Tips

Handoff is a highly touted new feature of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite that allows for seamless continuity between your devices. For example, if you start an email on your iPad, Handoff will allow you to pass the draft to your iMac and continue writing it there. Handoff will also work with Safari, Notes, Keynote, Numbers, Contacts, Calendar, Pages, Messages and Reminders, and it is open to developers as well, so it will soon work with third party apps.

If you've been having trouble setting up Handoff, you aren't alone; there has been a lot of confusion about it over the past several days. Here are a few potential reasons for your frustration:

Complete specifications and system details can be viewed all in one place with the jailbreak tweak iDevice Wise. Once installed, there's no app or configuration to deal with.

Simply navigate to Settings -> iDevice Wise and scroll through the specs organized by section. Everything from Firmware Version to Capability Information, Wireless, Battery and more can be viewed instantly.

Apple added the ability to share your whereabouts with other iMessage users in the release of iOS 8. You can choose to share your current location once via text message or share your location in every text sent for an hour, one day or indefinitely. Here's how to share your location with another person, or how stop sharing your location in case you accidentally enabled the feature:

Share your current location one time:

1. Open your Messages app.
2. Select the the message thread you want to use (This also works for group messages).
3. Tap the round i icon in the upper right hand corner.
4. Tap Send My Current Location.

This will send your current location to the person or to all the people using iMessage in that thread. The "Details" section is also where you can leave a group message, delete another person you added from a group message or change the name of a group message. From here you can also choose to share your location multiple times throughout the day.

Family Sharing is one of the more useful new features found in iOS 8. It allows family members to share purchases made on the App Store and iTunes, and it also allows one person to control those purchases from a single credit card. You can set up the Family Sharing option by opening the App Store app after your first install iOS 8 and following the prompts, or you can go to Settings > iCloud > Family.

Family Sharing allows you to add up to six devices to your account. You can add additional devices after the initial setup by also going to Settings > iCloud > Family from the master device. Once you're inside the Family settings, just tap "Add Family Member..." and enter a family member's name or email address.

The evolution of the mobile phone is odd when you think about it. We went from wanting smaller phones to wanting larger displays, and we chose text as our preferred means of communication over video and voice calls. So why did Apple add the ability to send voice messages in iOS 8 if people are just going text each other anyway? Some would argue that Apple added voice messages because it is a popular feature on WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger and other third-party messaging services, but I like to think of it as the end of the dinosaur known as Voice Mail.

How many times have you had a text conversation where you said, "I can't explain this in text... I'm going to call you". Or how many times have you wanted to leave someone a message but didn't want to deal with the long process of calling them and leaving a voice mail? This is where a voice messages comes in. Thanks to iOS 8, iPhone users can now quickly record and send a voice message without the need to call someone.