By BRITTNEY BUTLER – Print Managing Editor
Apple’s newest iteration of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, was released on Sept. 17 to iPhone, iPod and iPad users.
The highly anticipated iPhone operating system iOS8 was released on Sept. 17. Apple coined it “the biggest iOS release ever”. The update is compatible with iPhone 4S or higher, as well as the iPod 5th generation.
New features include a smart keyboard, Message improvements and Photo app enhancements.
The smart keyboard will suggest words based on personalized texting styles, making communication quicker at times, but more complex when obscure words pop up.
“How is the weather?” my phone asked when I tried to type “How are you?”
Within the Messages app, users can send photos, videos and voice memos in a way that much resembles the popular app Snapchat. Users can now take “burst” selfies, if they feel inclined to take multiple snaps of their faces in a short amount of time.
Many of iOS 8’s features are not available to 4S users because of the missing TouchID and AirDrop. The iPhone 4s is missing just enough capability to begin to make it almost obsolete. Just as iOS 7 was the last update the iPhone 4 could process, this is likely the last update the phone will be able to handle.
Although the update claims to work well with the 4S, multiple features are compromised due to the age of the phone. For people with short attention spans, the longer launch time of apps is highly noticeable.
After pressing the update button, the ”time remaining” was said to be “42 hours”, a time that was both shocking to see and untrue. Thankfully, the update only took around four hours, but the iPhone crashed shortly after.
Be wary of the downfalls of this update may bring if downloading the update on iPhone 4S, but iPhone 5’s and newer have had very little difficulties keeping up with the pace.
