Just as Apple announced at its iPad & Mac event last Thursday, iOS 8.1 is now publicly available with new features including Apple Pay, iCloud Photo Library, and additional Continuity features. Apple Pay is available for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users for making payments for purchases with the new iPhone rather than a physical credit card in supported retail stores and apps; iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 users will be able to use Apple Pay within supported apps as well. In addition to iOS 8.1, Apple also released version 7.0.1 for third-generation Apple TV boxes.
At launch, Apple Pay is supported by Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards with American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo as launch partner banks.
Apple says its mobile payment service, which uses NFC and Touch ID, is accepted at over 220,000 stores. We’ve included a list of supported apps and stores that we’ll update as more stores are added.
With the release of the Apple Watch in early 2015, Apple Pay will work in stores with the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s when paired with the wearable device as well.
iCloud Photo Library, which allows users to use iCloud storage space for managing a single photo library across multiple devices, is available in iOS 8.1 as a public beta. With iCloud Photo Library, iCloud saves each photo edit, album, and more across each compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as well as iCloud.com. An overhauled Photos app for Mac is due out in 2015.
iOS 8.1 also brings back the familiar Camera Roll for users not using the iCloud Photo Library public beta; iCloud Photo Library users will instead continue to see a collection of recently added photos and videos from all supported iCloud devices.
Continuity features like SMS Relay (also called Text Message Forwarding) and Instant Hotspot are also available in the latest iOS version.
SMS Relay allows users to view text messages sent to your iPhone on Mac and iPad with the ability to reply from those devices as well. Instant Hotspot allows you to connect your iPad or Mac to your iPhone easily by selecting it in the list of available WiFi networks.
iOS 8.1 follows the release of iOS 8.0 last month as well as iOS 8.0.1 and iOS 8.0.2.
iOS 8.1 is available on iPhone 4s and higher, iPad 2 and higher, iPad mini and higher, and iPod touch 5th generation. The update should be available over-the-air through Settings > General > Software Update on iOS; users can update through iTunes on a PC or Mac if available storage is a limitation.
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Big update… 1.7GB on my iPhone 5 :D
2.2GB on my iPhone 6 Plus running the 8.1 beta.
Yeah, that is weird, right? I’m surprised such a large file size for beta-users.
straNGE 128MB ON MY 6 PLUS
Mine was only 125MB on my iPhone 6+, and 11MB on my iPad Air.
Thats cause iBend is also updated in 8.1
Weird, only 63.5 MB on my iPhone 5…
Apple’s new strategy is to make the update a different file size for everybody!
Mine said only 178MB download….
Oops, 127 MB. And on an iPhone 6 Plus.
126 MB for my iPhone 6. Looks like I’m the lucky ducky, man.
i was on beta 7.1 so the update 1.7 GB !! :D Not A Big Deal ;)
Does it fix broken Bluetooth phone calling in the car?
yup..
Some issues are also caused by the car’s software. For example, I have a 2012 Cadillac SRX which paired fine with my 5S, but didn’t play well with my iPhone 6; it would connect and see the phone but if a call came in or I tried to make one out, it would kick back to the phone’s speaker instead of the bluetooth. I called OnStar and asked them to make sure my vehicle software was up to date, and behold – there was a bluetooth update that I didn’t have yet. They pushed it to me OTA, I deleted the phone on the car, and once I set it up again, the problem was fixed. I subscribe to OnStar, but it is my understanding that they will push software updates to the vehicle if there are any, regardless of whether or not you subscribe.
I suppose it’s a problem of iOS 8, because until I upgraded to iOS 8 (and 8.1 too) my iPhone 5, either with iOS 6 or iOS 7, perfectly worked with my car audio player, but now it does not!
you first…
Is this version slow for A5 based Devices? iPodTouch, iPad2 and Mini?
I have a question about Apple Pay that you all might be able to clear up.
I live in Canada, and so far it doesn’t seem like any partnership has been made with any of the financial institutions here. So I was wondering if this will prevent me from adding my cards to Apple Pay?
My first card being a TD (Toronto Dominion) Debit/Visa card — I was figuring I could add this under a Visa
My second card being a TD Visa credit card — I hope there wouldn’t be an issue adding this, but we’re in the wonderful world of Apple products..
As of right now, Apple Pay is launching initially only in the US. I’m not sure of rollout in other countries (to my knowledge they haven’t set timeframes, but I could be wrong and if I am could someone please correct me??). I’m fairly certain that within the next year or so, you guys should be seeing something, but it looks as if US is testing the product first. Hope this helps. :-)
I know it’s initial launch is in the U.S. but should that really prevent me from using the feature?
I don’t know how the set up process is, but say I choose visa, then add my card, it all should technically work? :S
Idk, almost tempted to contact Apple on this one, but I’m sure I’ll just get a no comment or they’ll tell me this feature isn’t supported in my region yet.. ;(
Also I hope this doesn’t end up like iTunes Radio lol
Still not available here..
I tried adding my Visa, it says the financial institution doesn’t support it. So nah, we can’t use it here in Canada. Yet.
will be interesting to see how easy the switch is from US card/s to Canadian card/s, or UK cards, or anywhere really, when travelling or taking advantage of deals, etc.
Only 215MB on my iPhone 6.
I see that one of the “Bug Fixes” is for Wi-Fi connections to some base stations – I hope this solves the problem we are having on out two year old Apple Extreme, as the connection is frustrating at times on our 5 / 5S and iPad’s!
177 MB for my iPhone 5S. The remaining time estimate is completely messed up. It keeps jumping around from 50 seconds, to 10 seconds, to 47 seconds, to 5 seconds to 8 minutes, etc.
Correction – if you have iCloud photo library turned on, you see an “All Photos” option in lieu of camera roll. You used to be limited to just “recently added.”
I currently use Dropbox to back up all of the photos from my iPhone and was hoping that with the new photo beta I could switch to icloud. So I turned it on, it uploaded my photos (I was able to view them online), but when I delete them from my device it deletes them from icloud. Is this how its supposed to work? I was under the impression that it would keep them online (like dropbox). Am I missing something? I don’t want to keep every photo on my phone, that’s why I upload it to the cloud.
When you hit delete… you delete in all your devices, if you want to store them you should archieve them other way first…. I read somewhere that when you delete they should be kept in deleted folder for 30 days… but still could not find that folder.
Weird. It said 1.95 gb download. I rebooted my iPhone and now it says 117mb. iPhone 5s
1.9GB on my iPhone 5S running the 8.1 beta.
So I updated 6 Plus to 8.1 and added two credit cards.
But what I can’t figure out – even after force closing the app, how in the world do you access your Passbook QR codes? Whenever I open Passbook now, it just goes to the credit cards. Nothing in the UI suggests anything to go to the full Passbook.
Try dragging the card down, as if throwing it away.
no apple pay in POLAND :<
Installing on iPad 3 right now (68mb ota update) … Hoping for performance boost! :)
Update done. Everything looks super.
Small update on iPhone 4S, 69.4 MB. Update fails to download. Maybe there’ll be a fix for that in 8.1.1?
my update download it’s ok.. but the installation no!! iTunes screen on reboot…. clean install now! it’s life….
A hard reset got it going for me, no issues with iPad 3.
I cant find Passbook & Apple Pay in settings. Is it only for US?
yes
Must be, I have it right under iCloud and iTunes in the settings app
For iPhone 6. I live in Canada. I have it in my settings but can’t add my cards.
When you download the update and it has completed installation, do you get the free space back on your phone? Or are you permanently out of that memory space? Asking out of curiosity
You get it back.
update size was small on iphone5 but required 1.6gb free to install. wasn’t able to connect to mac mini using bluetooth after installing (same problem i had with 8.0.2) but powering down the iphone allowed it to connect eventually. things seem okay so far. still waiting for an android friend to text me so i can verify that the sms relay is working.
iPad Air stock in recovery mode. ((((
Apple is really dropping the ball on these updates. No computer now, so I don’t know how to get it out of recovery mode.
60MB update on iPad2, hoping it speeds it up a little
Just went to Mcdonolds for lunch and used apple pay to pay. It’s so freaking easy. Just hold your phone to the sensor and put your thumb on the touch ID. It took less then a second. This is going to be big.
I’m about to go do the same. Though it’ll be WholeFoods, not McPoison. :P
I used ApplePay at Whole Foods just now. Extremely fast, it was faster than the amount of time it takes me to pull my phone out and Touch ID unlock the phone. Afterwards, the cashier still asked for a hand signature which was strange. Maybe that was just this store.
Hand signature should not be required. In fact you should just refuse, that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
Anyone succeeded to activate SMS relay for the mac or ipad? On the iphone I went to Settings -> Messages -> SMS relay and then checked my mac or my ipad and it asks for a code. Then onn my mac, imessage comes up automatically, but I can’t see a code… On the ipad, nothing happens so I can’t type in the code to activate it. Any help?
i was able to turn it on (and got the passcode to pair successfully) but haven’t received an actual message to test it yet.. worked for me, though.
Go to Settings -> messages -> turn iMessage off and on. That should add your phone number & yourname@icloud.com to sending and receiving section of settings. Tick them both. Then activate message forwarding, authorize your mac via code that pops up on your mac (sometimes you have to restart iMessage app on mac). This worked for me.
Thank you @Radoslav! Turning iMessage on and off in the Messages settings on my iPhone and then on my iPad and restarting Messages on my Mac did the trick! I can finally SMS my Android-based daughter from my Mac!
Same issue on my side, updated both iPad Air and Iphone 5, tried to pair them, but the iphone says I must enter code shown on iPad to activate Text Message Forwading. However nothing appears on the iPad.
Same for me. Further issues with making and receiving calls on my MacBook through my iPhone. Prior to 8.1 my Mac at least gave me a notification that my Facetime on my Mac and on my iPhone need to be logged into the same iCloud Account (which they did by the way). Now with 8.1 my Mac does not even give me that notification anymore.
Same issues here.
Prior to 8.1 making cellular calls via FaceTime worked just fine. Now I am getting an error message saying that my iCloud and FaceTime need to be on the same Apple ID (I only have one).
In addition SMS relay does not work. It needs to verify a code with my Mac that never displays.
You can only add 8 cards to Apple Pay..
Just downloaded and no apple pay on my iphone 6…!
Same issue on my side, updated both iPad Air and Iphone 5, tried to pair them, but the iphone says I must enter code shown on iPad to activate Text Message Forwading. However nothing appears on the iPad.
NVM this reply, not intended for this post
Awww. Disappointed as this update was a small one for UK users. Took 5 minutes to download and install. Really wanted to see the new settings for Apple Pay, even if they were to disable them. So mainly bug fixes, SMS continuity and iPhoto updates for UK users then :(
So… iCloud Photos on iCloud.com still not available? I’m afraid of turning the Optimisation photo toggle on without making sure I have access to full resolution photos….
Instant Hotspot was available with 8.0…
And how can we add more photos to iCloud Photos?
CAUTION! iPad Air 64GB AT&T stuck in recovery mode….just had to do a restore and download 50GB of apps and data. So close to switching to Android.
My 32 GB Air is stuck in recovery mode. Also ATT
At least on Android you will never have to worry about a software update.
I’m not getting the verification code on my other devices to enable text message forwarding. Anyone else?
Same
Maybe the Apple servers are getting smashed right now. Hopefully the issue will resolve itself soon.
Go to Settings -> messages -> turn iMessage off and on. That should add your phone number & yourname@icloud.com to sending and receiving section of settings. Tick them both. Then activate message forwarding, authorize your mac via code that pops up on your mac (sometimes you have to restart iMessage app on mac).
Adding my email for receiving worked! You can remove the email after so you only receive to your phone number.
Nice! That worked. Thanks!
For anyone else having the issue, you don’t have to disable and re-enable iMessages. It seems that just adding one of your email accounts as a source for iMessages somehow makes your other device “listen” for the auth. code. Once you get the notification that a new email address has been added to your iMessage account on your device then that device will receive the code. Weird, but it works.
YES! Airdrop mac to phone.
You could do that on yosemite and 8.0.
This still doesn’t work for me.. Did you do anything after updating?
I updated my 5s but no apple pay. If i want to use apple pay for in app purchases, seeing that I dont have the needed nfc chip, Where are those settings?
Yup me too. US citizen in the US. No apple pay.
Apple Pay available only on iPhone 6 & 6+
You know what… you’re right. In the press conference they said it was be available for online purchases for 5S as well. I guess that’s only with the watch tethered to the 5S.
tried “clean install”, not able to restore from the iCloud. apps, docs, settings gone.
And not ONE single one of my cards from major banks is accepted. WTF is this crap?
You guys are so happy! In Russia so many people with brand f₽€@ng iOS 8.1 don’t have option to choose between 2g/3g/lte modes…it’s awful!! And also, my iPad and iPhone not working with handof by using pages…thats how apple works! …have a nice, friends :) and i’ll go sleep… :)
Not sure how to access the instant hotspot, any help?
No 2G/3G/LTE button.
Only 4G on/off.
Might be your carrier’s decision to pull that feature. When you turn it off, does 2G/3G turn on?
Updating iPhone6 worked well for me. updated from MacBook Pro.
Added Chase card and it worked perfectly, even pinpointed what type of card I had specifically. Was able to pull the card from iTunes history, which was nice.
Other cards aren’t supported yet, but Apple announced as much in the ApplePay keynote sections. Many more coming soon. Take heart, those with smaller banks/credit unions like me.
So no fix for the Copy and Paste bug? Super!
can you start a call on ur iPhone and pass it to the mac for a better speakerphone???
My iPhone 6 still doesn’t show up on AirDrop on my Mac!!
I was waiting for 8.1 to fix that. Now waiting for an update for Yosemite… maybe that will fix it.
nevermind! Worked after restarting my mac :)
For those that are having trouble activating the SMS relay feature: try quitting and restarting the messaging app on your mac. That worked for me.
I have a card from Citi, and one from Capital One. Neither work. Seems a bit fraudulent for Apple to advertise these banks as working when they don’t.
Can’t find the option for SMS relay under settings – messages – below the iMessage. Is there a trick to it or did I get a bad install update. Using a 6 plus with the new IOS 8.1
IOS 8.1 didn’t solve the problem of screen freezes and crashes on my iPad Air when using Multi-Gestures. This started with IOS 8, continued with IOS 8.02 and is still present in IOS 8.1. Apple please fix this. It’s very annoying to have to reboot multiple times a day. Turning off the Multi-Gestures feature eliminates the problem but is not a solution. No point in having this feature if it doesn’t work.
What do I do? I installed the update on my Iphone4s and now my phone won’t turn on, all that keeps coming up is itunes and a plug in on the screen?
Got my new iPhone 6+yesterday–on Verizon network & I can’t text any non-Apple device or pair with my car (2014 Porsche Cayenne)! My iPhone 4 works great with these (albeit s l o w). Have tried resetting everything, rebooting between, etc.–no help. Any ideas?
ja nie mam tego w ustawieniach na ip 6 brak w ustawieniach Passbook i apple pay
jak to uaktywnić aby pokazaly sie w ustawieniach?
Dodam ze mam ios 8.1.1 i dalej nie mam a jak włącze passbooka to sa tylko te kina bilety itp brak tej górnej części do kart. Pomoże ktoś?