By Staff Writer: Kyra Moen

Last month Apple released the new update IOS 8 and I must say it wasn’t that exciting until I really looked up some of the new capabilities. Some of the features that came with the new update are useful and nice to have although some things I find unnecessary and maybe even annoying.

IOS 8 introduced many new things to Apple products. The ability to reply quickly to messages when the banner shows up at the top of your screen is something I readily use and am very grateful for. I also enjoy being able to see what apps I have use the most battery life. The app that uses the most is one I barely even use.

The new additions to the camera and photo editing process are also pretty helpful. Instead of having to get an app for a camera timer, Apple finally upgraded to have its own. Sure having more time settings would be helpful, this is decent start. The camera feature I will personally never make use of is the time-lapse photography setting but I’m sure some more creative people out there will make use of this feature. Photo editing processes were altered as well to include things such as light and color enabling the user to adjust many aspects of their photo rather than just throw on a mediocre filter.

There is still something I wish Apple had included in this update. This is a minor discrepancy but a thing that should have easily been possible. The addition of new emojis. Apple users have been stuck with using the same emojis for quite some time now and it would be nice to have some fresh and updates emoji material to send to friends. Another discrepancy I have, a very small annoyance, but it actually presents a problem, the random capitalization of words while texting. It autocorrects many words I type to be completely capitalized. It even autocorrects words I spelt correctly to spelling that isn’t correct. Though the bar that comes up to help you text, the one with words you can choose from, does come in handy for a quick sneaky text during class.

Overall, the IOS 8 update was a success. There will always be bugs to sort out and things that are unneeded or went not addressed but for the most part, I have more pros to mention than cons.