iOS 8 - What we know, what we want to know, and what we want.

iOS 8

What We Know
What We Want to Know
What We Want

What We Know
iOS is Apples world-wide operating system that is on every one of their mobile devices, and their Apple TV.
I personally have been using iOS for a long time, and have used each and every one of the operating systems' updates, starting with iOS 1.0
With the last iOS update, iOS 7.1.1 Apple continued on their biggest changed release to iOS yet, iOS 7.
iOS 7 had a big change to how it looked and felt to use iOS. With a new, light, flat theme to the whole system.
With iOS 8, that theme is still here, but fresher. With new add-ons to the whole system including a new keyboard tweak called QuickType, Continuity, Interactive Notifications, iCloud Drive, and Family Sharing.
There is much more, but I'll explain much as I can, as quickly as I can for the sake of it being Midnight while writing this.

QuickType
QuickType is Apple's answer to many Jailbreak tweaks that allowed better predictions. Many will say that it is another way of Apple copying Android, which it true, but keep in mind that Apple is only complying to it's customers wishes. Seems the customers want an Apple-made Android device to me.
Like Android's keyboard, QuickType adds three (on hand sized devices) prediction buttons to the top of the keyboard for a user to press, which will finish the current word being typed and add a space if desired. The "dictionary" will be the same, showing words that are frequently used first. The only difference between QuickType and iOS 7 is that instead of a backspace to show the prediction buttons, it'll show up as you are typing.

Continuity
Continuity is an "original idea" too. Sending your texts (SMS) from your Mac, iPod, or iPad, answering a phone call on your Mac, and maybe using third-party apps, like possibly using an iPhone/iPod with Notability to draw zoomed in, without a small window on your iPad, so you haave a full-screen preview.
Basically, Continuity is multi-device app sharing.

Interactive Notifications
Interactive Notifications will be a big hit with iOS 8 I think. These are exactly what you'd expect too, interactive notifications. They are already on Mac, where if someone sent you a Facebook/Skype/Twitter message, a window would pop up for you to type in and press send, then it'd fly off screen.
Basically this is like pressing "Share to Facebook" from within your iPod/iPhone/iPad Photos app. A popup appears for you to write and post in, then you tap send in the top right, and it disappears. This could come in handy, as if you are playing some game, like Clash of Clans for example, and you get a message in it, or some kind of notification, it'll popup a small window of the app for you to do whatever you need to, then once you're done, it'll go away.

iCloud Drive
The iCloud Drive is basically what you think. MEGA, MediaFire, DropBox, and other drives are the same. Except with iCloud Drive, it's integrated with your device. Imagine an extra free 5GB (really 4.5) added to your iPhone's storage! You can also put "any file type" in there to view on any iDevice. (according to Apple)

Family Sharing
Family Sharing is Apple's reply to households full of iDevices that most likely have individual accounts, and one shared account for buying stuff. With Family Sharing, all those individual accounts (6 of them anyway) can join a Family Sharing group where everyone's purchases are viewable, and downloadable from anyone in the group. This way, no one else can spend your money, but can still use what you spend that money on.

Jailbreaking
This is a shaky topic, but I'm sure with some freedom users could get tweaks to allow you to control much more of iOS 8 than you already could. Including a tweak to add words to the top of your keyboard to press anytime the keyboard is open. Tweaks to make Siri read your texts to you.

Speaking of Siri, another add-on when your iDevice is plugged in is that Siri can be activated by saying "Hey, Siri!", but back to Jailbreak tweaks.

Even a tweak to secretly open apps in school or at work by using Continuity to open an app from your iPhone/iPad on a school/work iPad by having the tweak send a false notification from the selected app on your device.
So much more will happen too, I can see it.

What We Want to Know
What else is there? I'm sure we have a lot of questions, like:
- What new devices there will be with this release? - Little bit of an answer here, there won't be any new iPods. but there will a new iPhone, and a new iPad (Cloud/Air 2/Mist -something like that)
- When will it be here? Again, little answers... Apple says this Fall. It'll be more specific as we get closer, just like with iOS 7.
- What upgrades will there be to the hardware part of the new devices?
- What else will be new? Apple has said something about Health Apps, but I haven't researched them.
- Will Siri have anything awesome yet?
- Will that SloMo thingy on iPhone 5 be on other devices too?
- Will Apple update their iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, Keynote, and Pages apps?

Post all your questions in the comments and I'll try my best to answer them, or comment on them.

What We Want
People have complained about things in iOS alot. Another thing we all complain about though is what isn't in iOS.
I have a few ideas, but I really don't want to rant on the subject, because this is an informational post. I'll just say some stuff about things we can all agree upon for iOS.

1. iOS needs some more customization - I jailbroke by iPod Touch 5th Gen just to get a Purple Keyboard (and some free in-app purchases). But I think along with a colored keyboard, Apple should allow us to customize how our devices look. The furthest they've gone is with colored phones. But third parties had to make cases before this year, this fifth year of iDevices.

2. With things like this, instead of reading our posts, Apple should have group chats about iOS - Self explaining really. Apple usually reads about ideas for iOS, and watches videos of Jailbreak tweaks to reach it's customers ideas. They add features accordingly. If we could just tell them what we want and get their direct, nearly instant, feedback, we could reply back to that, until we came upon an agreement. Not find out why they couldn't add it until they don't.

3. Close everything - This one is a Jailbreak tweak, it's been around for years. Since iOS 4, multitasking has been around. Anytime you got a notification, you could switch to that, then double-press the home button to pull up a list of apps you'd recently had open, and could switch back to what you were doing without restarting the app, this used ram, but then again, anything that could update to iOS 4 had way more ram that the others. But, since then, and still now you have to close one app at a time on non-iOS7- devices and up to three at a time on iOS 7. With the tweak, you could close all the apps and free up ram with the touch of one button.

4. All-Around widgets - On Android (again, this is how Apple is starting to change, because we want things like this) the Facebook app has message circles that are around your screen whenever you have conversations open on it. You can tap the 'bubble' to open the conversation and close it so you can talk to people while watching a movie, playing Flappy Bird, or making a song on your phone. If Apple integrated things like this (which Continuity is sort of doing, where if you get a Facebook message, it'll popup if you have the setting turned on)

There are lots more, but I'll save your time and wrap this up.

Wrap-Up
With iOS 8 there are lots of new things, and still, some things missing. But, still it's a great update, and I think everyone will love it. Did anyone notice that the power off slider changed between iOS 7.0 to 7.1? Those little things are what starts to make the OS great. iOS 8 will have it's issues, but always, always, will have it's greatnesses.

Tell me what you think could be changed in this, tell me more information and I'll probably add a quoted reply, and possibly a quote in the post with my same reply. Ask me questions! I'll give my whole brain's worth of info! Give me feedback! I love feedback. Feedback, good or bad, will always improve my posts.

For anyone who read this whole thing. Thank you. My bantering about Apple is always ready to burst out of me, so my limited posts like this are hard to make for me. Thanks for reading it. If you don''t understand anything, PM me for clarification.

~burntscarr