The Best Extensions And Widgets For iOS 8

The Best Extensions And Widgets For iOS 8

While Apple added lots of stuff in iOS 8, some of the best additions are Share Sheets, Safari Extensions, photo-editing extensions and widgets. Finally, we can now customise iOS just a little bit more. Here are some of the best we’ve seen so far.

How to Enable Extensions, Share Sheets and Widgets

Extensions and widgets are both great ways to add a little more functionality to iOS. You have to have the app in question installed for any of these to work. None of these are turned on by default though, so you’ll have to enable them manually.

  • Share Sheets share content from one app to another: To enable a share sheet, tap the share button in Safari (or any app with a share button), then tap the “More” option on the top row to get a list of available Share Sheets.
  • Safari extensions add different features to Safari: To enable a Safari extension, tap the share button in Safari, then scroll over to the “More” option on the bottom row.
  • Photo editing extensions add editing options to the Photos app: Tap a photo in the Photos app and tap the “Edit” button. Once you’re there, tap the “…” button in the top left corner, then tap “More” to add extensions.
  • Widgets add various features to Notification Center: To install widgets, pull down Notification Center, scroll to the bottom, then tap the “Edit” button.

Lastpass/1Password

Password managers make the internet a much more manageable place. All your passwords are securely stored so you don’t have to remember them. That also means you don’t usually know you passwords, which is kind of a pain when you’re trying to log into a site from iOS. In the past, you would have to pull up a separate app, search for a password, then copy and paste it into a mobile browser. Now, 1Password and Lastpass both have extensions for Safari that will auto fill all your information.

Pocket/Instapaper/Pinterest

Pocket’s extension for browsers is an easy way to save whatever web site you’re looking at. The recent update to the iOS app adds that functionality to Safari. Just share a page to Pocket just like you would with Twitter or Facebook. Instapaper and Pinterest work the same way.

Evernote

As you’d expect, Evernote gets all kinds of cool iOS 8 integration. You can now share directly to Evernote with the Share Sheet and you can set it up so Evernote’s quick note bar is in Notification Center

Day One

The journalling app Day One was updated for iOS to support both sharing and widgets. The widget puts a few details about your day and random old entries into Notification Center, while the new share function makes it easy to share everything to Day One easy.

Calendars 5

Calendars 5 is one of the better calendar apps on iOS, and now it integrates with Notification Center so you don’t have to mess around with the official Calendar app. You can also add a new event right from Notification Center. Other popular calendars are sure to follow suit shortly.

Yahoo Weather

Yahoo Weather is our favourite weather app on the iPhone already, and with iOS 8 you can put it right in Notification Center. It certainly beats out the boring old text description that’s usually there.

PCalc

PCalc is a great calculator as it is, but now you can add it to your Notification Center so you can quickly calculate anything you want.

OmniFocus/Clear

OmniFocus and Clear now lets you put all your upcoming to-dos right in Notification Center. This makes it a heck of a lot easier to remember to actually do them.

Dropbox/Box

Dropbox added in a new Notification Center widget that lets you see what files have been changed and updated. Both Dropbox and Box also now let you share files directly to their apps.

Transmit

Transmit is a new FTP client for iOS 8. It uses Share Sheets so you can easily send files to your FTP server from any app.

iMovie

iMovie updated with the ability to edit video clips directly in the Photos app. Once you get it set up, you can edit all your videos without ever leaving Photos.

Camera Plus

Photo-editing app Camera Plus updated with Photos integration so you can now edit photos directly in the Photos app. We’re sure more camera apps will get this features over time (including Camera+), but Camera Plus is one of the first to integrate it.


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