad Air and iPad mini with retina display.
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Photo editing potential also got some attention, giving you a lot more options when trying to tweak your snaps on the go, before uploading them to your social media website of choice. To people who are not that well versed in the ways of Photoshop and other editors (or not versed at all, like I am), this is the easy way out if you’re just looking for some light edits to make your colors sharper, highlight specific areas of your photo and so on.
Other notable improvements brought by the new iOS were adding continuity and perfect synchronizing of all of your Apple devices via the iCloud. All of your documents can be stored in your iCloud Drive and accessed from any of your devices at the exact point you left off, uploads of edits and changes being made continuously across all of your devices automatically.
The QuickType keyboard became a thing too, adding predictive typing personalized to your writing style, customized in coordination with the recipient and the application you are using.
The first time I opened up the messaging app on my iPhone 5s post the update, I did not pay much attention to this new feature since I never really was a fan of automatic keyboards, to me being more of a nuisance and chain-of-thought-breaking rather than useful.
But after several chats all across my apps, I started noticing in the corner of my eye some very familiar words and expressions that are not officially part of the dictionary but knew that I myself use often.
Quick Overview for the New Operating System
While I speak for myself that even despite the very intuitive nature of the QuickType software, I’m still going to type things the hard way, I would lie if I said I don’t sneak in a few words from the feature every now and then, especially when operating the phone one-handed.
Another feature that I sincerely wondered what was taking so long on being incorporated by the iOS was the health app – an application that is only available for the iPhone and iPod, but not yet made functional on tablets.
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This does exactly what you would expect from it, measuring distances you walk, helping you keep track of calorie intake, cholesterol levels, and every other nutrition, vitals, sleep, fitness and body measurements you would ever need to stay in control of your health.
The app itself does not measure all of the above automatically and will actually require manual input or auxiliary applications that measure them for you, but it still remains a very flexible tool to keep watch over the state of your health.
All these came along with many other minor changes and optimizations to make the latest iOS function as smoothly as possible on all popular iPhone and iPad models. But just like it is with every single major iOS update, the system shines on the newest device releases, yet tends to have issues on previous ones.
The subsequent updates to the iOS (8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.1, 8.1.1 and ultimately iOs 8.1.2) have attempted to target most bugs and issues that pop up when using the operating system on older devices, but some issues present on the iPhone 6 as well.
For this very reason, I will try to give you a broad overview of what the latest updates bring us on both the iPhone 6 and older models respectively.
iOS 8 for iPhone 5/5s
Personally, I haven’t upgraded to the iPhone 6 yet, still holding onto my iPhone 5s simply out of personal preference and slight reluctance towards the big display belief.
The upgrade to iOS 8 was a bit of a headache however and made me consider simply switching to the iPhone 6 just to not have to deal with all the issues that popped up in the first weeks of usage.
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However, after a long time of having to survive through with random app crashes, screen rotation occasionally refusing to work, freezes, home screen getting stuck on semi-transparent look after swiping to unlock, purchased ringtones vanishing, worrying battery drain, not being able to zoom out of folders and many other tiny, yet nagging issues that my iPhone 5s underwent, things seem to have started to calm down with the latest iOS 8.1.2 update.
Now do keep in mind that these issues did happen to me on a relatively old and packed iPhone 5s (as old as a 5s can get), so that might have had something to do with it as well.
iPhone 6 users have not reported most if not any of these issues as concerns to their new devices so chances are the circumstances that my phone was in when I upgraded iOS were probably the worst combination you could get.
Some things are still a bit sluggish even with the improvements brought to the operating system and the effort the company has put into stabilizing the iOS for older versions that were constructed to work at slightly different parameters than the new, more performant ones.
So if you are already running a version of the iOS 8, the latest iOS 8.1.2 patch appears to be a downright blessing for models 5s and below – the patch is definitely getting a yay.
If you’re still running the iOS 7, missing out on some of the new features might turn out to be better than running in head first into the issues that still seem to be plaguing the device here and there.
From that perspective, if you feel that you can’t handle a few bugs here and there on your iPhone 4/4s/5/5s or cannot spare the time to deal with them until further fixes and optimizations make their way live to your phone via patches, I’m going to have to give the iOS 8 along with the 8.1.2 patch a nay. Save yourself a headache and stick with the stable iOS 7 for now. The goodies on the iOS 8 can wait until a more stable version.
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Prior to upgrading to the iOS 8, I made the mistake of not even researching a bit on what I was going to get with the new operating system. I even got it relatively late in comparison to its original launch date due to lacking the necessary space every time I tried to update and despite using 4 Cloud services and numerous hard disks to store all of my data.
I really did not get to it, especially since the update was asking for a considerable amount of space on my 16 GB model, space that I really could not clear up without either removing some of my music or giving up the easily accessible photos and videos on my phone.
So by all means, cleaning up your phone and being prepared for the update is sincerely a very good idea. With all the changes and possible challenges your iPhone 5/5s might be struggling through, not knowing what is coming your way will prove detrimental to your iPhone experience.
If you don’t feel you are prepared for the transition, give the iOS 8.1.2 a nay for now. The changes may not look much from a visual perspective, but at the core of things the new iOS is far from its predecessor.
Lastly, if for whatever reason you are currently in possession of a jailbroken iOS 8 version, experience and feedback from users who chose to jailbreak their devices seems to be verging on the positive. If you are in the same bucket and feel that your iOS is not giving you much trouble and performance is not dwindling, updating to the iOS 8.1.2 really is not necessary.
Considering that updating your iOS will remove your jailbreak in most situations, take it the nay way and leave things the way they are for now.
Alternatively, if you are ready to put up with a few problems the iOS 8 will give you and are considering jailbreaking, updating to the 8.1.2 would be a timely change right about now since the Taig 8.1.2 jailbreak has already been revealed and released. You would benefit from both the fixes the latest patch has brought and concomitantly enjoy the possibilities of jailbroken devices.
For this reason, the update will get a yay despite a 8.1.3 update being currently planned by Apple. There is no ETA on the next patch however, which means that even if you make the change now, you will be looking at a hefty amount of time for you to spend with your jailbroken iOS 8.1.2 before the new version removes your Taig version.
iOS 8 for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
If you are one of the lucky iPhone 6 users who did not have to go through all of the above and even started off your experience with the iOS 8 straight away, you probably are relatively content with your device.
Surely, the iPhone 6 models were not completely immune to the problems that the new iOS posed. The landscape not working was not an issue plaguing the older models alone and seems to have created some trouble and turmoil for iPhone 6 users just as well.
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The landscape view was added to the iPhone 6 Plus with the iOS 8, and quickly got followed by tweaks and fixes to its functionality in later patches. With the latest, all landscape view-related issues seem to have finally vanished and your iPhone 6/6 Plus should be flashing its green lights towards the update. Yay.
One of the most harrowing and panic or frustration inducing problems that the iOS 8 came up with was the infamous ringtone bug where people who had downloaded ringtones from the iTunes store in the past woke up one day with the nowhere to be found. For no reason whatsoever.
No changes had been made to the phone, no new installations, no modifications done via iTunes. The tones would simply disappear off the face of the planet. The 20 MB 8.1.2 update seems to be focusing on this fix, and installing the patch will allow you to recover your missing ringtones by heading to Apple’s website and restore them to your device as soon as possible.
Alternatively, even if you haven’t purchased any ringtones but are planning to, go ahead and grab the update before you do to avoid having to put up with this and straight out enjoy the yay that the iOS 8.1.2 gets once again.
Performance of iOS8 on iPads
The iOS 8 only made it to iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 starting with the 8.1 version. The fact that Apple did not rush the release for their tablets seems to have been a good thing for most iPad users reported little to no issues with the new iOS. The most positive feedback the 8.1.2 patch got from tablet owners was that it does feel like an improvement over the 8.1.1 version.
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The worst feedback consisted of some iPad users saying that they felt close to no difference following the update. So by all means, there really isn’t much more to say here, is there? Oh, you’re right, there is – yay!
Conclusion
The iOS 8 appears to behave like a difficult mistress would in most, older Apple devices. If we were to simply make a count of the yays and nays we’ve given to the latest software update provided by the company, the conclusion is crystal clear.
- If you own an iPhone 5s or below and are still running an iOS 7 version, stick to it.
- If you own an iPhone 5s or below and have already installed an early version of iOS 8, you’d be better off upgrading now as 8.1.2 seems to be the most stable variant of the new operating system.
- If you own an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, updating to iOS 8.1.2 will solve a number of issues you might have had before.
- Jailbroken devices will lose their break upon update, but Taig has recently released a 8.1.2 jailbreak so you might as well grab it while it’s hot.
- iPads remain mostly neutral to the changes so updating will do just fine.