Take Photo

I was going to wait to download iOS 8, but since I recently purchased the new iPhone 6, it was already installed. I don't know if it was a carrier issue, an iOS 8 issue or an iPhone 6 issue but when I first started using my new iPhone 6, I had a slew of voice mail messages that belonged to a different person. In fact, the phone was not even set up to my phone number, but I hadn't noticed it until I started playing the voice mail messages. Coincidentally the person's name was also Geri! One caller wished me a Happy Birthday for this coming Monday...my birthday is in November. A quick trip back to the Verizon store and they fixed that issue by restarting the phone??? The store manager said some crazy things had been happening so he wasn't surprised.

Double-clicking on the Home button now brings up a list of recent contacts which allows easy access for phone calls, messages and email.  

Battery hogging apps? Check Settings > General > Battery Usage. You'll can view the Battery Usage for the past 24 hours by app. 

When you dictate a message or email using the microphone you now get a real-time talk to type display so the text is shown as you speak rather than waiting until after you finish speaking to post the text. I found it to be more accurate as well.

Improved editing tools right from the Photos app including some new adjustments for Light, Color and B & W, a Straightening Tool and access to other editing apps without leaving the Photos app. I haven't figured out how the new cropping tool works. You can select your ratio like Square, 2:3, 5:7, but I haven't yet determined how to switch 2:3 to 3:2. Any help? Please leave in the comments.

Apple's Camera app now has a self-timer and the ability to tap to focus and then manually adjust exposure while shooting an image. Just slide your finger up and down near the yellow focus box on the screen. 

Delete a photo by mistake? Well, now there's a Recently Deleted Album that allows you to restore an image up to 30 days after deletion. Each image displays the number of days remaining before it is permanently deleted. 

If you have a favorite image in Photos, you can now tap the heart icon which adds that image to a Favorites Album. This helps when taking multiple similar shots to identify the one you like most. 

Predictive typing makes composing texts, comments and email a lot easier. Android users have had this for quite some time now, so it's nice to have finally have this added to iOS devices. Some people hate this feature and have disabled it in their settings but It's a timesaver, so I like it.

If you have recently downloaded iOS 8 for your iPhone you may want to download Apple's free iPhone User Guide for iOS 8 available on iBooks. It includes a digitally formatted book with everything you need to know about the latest update. Learn about the latest features and how to use them.