iPhone OS 8.1 (iOS 8.1) with Apple Pay, SMS Relay, and a series of new and exciting features, has become available for iPhone and iPad users starting today. The new version of Apple’s operating system brings back Camera Roll, a feature missed by most iOS users, enables Apple Pay on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, enables sending texts from desktop and portable Macs and allows users access to the iCloud Photo Library Beta. To update, users need to access the Software Update settings on their iOS device. The update has 117 megabytes.
Apple first announced its new mobile operating system version on the 16th, just one day after Google’s launch of the Android 5.0 Lollipop, at its Retina Mac and iPad event. The new version of the operating system comes with a series of bug fixes in Messages, WiFi, Bluetooth, screen rotation and the Safari browser. Let’s see a short list of what’s new in Apple’s latest operating system:
- Apple Pay support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (US only)
- iCloud Photo Library beta, Camera Roll when it is not enabled, alerts when running out of free space before recording time lapse videos
- The ability to send and receive SMS messages on Mac and iPad, various text message related bug fixes
- Bug fixes related to WiFi, Bluetooth, screen rotation
- Added option to select between 2G, 3G or LTE for cellular data
- A series of accessibility improvements
- Enabled Health Kit to access data in the background
- Fixed issue that prevented the use of OS X Caching Server for iOS updates
The latest version of the iOS is available as a free upgrade for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s, iPad Air, iPad 4, iPad 3 and iPad 2, Retina iPad mini, 1st gen iPad mini and the 5th generation iPod touch. iOS 8.1 is available as an Over The Air update for these devices.