It took quite some time to get around to updating to iOS 8 because I had more than 2,000 photos on my phone and the update says it needs at least 5 GB to download. I had to archive the photos off the phone (sadly, this means I have to use a second machine to do this instead of eating up 1/5th of cloud storage), and then individually select photos to delete them off the phone. I'm sure there is a better way, like a batch delete? I have not found it. After manually deleting 1200 photos, I had enough storage space on the iPhone 5 to download the update. Seriously, I have to tap onto each photo just to delete it? Double ugh.
I even let the download run overnight. WTF would add an "Install" prompt to the download. I mean, why would you want to just download the update and not install it? Anyhow. The actual update took a lot longer than I thought it would. 46% adoption rate from iOS 7 to iOS 8 isn't terrible. It would probably be higher if the update wasn't filled with bloatware.
I don't think I want to upgrade to the latest hardware version. The iPhone 5 is large enough, even with the rugged case I have it in. I think I'll wait until the 6's durability issues are resolved.
Things I turned off, disabled, or ignored post-update:
Tips App - pretty damn useless. Can't even delete the app either. Maybe a user guide for the iOS would be helpful, but this looks to be more push content oriented.
Health App - there is no way I am going to input my vitals, health or exercise stats individually every day or activate each trackable stat individually. Even with app-to-app connectivity, where you can allow read/write permissions between a 3rd party app the dashboard display is not helpful. Each item takes up a block that is a third of the phone's screen. How useful is that dashboard going to be if I have everything tracked from the MyFitnessPal App, or worse, if I ever get a Fitbit unit for tracking sleep cycles. Of all the time sucking apps that Apple has built, this one sucks up more setup time than playing EA's The Simpson's Tapped Out game. Solid green blocks with a white background and red menu text. It's like a freakin Xmas tree on my phone. So f***ing gaudy.
Podcasts App - turn off Download Episodes and turn on "Only Download on Wi-Fi". It's not a bad app. It does the same job as an RSS reader for the same content. It has the same user interface as Music and Video; so at least Apple is starting to be consistent with this now.
Hey Siri - While bypassing the home button may seem like fun; while activated, Siri can be activated from not you and instead from an audio or video-based voice prompt from a live stream which can be annoying because Siri's icon prompt will show up in the middle of your video content. Although, in my case, this feature seems to be broken already. It's enabled, but I think Siri is ignoring me.
I haven't activated Handoff (what Google already lets you do between browsing on Chrome and playing vids on YouTube) because I don't own other Apple devices.
Bluetooth and Background App Refresh (battery eaters) are still turned off.
Under Privacy / Advertising - Limit Ad Tracking is grayed out for me. Not sure why that is or what other settings are causing this.
There's another option under Privacy called HomeKit, this is for other apps that request access to home data. I have no idea what it does. The car is still sporting a tape deck, so I don't think it'll be joining the Internet of Things any time soon.
