Yes, Apple Pay is one interesting iOS 8 feature that will be available following a software update in October, but it’ll only come to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. However, iLounge reminds us there’s another hotly anticipated iOS 8 feature that will arrive in October and will be available to any device that has iOS 8.
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Once OS X Yosemite (currently in beta) releases to Mac users this October, Apple’s Handoff features will also be enabled on iOS 8-compatible devices.
Apple’s Handoff, or Continuity, will let users seamlessly move between iOS and OS X devices without interrupting certain activities, such as sending mails, browsing the web, editing documents or checking maps. But the most interesting Continuity feature is making and receiving calls from a Mac that’s in proximity of an iPhone, and even replying to and sending SMS messages (on top of iMessages) from the computer.
Apple did not spend a lot of time during its iPhone 6 event reminding the audience what iOS 8 will have to offer, as it had to hurry through iOS features in order to get to the more important announcements scheduled for the keynote, so the company did not specifically address or demo this particular Handoff functionality for the iPhone 6.
However, the company highlights the SMS and calls Continuity features as coming only in October on its iOS 8 description pages (see screenshot below). That shouldn’t be a surprise considering that Handoff only works between iOS 8 and Yosemite. Similarly, dealing with SMS messages and calls won’t be possible on an iPad running iOS 8 at least until October.
