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iOS 8 – Release Date and New Features

The official release of iOS 8 is now less than a week away. Announced by Phil Schiller, VP Worldwide Marketing for Apple, it’s packed full of new features and will be released on 17 September.

New features include:

QuickType

The next level of predictive text, QuickType provides a list of words you’re likely to write next at the top of the keyboard, ready for you to select.

Quicker text reply

You can now reply to text messages without having to open the messaging app. Upon receiving a text message you can now swipe down on the banner to open a window which will allow you to type and send a reply straight away so you don’t have to stop what you’re doing.

App download requests

The addition that all parents have been waiting for! An option can be enabled that sends requests to parents’/guardians’ devices for app downloads.

This will prevent unexpected credit card bills… or at least some of them.

Family sharing

iOS 8 users can share apps, books and music with 6 other users on the same credit card. In most cases this will be family, and is a great way to make sure that a good book gets read on all of the family’s devices.

Spotlight Search

Spotlight Search has been improved and will not only look within your phone, but also check the app store as well as the whole web in response to your search.

Looking up cinema times will be much faster thanks to no longer needing to open Safari to do it.

Siri

Siri, with the help of Shazam, is now much better at identifying music playing near the phone.

Other features

Other features include:

  • Sending the last location to Apple before the battery dies
  • Credit card scanning with the camera for purchases
  • Hiding images from the photos app
  • Making phonecalls over wifi and
  • Finding out which app is the one draining all the battery life.

iOS 8 will be available for download on September 17. Make sure to check out our guide to ensure your device is prepared for it.