Why I’m Not Installing iOS 8 Yet

Last week iOS 8 released to the public amongst much fanfare, providing iPhone and iPad users with more features than ever before on iOS. However, I’m not installing iOS 8 on my iPhone just yet.

iOS 8 comes with many improvements and new features, but with the same look and feel as iOS 7, almost making it feel like iOS 7 version 2.0. That’s not a bad thing, though, as there are improved notifications, a ton more features in iMessage, and ton of new tweaks that enhance usability.

However, there are a couple of things missing that force me to skip the green light and stick with iOS 7 for now.

iOS 8 Jailbreak

Currently, there’s no iOS 8 jailbreak available, and since we’ll most likely see one within the next few months, I’m willing to wait to upgrade to iOS 8 until there’s a jailbreak for it. My reasoning behind this is that if I’ve already been using iOS 7 for a year, I can wait a couple more months before updating to iOS 8.

In fact, we likely won’t see an iOS 8 jailbreak until closer to the end of the year at the earliest, and that’s because jailbreak developers don’t want Apple to patch up the exploits used for the jailbreak too early. What this means is that if devs were to release the jailbreak to iOS 8 right now, Apple would quickly patch it up before the final version of iOS 8 even releases to the public, and that would be bad news for obvious reasons.

We should ultimately expect the same time frame as the iOS 7 jailbreak, which was released a few months after iOS 7 was publicly launched in September 2013. Because of this, you’ll be waiting a while for an official iOS 8 jailbreak to release.

Of course, it depends entirely on how you use your jailbreak as far as whether or not it’s worth losing in order to upgrade to iOS 8, but for me, I use way too many useful jailbreak tweaks that I’d miss greatly if I voluntarily updated to iOS 8.

Seeing as how iOS still has some annoying features that I fix with a jailbreak, I’m not sure I could update to iOS 8 so easily. I have jailbreak tweaks that make my iOS experience so much more convenient, like disabling passcode lock when I’m connected to my home WiFi network, as well as a tweak that customizes the iOS alarm clock and fades the music in gently.

These are tweaks that I would miss if I updated to iOS 8.

Waiting for OS X Yosemite

Another reason I don’t want to update to iOS 8 just yet is because OS X Yosemite isn’t released yet, and since both operating systems work heavily with each other, I feel like I won’t get as much out of iOS 8 as I could be ahead of the OS X Yosemite launch.

Apple announced Continuity with OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, allowing the two operating systems to communicate with each other on a level never before achieved. Users can send and receive phone calls on their Macs, as well as send and receive SMS text messages. However, seeing as how OS X Yosemite isn’t out yet, I can’t do this with iOS 8, which doesn’t give me a good reason to install iOS 8 before OS X Yosemite launches.

OS X Yosemite is expected to be launched next month, which seems like an expected release window, given that OS X Mavericks was released in October last year. If I had a choice, I would wait until then before updating to iOS 8, simply because if I’m updating to a newer version, I want to be able to take advantage of all its features right away.

Of course, those buying an iPhone 6 won’t have a choice as far as staying on iOS 7 or updating to iOS 8, as these phones will already come with iOS 8 installed, but these consumers get the trade-off of having a larger screen and a better phone overall.