Does anyone else think that iOS 8 is a letdown?

[kappaknight]

Read about half the thread, and honestly the whiners/nit pickers just don't get it. Themes, boot logos, etc.? Seriously? That is like being on Facebook and wondering why it doesn't let you personalize your page like MySpace. The point is to consume the information that flows in; the point isn't to try and figure out how to use the device.

I remember when I was on MySpace, jumping from page to page = spending a couple of minutes how to navigate other peoples' personalized pages. What a waste of time that was. Now, if you're out and you want someone to take a picture of you; when you hand them the iPhone most people will instinctively know how to take a picture with it - and that's why simplicity is better.

Here's the deal, in our new information-filled world, iOS is meant to enhance your life. If you're coming from a previous iOS device, it will improve your life incrementally. If you're coming from something, probably drastically. The platform is meant to save you time, and allow developers to create bigger, better things that will make your life easier. Why pattern lock your phone when your fingerprint is already a unique pattern that can't be guessed?

While many of the changes may seem subtle, that's really how evolution works. The features that make your life better stays, the ones that don't get tweaked, or they get dropped. Who cares if it's called iOS 8, or iOS 7.4.3.3453 - you're missing the forest for the twig. Lord knows, I honestly can't tell the difference between Firefox 30 vs. 15 and honestly I don't care.

If you're in the beta program, awesome. Keep testing those features and if they suck, tell Apple so they can tweak it before final release. If you're just sitting outside the walls and are complaining about missing features, make yourself useful and be a developer, or go enhance Android.

In all seriousness, I love how my phone and MBP just works, whereas my friend is constantly working on his PC instead of with it. I simply don't have the time for that... but whatever floats your boat I guess.

 

[C DM]

Read about half the thread, and honestly the whiners/nit pickers just don't get it. Themes, boot logos, etc.? Seriously? That is like being on Facebook and wondering why it doesn't let you personalize your page like MySpace. The point is to consume the information that flows in; the point isn't to try and figure out how to use the device.

I remember when I was on MySpace, jumping from page to page = spending a couple of minutes how to navigate other peoples' personalized pages. What a waste of time that was. Now, if you're out and you want someone to take a picture of you; when you hand them the iPhone most people will instinctively know how to take a picture with it - and that's why simplicity is better.

Here's the deal, in our new information-filled world, iOS is meant to enhance your life. If you're coming from a previous iOS device, it will improve your life incrementally. If you're coming from something, probably drastically. The platform is meant to save you time, and allow developers to create bigger, better things that will make your life easier. Why pattern lock your phone when your fingerprint is already a unique pattern that can't be guessed?

While many of the changes may seem subtle, that's really how evolution works. The features that make your life better stays, the ones that don't get tweaked, or they get dropped. Who cares if it's called iOS 8, or iOS 7.4.3.3453 - you're missing the forest for the twig. Lord knows, I honestly can't tell the difference between Firefox 30 vs. 15 and honestly I don't care.

If you're in the beta program, awesome. Keep testing those features and if they suck, tell Apple so they can tweak it before final release. If you're just sitting outside the walls and are complaining about missing features, make yourself useful and be a developer, or go enhance Android.

In all seriousness, I love how my phone and MBP just works, whereas my friend is constantly working on his PC instead of with it. I simply don't have the time for that... but whatever floats your boat I guess.

I completely agree about it all and the versions numbers and all that, but thought I'd point out that you could tell the difference between Firefox 15 and 30, it's like the difference between iOS 5 and 8--definitely noticeable things. Purely a footnote type of remark just for fun.

 

[Tanegashima]

I think iOS 8 was one of the best announcements Apple have made in recent years. I thought iOS 7 was brilliant too since it brought a much needed ovevhaul to the visual style.

Internally, iOS 7 bought the foundations, iOS 8 bought the goodies.

People don't get it, the features on iOS 8 were mainly directed at dev's...

Until dev's make app's for iOS 8, and put them on the store (which should not be happening before iOS 8 RTM), everyday users won't notice a huge difference, obviously...

I think everybody nitpicking and complaining has been spoiled... for me, that I am portuguese, just having portuguese dictation working (and working better than google's), is huge! I still have to talk english to Siri tough...

So... developers around here (if there are any)... our bodies are ready!

 

[bushman4]

Not the most exciting however not all the features been revealed yet!!! Apple not going to give up everything 3 months before iOS8 is released We could possibly see a payment solution or gaming cspabilies that are not being shown yet

 

[C DM]

Not the most exciting however not all the features been revealed yet!!! Apple not going to give up everything 3 months before iOS8 is released We could possibly see a payment solution or gaming cspabilies that are not being shown yet

Realistically only something that might relate to something new in iPhone 6.

 

[BillyMatt87]

Internally, iOS 7 bought the foundations, iOS 8 bought the goodies.

People don't get it, the features on iOS 8 were mainly directed at dev's...

Until dev's make app's for iOS 8, and put them on the store (which should not be happening before iOS 8 RTM), everyday users won't notice a huge difference, obviously...

I think everybody nitpicking and complaining has been spoiled... for me, that I am portuguese, just having portuguese dictation working (and working better than google's), is huge! I still have to talk english to Siri tough...

So... developers around here (if there are any)... our bodies are ready!

I really hope the emphasis on developers for iOS 8 pays off because for major new end-user features, it feels extremely lacking. I was expecting to be underwhelmed with iOS 8, but I'm surprised how little new features it has to offer and how the unrefined the UI remains after having more than a year to work on this particular release. It honestly feels like iOS 7.2 if anything.

I hope iOS 9 has more user features to offer and maybe a design refresh to resemble OS X Yosemite.

 

[goobot]

I really hope the emphasis on developers for iOS 8 pays off because for major new end-user features, it feels extremely lacking. I was expecting to be underwhelmed with iOS 8, but I'm surprised how little new features it has to offer and how the unrefined the UI remains after having more than a year to work on this particular release. It honestly feels like iOS 7.2 if anything.

I hope iOS 9 has more user features to offer and maybe a design refresh to resemble OS X Yosemite.

IOS 8 is bigger than both iOS 6 and 7 so if its anything it's iOS 5.6 if not 8.

 

[mrsketch]

It's funny how people are talking about home screen widgets like they're so great. You people realize that Google has gotten rid of these in Android L right?

Widgets in notification center will be perfect.

 

[orioncrystalice]

My view is like this.. I don't think it's a letdown, it looks like there are tons of great features and things like the way they did widgets but kept it the Apple way are fantastic. But I am/was kind of hoping to see a slight shakeup in the overall look with the advent of the larger screened phones. I realize it wouldn't be huge, to ensure support for the older devices, but I do think they should push the envelope just a little bit further insofar as the overall UI. Is the classic grid classic? Absolutely. Is it possibly starting to need a little touching up though? I think so.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

***Dev part of the presentation gave developers to create apps that can communicate with other apps and apple's apps and system wide, too. So, Dev can create apps to have themes, boot logo, etc.
*** Again, Camera Kit will allow this!!

Devs cannot create system wide mods (themes, boot logo)

 

[BeeGood]

IMO, iOS 8 has the potential to be the second most important update behind iOS 2.

It all hinges on what developers do with it.

 

[PNutts]

Letdown or not, it doesn't seem to have the "buzz" that previous versions did. This forum doesn't have nearly the traffic as the iOS 7 forum did in beta.

 

[valleian]

Letdown or not, it doesn't seem to have the "buzz" that previous versions did. This forum doesn't have nearly the traffic as the iOS 7 forum did in beta.

I think that the perceived lack of buzz is because the OS looks exactly the same. People are more easily wowed by visual changes then internal ones, no matter how important the changes are. People were joining MR just to talk about the new design, they didn't understand what was going on and wanted to know if developers and more devoted fans knew what was happening to their daily driver's OS.

 

[Ubuntu]

I was just wondering whether anyone else shared my views that the features added for the everyday consumer fell below expectations?

To me they focused way too much on developers, and hardly added anything for the average user.
In my opinion it was all just focusing on adding small, little tweaks that should have been a part of iOS for a long time.



For example, the quick reply in messages should have really been added with the addition of the notification centre, and the same with widgets.
I also agree with MKBHD and his tweet: "It's almost poetic how Tim jabs Android for being "behind" then gushes over adopting its features minutes later. #WWDC2014"

Then there's the voice messages with iMessage; all that has done is made creating and sending a voice memo a little easier.
The whole "upgrade" to messages as a whole has just been taken from WhatsApp anyway, as the founder says "very flattering to see Apple "borrow" numerous WhatsApp features into iMessage in iOS 8 #innovation".



I'll be interested to see others' views on this

Fair points regarding the tweets, definitely. However I feel iOS 8 has been pretty good. I think the issue is that many of its key features are for developers (things like extensions for example) so end users will only see the benefits once third party apps adopt the new features.

 

[IFRIT]

It's funny how people are talking about home screen widgets like they're so great. You people realize that Google has gotten rid of these in Android L right?

Widgets in notification center will be perfect.

Only lock screen widgets and these have been replaced with iOS style lock screen notifications.

 

[C DM]

I think that the perceived lack of buzz is because the OS looks exactly the same. People are more easily wowed by visual changes then internal ones, no matter how important the changes are. People were joining MR just to talk about the new design, they didn't understand what was going on and wanted to know if developers and more devoted fans knew what was happening to their daily driver's OS.

yup that's fairly accurate in my opinion.

 

[Paddle1]

I really hope the emphasis on developers for iOS 8 pays off because for major new end-user features, it feels extremely lacking. I was expecting to be underwhelmed with iOS 8, but I'm surprised how little new features it has to offer and how the unrefined the UI remains after having more than a year to work on this particular release. It honestly feels like iOS 7.2 if anything.

I hope iOS 9 has more user features to offer and maybe a design refresh to resemble OS X Yosemite.

How? From a user point of view iOS 6 and 7 are basically just iOS 5, with a few small new features. iOS 8 brings more features that change the way you use the devices.

 

[Nevaborn]

iOS 8 has some amazing features, The customisation for notifications and control centre are great additions, and all the new shortcuts to processes.

There are features in iOS that Android are now starting to try and announce... it has not been this way around in a long time.

 

[DarkJaye]

When the deluge of app updates starts happening at the official release and onwards towards Christmas is when people will really realize the potential of iOS 8. When all their notifications are actionable, when all their apps can share data via the standard document APIs, when all their apps create useful widgets in notification center and actions in the share sheet, and when all their apps implement handoff support for seamless transitions between devices is when the depth of what iOS 8 enables will really become apparent to end users.

 

[BillyMatt87]

How? From a user point of view iOS 6 and 7 are basically just iOS 5, with a few small new features. iOS 8 brings more features that change the way you use the devices.

I wish they would fix the music app. The artist browsing view is still terrible, I don't want have to scroll through an entire collection to find the song I want. Just bring back the iOS 6 (and below) functionality that was unnecessarily removed from the iOS 7/8 music app.

 

[sflomenb]

When the deluge of app updates starts happening at the official release and onwards towards Christmas is when people will really realize the potential of iOS 8. When all their notifications are actionable, when all their apps can share data via the standard document APIs, when all their apps create useful widgets in notification center and actions in the share sheet, and when all their apps implement handoff support for seamless transitions between devices is when the depth of what iOS 8 enables will really become apparent to end users.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[0000757]

I also agree with MKBHD and his tweet: "It's almost poetic how Tim jabs Android for being "behind" then gushes over adopting its features minutes later. #WWDC2014"

Don't forget that the lead software guy from Google did the exact same thing during Android L's announcement. He talked about how iPhone was just now getting features Android has had since 2009 and makes several jabs at iOS...only to then clearly take features from iOS such as how notifications are handled, iOS 7's CarPlay, iOS 8's Continuity, the Apple TV, Do Not Disturb (on the core OS level), etc.

Anyways, I don't think iOS 8 is a letdown. The thing is that we really can't see how good iOS 8 is until developers update their apps with the new APIs. Most of what makes iOS 8 such a great release is that it's giving developers loads of new ways to develop and integrate their apps with iOS. There are plenty of welcomed OS features but a majority of the big stuff is in the hands of developers updating their apps.

I feel like once the iOS 8 GM and the app updates come round you'll be more impressed, seeing all the new APIs integrated.

Sure, it's not as big a leap as iOS 5 or iOS 7 were, but it's still a HUGE upgrade, just mostly behind the scenes and giving apps more open-endedness, rather than big up-front user features.

I'd call it a big update. Not as big as iOS 5 or 7 were, but still a very big update.

 

[Autosaver]

iOS 8 to iOS 7 is to how iOS 6 was to iOS 5. They're merely upgrades instead of a flat out new OS. I really wouldn't expect anything revolutionary until iOS X. iOS 9 is probably going to be the final "complete" version of iOS 7 while iOS X will be a brand new OS on the iPhone 7 that changes up a lot.

 

[kerrikins]

Letdown or not, it doesn't seem to have the "buzz" that previous versions did. This forum doesn't have nearly the traffic as the iOS 7 forum did in beta.

Non-developers could install iOS7, so that's probably partly why.

 

[Deasnutz]

It's a letdown, no question. The jump from 7 to 8 is not like the last few jumps. I'll still enjoy it.