Just a couple of hours have passed since official release of the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch, but it seems like these two devices weren’t the only stars of the show. Apple has also updated iOS 8 and added a couple of more features that can be considered really useful for anyone with an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
The new iOS 8 upgrade will be available on September 17th, just two days before the release of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The upgrade will be available as a delta upgrade for existing devices running iOS 7.
There may be some other small tweaks, but the largest updates include ApplePay, Health and a couple of new navigation features.
Apple Pay
This represents one of the best new features that iOS 8 will get as it will allow people from all around the world to forget about cash money or credit cards and pay with the help of their phones, which is a very exciting piece of news. Although the function of paying at retail stores will only be available for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus due to the fact that they have the NFC function, it still has real potential all around the world.
With this in mind, anyone willing to make a purchase at an offline store will have to touch the NFC reader in a store while pressing down on the Touch ID. In the case that you found something interesting on the Internet, but you don’t have an iPhone 6, this shouldn’t be a problem either as iPhone 5S users will also get to use the Touch ID capacity together with the features provided with ApplePay in order to pay for different products online. This makes online shopping more fun, but also easier from all the points of view.
What’s even better is the fact that the iPhone doesn’t actually store any credit card information, but unique device IDs instead, thus making the overall process much safer. Together with this, all the information is encrypted and if you already have an iTunes account, then you won’t even need to input your credit card information. In the unfortunate case that you lose your device, those annoying credit card cancellation calls to the bank don’t have to be made anymore, as the application Find my iPhone can be used to find your phone, but also deactivate ApplePay.
Health
We’ve already seen the Health app in use before thanks to the early developers release of the iOS 8, but the iPhone 6 now has even more iOS 8 features, as it can collect more data than before including information relating to how much you’ve walked, when you’re standing, how many stairs you climbed, how high you are and much more thanks to a variety of new sensors that have been added to the phone.
Unfortunately, those using the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S won’t actually get access to such a high number of features, mainly due to the fact that their devices don’t have the hardware needed.
New navigation features
It has always been said that a smart user interface is the key to any user’s heart and Apple aims to make it easier with the help of the new iOS version and the new iPhone models. Now, iPhone 6 Plus users will be able to navigate through their device when it’s horizontal. Additionally, other small tweaks including two-pane navigation and a feature that allows you to see avatars whilst using the Messages app have also been added.
Now, it’s time to see what Cydia app developers will come up with, as the iOS 8 and the new iPhone models bring in a wide variety of features that the devs can take advantage of in order to create better and more interactive apps. To me, it seems like Apple is definitely on the right track with both the iPhone 6 release and the new updates brought to iOS 8. If you’d like to find out more about the iOS 8 jailbreak, head over right here.
What do you think of the new iOS features so far? How about the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch? Let us know!