Apple released iOS 8 just over a month ago, but it’s already touting its success and rolling out an update for the mobile operating system. According to Apple’s vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, iOS 8 has already achieved 48 percent installed base on active iOS devices, making it the most used version of the OS. Today, the company has rolled out iOS 8.1 to build upon the success of its latest release.
Federighi stated that changes appearing in iOS 8.1 came heavily from user feedback provided on iOS 8. That means the return of the camera roll, which inexplicably disappeared in iOS 8. The update also paves the way for the release of Apple Pay, the NFC-based mobile payment system that will be available starting October 20.
The operating system update brings with it the public beta of the iCloud photo library, a feature that Apple has teased for some time. It allows users to store photos and videos from all devices in iCloud, available in their original format and resolution. iCloud provides users with 5GB of free storage. Additional space can be purchased, starting at 20GB for $1 a month. 200GB is available for $4 a month, and the tiers continue going up to 1TB.
Along with its OS X counterpart, the iOS version of iWork has also been updated and is available for free.
Apple’s had a rough go of things with its mobile releases this year, including a badly botched update process for iOS 8.0.1. The company hopes to recover smoothly with iOS 8.1, though its success will weigh heavily on how well Apple Pay works upon release.
