iPhone 5S and iOS8 queries from Android user

[Gino Guillermo]

Hiya. I'm kind of tempted to get an iPhone (the 5S) now that iOS8 is out. Heard of some new features & improvements so i wanted to find out here about some other things:

1. Photos - I found out on my iPad Air post-iOS8 that it can only send a limited amount of photos and share/forward it to services such as Mail, Facebook, Flickr and pretty much that's it. Can't even send it to Google Drive, Whatsapp or Dropbox. is this true for the iPhone too? Do i still need to go to the app itself to upload such files?
2. Handoff - I have a Macbook Air with the latest OS X Mavericks. Can i now send files (such as .pdf, .doc, .mp4 or .mp3 format) from my Macbook via Airdrop to an iPhone easily? I noticed there is an Airplay option when you right click on a file.
3. Music player - I heard the only improvements is the ability to delete entire albums (and same goes with individual songs?) via a swipe action? Is this correct? Is creating a Playlist still as easy (i.e. on-the-fly) as before or is it faster & better? Still no customisable equalisers? Can i set a song as a ringtone without using iTunes?
4. Widgets & Apps - I am interested to know whether it is now possible to answer messages from 3rd-party apps such as Whatsapp, Viber, Kik or Facebook Messenger directly from the lock screen or Notifications area on iOS8? And can one customise a widget that is built-in on the Notifications area? (e.g. Weather, Stocks, News, Wikipedia, Youtube, etc.)
5. Camera - Does the camera have minor improvements when it comes to stability & clarity? And does the 5S record in mono or full stereo? And in what format? And are the videos compressed in a way that i can share/upload them easily to Google Drive, Youtube or Dropbox?
6. Is there an offline mode for Safari so i can still read what i have read earlier even without 3G/4G/Wifi signal?
7. Security - I know Apple is prime in this topic. But if i lost/misplace my iPhone or if it got stolen can i remotely wipe the data of my phone and retrieve that data via iCloud? e.g. A very important text message or a .pdf file sent via whatsapp.

Would appreciate any advice please. Thank you.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Hiya. I'm kind of tempted to get an iPhone (the 5S) now that iOS8 is out. Heard of some new features & improvements so i wanted to find out here about some other things:

Okay

1. Photos - I found out on my iPad Air post-iOS8 that it can only send a limited amount of photos and share/forward it to services such as Mail, Facebook, Flickr and pretty much that's it.

More than likely, the attachment size limit will depend on the your ISP, email provider, and/or the services you mentioned.

Can't even send it to Google Drive, Whatsapp or Dropbox. is this true for the iPhone too?

That is NOT true. You can upload files to Google Drive ad Dropbox easily. I'm not a WhatsApp user so I'll stay mum.

Do i still need to go to the app itself to upload such files?

No, but an associated app could make things simpler.

2. Handoff - I have a Macbook Air with the latest OS X Mavericks. Can i now send files (such as .pdf, .doc, .mp4 or .mp3 format) from my Macbook via Airdrop to an iPhone easily? I noticed there is an Airplay option when you right click on a file.

In my experience, AirDrop works well for sending files to another iOS device, but I have yet to use AirDrop to transfer files to and from my MacBook.

3. Music player - I heard the only improvements is the ability to delete entire albums (and same goes with individual songs?) via a swipe action? Is this correct? Is creating a Playlist still as easy (i.e. on-the-fly) as before or is it faster & better? Still no customisable equalisers? Can i set a song as a ringtone without using iTunes?

Improvement? It's a music player. If you're dissatisfied with the native music player, download a third party player.

4. Widgets & Apps - I am interested to know whether it is now possible to answer messages from 3rd-party apps such as Whatsapp, Viber, Kik or Facebook Messenger directly from the lock screen or Notifications area on iOS8? And can one customise a widget that is built-in on the Notifications area? (e.g. Weather, Stocks, News, Wikipedia, Youtube, etc.)

If you're expecting it to be like Android, you will be disappointed. Having said that, various apps do allow for widget use via the notification center.

5. Camera - Does the camera have minor improvements when it comes to stability & clarity? And does the 5S record in mono or full stereo? And in what format? And are the videos compressed in a way that i can share/upload them easily to Google Drive, Youtube or Dropbox?

I do not have an iPhone 5S, but the camera works quite well on my iPhone 5. As great as the native camera is on my device, I do NOT expect it to function to the same degree as my Nikon D90 DSLR camera, but that's Just Me, D...

6. Is there an offline mode for Safari so i can still read what i have read earlier even without 3G/4G/Wifi signal?

I don't know. I don't use Safari for offline reading.

7. Security - I know Apple is prime in this topic. But if i lost/misplace my iPhone or if it got stolen can i remotely wipe the data of my phone and retrieve that data via iCloud? e.g. A very important text message or a .pdf file sent via whatsapp.

Would appreciate any advice please. Thank you.

Yes, if the the data was backed up to iCloud.

 

[Gino Guillermo]

Sharing/forwarding a photo to such services in my own experience does not depend on the ISP or broadband service but it might depend on the email service and the service that you are forwarding it to. But, it make me wonder why for 4 years Android is able to do what iOS8 can't i.e. sharing multiple photos to such service with almost no limit?

Having Google Drive and Dropbox on my iPad Air i can confirm i am UNABLE to share/forward my photos from the Photos app to Google Drive or Dropbox directly & freely. (And yet you claim otherwise?)

You said "In my experience, AirDrop works well for sending files to another iOS device, but I have yet to use AirDrop to transfer files to and from my MacBook". This statement is kind of contradicting yourself don't you think? To answer my question: does Airplay allow you to share/forward a file (.pdf, .doc, .mp3, .mp4) from your Macbook Air to your iPhone even with OS X Mavericks? Yes or No?