It isn’t the same shift as iOS 6 to iOS 7. The design isn’t completely redone. Still, Wednesday’s iOS 8 release has caused ripples. As long as they had 4.6 gigabytes of free space on their phones and tablets, which was required to make the update, the update provides mobile device owners with a few features that improve the user experience.

In this review, I will highlight and grade a few key changes.

Messages: A+

Apple made arguably the biggest change to the Messages application since the introduction of the iPhone. Apple brought a slew of new features to iPhone texting.

First of all, Apple added audio messages, allowing users to easily tape themselves talking and send it off to the person with whom they are messaging. On paper, this sounds interesting, albeit useless. In action, though, Apple made the process of sending these audio snippets simple enough — providing multiple routes to listening to and recording them — that they might become as ubiquitous as a simple text message.

To send the messages, a user needs only hold down on a microphone icon then swipe up when they are ready to send. Users can also simply hold the phone up to their ear to listen and reply to messages. Surprisingly, the feature is more useful than simple dictation tools, as it avoids errors of dictating a text and sends more quickly.

If users overcome the awkwardness of speaking small snippets of conversation in a hallway, the only problem will lie in the amount of data used. With networks increasingly limiting and charging heavily for data usage, these messages could eat up data more than typical word messages.

In addition to audio messages, Apple also revamped group messaging, allowing users to add people to, leave and name group chats. Furthermore, Apple has added a “Send My Location” feature that does just that: sends your location in a message.

Have you updated to iOS 8?

• Yes, I love it!
• Yes, but I wish I hadn't
• No, I don't have five GB of free space
• I'm planning on it
• I don't have an iPhone

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Notification Center: B

Apple added a simple, somewhat useful feature to Notification Center: you can now address a notification directly from the banner that pops up when you receive a notification.

This feature is great when you’re in the middle of, for instance, scrolling through all of you photos and trying to have a simple conversation with one person. Instead of having to leave the Photos application, all you have to do is swipe down from a banner to reply and hit send to close the banner.

The issue is when you are in a group message. This feature, ultimately, becomes clunky. Only one message can show up at a time, so if multiple members of the group send a message, the feature becomes useless.

Siri: B

There are two major additions to Siri in iOS 8: Siri can use Shazam to identify songs and is activated when you say “Hey Siri”… while the phone is plugged in.

The Shazam feature is nice, although somewhat clunky. But the update to Siri loses most of its appeal because the feature that allows users to say “Hey Siri” rather than hold down the home button to activate the “personal assistant” is rendered almost useless because you must be plugged in for this feature to work.

Basically, if you are charging your phone before bed at night and want to set an alarm, say “Hey Siri” and you can set an alarm with your voice. Other than that, though, you are stuck having to hold down the home button.

I’m sure this has something to do with battery power, as having Siri be activated by voice probably drains power as the system would always have to be listening, so hopefully Apple can figure out a way to decrease battery consumption to allow this feature, or let users set specific parameters for when the feature can be used.

Weather: B+

The Weather application added 24-hour hour-by-hour forecasts along with other great information. Still, though, Apple’s forecasts don’t provide enough information about storms. You’ll have to go to a third-party application for radar and other useful tools.

QuickType: D

You know those three boxes above the keyboard while you’re typing on iOS 8? Yeah, those are supposed to make texting easier.

The predictive typing feature amounts to an unneeded waste of space. The predictions are usually wrong, and I can simply type more quickly than the predictive typing can predict.

With added use, the feature is supposed to learn your typing patterns, but I’ve been using iOS 8 (a beta version before the release) for a couple of months now, and I don’t feel like it predicts me any better than it did when I first downloaded iOS 8.

If you find the feature useful, more power to you. If not, go to Settings>General>Keyboard and turn predictive off. This will save battery and screen space.

Also, if you want something more from your keyboard, Apple has added third-party support for the keyboard. All you have to do is download an application, similar to the way you add emojis as a language.

Health and Handoff: To be determined

A few of Apple’s new features are impossible to review as things stand.

The brand new Health application has a nice interface and provides a medium for combining all of your health data in to one place, but whether it is a useful tool will require two things: first, most of the data is useful when analyzed over time. Second, the app is built to use third-party apps as sources for data. Currently, only a select few third-party health tools have linked with Apple. As more third parties join the Health application source list, we will be able to give the application a grade.

Also, the Apple Watch should change how the Health application can be used. The Watch will provide most of the data you can display in the application.

Finally, the new handoff feature, which will allow users to start a task on their iPhone, iPad or Mac and simply swipe up from the lock screen on the mobile devices or click an icon in the dock on the computers to work on that task on a different device. With only the iPhone and iPad able to perform this function (Apple’s new computer operating system OS X Yosemite, which will allow Handoff, has not been released to the public for download yet), it’s unfair to judge the new feature.

I can say this, though: I have the beta version of the new Mac operating system, and it allows you to use your computer to make phone calls, using your iPhone as a portal. Pretty cool!

Final Verdict: B+

The new operating system isn’t life-altering. It wasn’t supposed to be. After the radical redesign of iOS 7, Apple simply needed to improve and add features, which is what they did. A few of the additions were subpar, but at the end of the day iOS 8 works better than iOS 7 (although battery life seems to be shorter on the newer iteration). If Health and Handoff prove to be powerful tools, iOS 8 will certainly improve, so this grade is tentative.