New things you can only discover if you read the user guide

Sep 21, 2014 19:58 GMT  ·  By

iOS 8 looks a lot like iOS 7, but below the surface there are some interesting new things that make it better and bring some great functionality. All of the things on this list will make it easier for you to play with the native apps or make them more personal. 

The guys over at Lifehacker made a top ten secret features of iOS 8. We do not agree they are secret because Apple has talked about these on different occasions and most of them have showed up in one form or another on tech blogs, even here on Softpedia News, since the Beta versions of iOS 8 were out. However, this top ten is a good reminder of the stuff you can use now, so it's worth revising them again.

Old apps, new capabilities

The Notes app is supercharged. This was the app that Apple ever so slightly ignored over time. With iOS 8, we don't have too much of a design change, but there's some new, cool functionality built-in. Did you know you can add Rich Text, Videos and even Animated Gifs in Notes? All you have to do is copy the files from your photo library and paste them into the note.

Who likes to type long credit card numbers into Safari text fields? That is annoying. Sure you can copy and paste that 16-digit number from a note, but it would not be safe to keep them like that. Another option is to use an app like 1Password, but that gets even more complicated.

The easy way to add your credit card number is to scan it in. Just take a photo of the card when that option shows up at the bottom of the screen.

Wouldn't you love to keep some photos private? And we're not talking about having them stolen from your iCloud account, but keeping them away from the Moments, Collections and Years in your Photos app. All you have to do is tap and hold a picture and a menu will show up offering the option to "Hide Photo."

Saving battery

Do you have issues seeing stuff on your screen because you are color blind? iOS 8 can help with that, too. Just set your screen to a Greyscale Mode. We have no info on that, but it may take less battery, so it's a good thing for others. To enable Greyscale, just go to the Settings app - Accessibility.

And the most important part of iOS 8 is related to battery. The new OS will not drain less battery than the previous one, but it can tell exactly how much battery each app has used in the past 24 hours or 7 days.

Why does this matter? Well, for example, when you see Dropbox taking over 20% in that list, it means it uploads your photos in the background so you might want to disable that feature of the app.

Check the rest of the tips on this page and let us know if you have any tricks yourself so everyone can use them.