“iOS 7 and iOS 8 feel like two halves of the same update, two equally necessary steps in the journey from Old iOS to Modern iOS. iOS 7 was a facelift, a new release that added some nice user- and developer- facing features but was overwhelmingly focused on changing the way existing parts of the system looked,” Andrew Cunningham writes for Ars Technica. “iOS 8 freshens up the underpinnings of the operating system, opening an unprecedented number of things up to third parties without sacrificing the things that define iOS. iOS 7 was transformative on an aesthetic level; iOS 8 is transformative on a functional level.”
“With this release, Apple is trying to make additions that developers and power users want without upsetting people who come to iOS specifically because of its consistency and simplicity. It’s telling that just about every major iOS 8 feature can be disabled or ignored, and that big transformative features like third-party extensions are hidden from view by default,” Cunningham writes. “A surface-level glance at iOS 8 suggests an operating system that isn’t all that different from iOS 7. Look just a little deeper, though, and you’ll see just how different it is.”
Reams more in the typically massive and comprehensive full review – recommended, as usual – here.