[NOISE]
[MUSIC]
Forget about the iPhone 6. The most exciting iPhone news this year is IOS 8. Apple software update that will roll out features this fall.
There are dozens of enhancements and tweaks and brand new features coming in this update.
[MUSIC]
But in this top five, I'm gonna boil it down to the handful that really matter.
Starting off at number five, Airdrop.
Apple gave us Airdrop and iOS 7 as a way to let users transfer files using their iPhones and their iPads and frankly to address Samsung's whole phone bumping ad campaign.
But to everyone's shock and frustration you couldn't actually use the feature to transfer files from your phone to your computer, or the other way around.
You shoot a great video on your phone, and then you wanna edit it over on your computer, and you have to email it to yourself like some kind of cave person!
Well, Apple's fixed that now, thus finally making Airdrop useful.
A legitimate innovation comes in at number four.
Handoff.
Here's Apple's closed ecosystem working to your advantage.
You're on your Macbook or your iPad and a call comes in on your iPhone and because all your Apple devices can see each other, your iPhone will hand off the call to whatever you're using.
You can answer your calls on your Macbook or apply it to messages on your iPad or continue working on an email on your phone.
And your laptop is back at the office.
Once everything is interchangeable, maybe life will become a little easier.
Probably not.
But maybe.
At number three, actionable notifications.
Right now, your iPhone gets a text message and a little notification appears.
And then you tap it, and then that takes you into the messages app.
And you can post a reply.
And then if you're me, you try really hard to remember what you were doing before that message came through.
But in iOS 8 you can message back right from the notification without jumping in and out of apps.
It makes so much since that Android did it too, two years ago.
Come on Apple.
Coming in at number 2. Family sharing.
Whether you married with children or single with cats iOS8 will let you share your iTunes purchases with up to six family members.
That includes apps, music, videos, iBooks, everything.
No more juggling account logins to re-download stuff that you already bought.
Once you designate your family members, everyone's catalog of iTunes purchases can be shared across your devices, even the embarrassing crap.
Finally, my vote for the number one feature of iOS 8 worth getting excited over: a better keyboard.
Not only will the new keyboard in iOS 8 offer selectable predictive text options.
LIke every other smartphone but it will now support third party keyboard software that users can buy in the app store.
You wanna have one of those futuristic swipe keyboards, go for it.
Custom keys, alternative layouts, extra emojis, just do it.
Your keyboard can now be just as obnoxious as anything Android has dreamed of.
Yep.
Not sure if Steve Jobs would have gone for this one, but if it makes it easier for me to curse on my iPhone, I'm all for it.
[NOISE] So there you go, 5 reasons to get excited about updating your iPhone software this fall.
More on the ins and outs of iOS8, head over to CNet, and for more top 5's from me, top5.cnet.com.
I'm Donald Bell, thanks for watching.
[MUSIC]
