Apple today shipped the free upgrade to iOS 8 for existing iPhone and
iPad owners, opening up the download floodgates at 1 p.m. ET, as
expected.
Computerworld immediately began retrieving iOS 8
and in the initial stages at least -- with a slow broadband connection,
the upgrade was forecast to take more than hour -- the download
proceeded. As of 1:30 p.m. ET, there were no reports on Apple's iPhone
support discussion forum about download problems.
The biggest issue seemed to be the size of the upgrade --
many reported that it was in excess of 1GB -- and the enormous
free-space requirements, which were 5GB and up. For owners of 16GB
iPhones, not to mention those with the even punier 8GB iPhone 5C, that
could be a major problem.
Apple called iOS 8 "the biggest release
since the launch of the App Store." The App Store appeared in 2008 with
the second version of what then was dubbed "iPhone OS." Apple rebranded
iPhone OS as iOS in 2010.
iOS 8, which will also power the new
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that Apple introduced last week -- and which
go on sale Friday -- is a free upgrade for owners of the iPhone 4S,
iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S; iPad 2, the third- and
fourth-generation iPads with Retina screens, the iPad Air, the iPad Mini
and the iPad Mini with Retina; and the fifth-generation iPod Touch that
debuted in different configurations in October 2012 and May 2013.
Apple introduced iOS 8
at its annual developers conference in June, when CEO Tim Cook and
other executives highlighted a slew of changes, notably new developer
frameworks called "Healthkit" and "Homekit" for collecting
health-related data and managing home automation devices, respectively.
Other changes to iOS 8, which was not visually revamped as
that took place in 2013, included opening the operating system to
third-party on-screen keyboards; an iOS-OS X continuation feature called
"Continuity" that lets users start some tasks on, say, an iPhone and
then finish them on a Mac; and a refined Notification Center that will
provide in-context, interactive notifications.
Today,
Computerworld reviewer Michael deAgonia
concluded that iOS 8 was "packed full of really handy features" that
people "will be using on daily basis," but warned that the software
still contained bugs.
"There are a few rough spots and lingering
bugs -- but for the most part, iOS 8 is as responsive and snappy as iOS 7
before it," deAgonia wrote.
At least one of the biggest
additions to iOS, Continuity -- especially its sub-component, "Handoff"
-- will really only become useful once Apple releases OS X Yosemite for
the Mac. Yosemite is expected to ship on Oct. 22.
iOS 8 can be
downloaded over the air from iPhones, iPads, iPad Minis and iPod
Touches, or through iTunes. From an iPhone, for instance, users must
touch the "Settings" icon, then the "General" button on the resulting
screen. Tapping "Software Update" will kick off the update process.
For
Computerworld's
test iPhones, iOS 8 weighed in a near a gigabyte -- 957MB to be
specific -- although others reported smaller or larger downloads
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2684780/apple-releases-ios-8-starts-serving-upgrade-downloads.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fnews%2Ffeed+%28Latest+from+Computerworld%29
