Photographic camera, Slo-Mo Recording, iOS 8

The iPhone 6 Plus is equipped with an 8-megapixel iSight camera with ane.5µ pixels. It uses a 5-chemical element lens with f/2.2 aperture and is powered by an all-new sensor. What's more, Apple tree has implemented phase detection autofocus, or what they telephone call "Focus Pixels," for speedier focusing and optical image stabilization – a characteristic not plant in the smaller iPhone 6.

In my experience, the iPhone six Plus is able to lock focus a fleck quicker than the iPhone 5s but not drastically so. As is typically the case with photos shot on a mobile device, they look really incredible until you transfer them over to a reckoner. It also probably doesn't help that I'chiliad accepted to shooting images with a higher-end mirrorless photographic camera and just rely on my mobile device if it's the only option with me at the time, but I digress.

That said, the image quality I've seen from the iPhone 6 Plus is all the same corking for a camera phone and demonstrates how far cell phone cameras take come up over the by several years. The optical prototype stabilization will no doubtfulness be an asset when shooting in low lite or to those with unsteady easily but information technology's the added manual controls in iOS viii that I'm fifty-fifty more than excited about.

Apple's camera app has been pretty limited upward to this point in terms of user control. I go that most people simply desire a signal-and-shoot experience where the camera handles all of the difficult piece of work. And to its credit, the camera usually does get it right; but non always. Sometimes it'll over-betrayal or under-expose a shot or sometimes you lot simply want a chip more than control.

With iOS viii, yous now have a manual exposure slider and the ability to lock the exposure / focus right in the master camera interface. Peradventure now I'll exist able to retire my third-party photographic camera app once and for all. If you're interested in learning more about your smartphone's photographic camera and how to become the most out of it, I suggest y'all cheque these 10 Tips for Skilful Smartphone Photography.

As for video, the iPhone 6 Plus can capture 1080p clips at thirty fps or 60 fps and irksome motility clips at 120 fps or 240 fps. At that place'due south likewise built-in stabilization when recording videos which works surprisingly well. I didn't have a ton of opportunities to endeavor out the video recording capabilities but hopefully these sample clips will give you an idea of what the iPhone half dozen Plus is capable of.

iOS 8

iOS 8 has been described equally the biggest change in the history of Apple'south mobile operating organization, although y'all may non realize information technology at first glance. While non visually equally dramatic of a change as iOS vii was, at that place'south a bit more functionality packed into iOS eight once you start digging into information technology – peculiarly on the larger iPhone 6 Plus.

I'll reserve a total-diddled evaluation of iOS 8 for a later date although there are some aspects that I do want to hitting on here today, nearly of which are exclusive to Apple'southward new phablet.

Third-political party keyboards are at present officially supported in Apple's mobile OS for the showtime fourth dimension. Most of the popular third-party keyboard apps accept already arrived including Swype, SwiftKey and Fleksy. Having never tried a third-party lath, I randomly selected Swype to experiment with.

I understood the general concept behind Swype simply yet needed to consult a tutorial on YouTube to fully grasp exactly how information technology works. After a bit of practice, I can certainly see what all of the fuss is about and likely won't be switching dorsum to the default Apple keyboard anytime soon.

That'south probably a expert thing as Apple didn't exactly exercise the all-time job with its iOS 8 keyboard.

One of the common complaints with Apple tree'south keyboard on the iPhone 5s and previous was the size of the keys. People with large fingers often institute it difficult to blazon efficiently in portrait manner because they keys were so small and cramped together. Landscape was a bit better and with the added real estate of the iPhone half-dozen Plus, surely information technology meant the keys would be larger, correct?

Well, no. Instead of offer larger keys, Apple took the existing keyboard and added a bank of mutual punctuation keys on the right and editing shortcut keys on the left. While that may be user-friendly for some, I would have just preferred the standard keyboard with larger keys.

Apple did get quite a scrap right with iOS viii. With the iPhone 6 Plus, for case, users can rotate the telephone to landscape view on the domicile screen. Additionally, Apple has added dual pane views in a number of apps including Post, Messages, Calendar, Atmospheric condition and Stocks which gives the phone more of a tablet feel by increasing productivity.

Other changes include a condensed Notification Center, Family unit Share, Spotlight search that can now tap into more sources and a Wellness app that serves as the hub for all things health and fettle, only to name a few. The latter likely won't see much use right now simply will come full circle in one case the Apple tree Scout arrives early on side by side twelvemonth.