[Biro]

Just an FYI for anyone who may care: I updated my iMac with OS X Yosemite and my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s with iOS 8.1 this weekend. The updates went smoothly with no issues and the devices seem to work fine. But now that everything's up to date, I must say it really wasn't worth the effort to me. Almost all of the latest features that Apple fans breathlessly gush over I have turned off - including iCloud Drive. A few things have been moved around for the sake of making it look new to the A.D.D. crowd. That's fine, I guess, but who cares? What bothers me a bit is that the font on some websites viewed in Safari on iOS 8.1 appears smaller. I have bold text turned on and I have the default font size where I like it on the device itself. I even have the command turned on that allows some apps to follow my default text size. But that doesn't help on actual websites. I'd say that, unless you want want iCloud Drive, Apple Pay and any of the health app capability, it's not really worth bothering.

[boriscleto]

I will be turning on iCloud Drive just as soon as I replace my 1st gen iPad. I'm still stuck on iOS 5.

[reeftool]

I haven't updated yet since it appears that most of the update benefits iPhone 6 users and features on the new iPads. I'm still on 8.0.2. I'm not using iCloud either. The ultimate goal of all this cloud crap is to have users store everything in the cloud. That way, your mobile devices can stay lean and cheaper with less memory and cloud companies can make a steady income with subscription fees and carriers make out because you will have to increase your monthly data plan. It will also become difficult to discontinue your cloud service once you have a few TB of data, photos, music, video, etc stored. I live in a rural area where there isn't a good cell connection so accessing any stored data is an exercise of futility.

[boriscleto]

The cloud is aimed at the 90% of Apple's customers who live in cities or suburbs with good cell service. A TB of data will cost $20/month, so it is really a power user option. But $12/year gets you 20GB. But it really only of full use to those with multiple Apple devices who need to instantly sync documents across multiple devices. They still have a ways to go to be able to really compete against Dropbox though. iCloud Drive is really just Apple's hissy fit over Dropbox rejecting their buy out offer.

[6BQ5]

I think the biggest benefit to the updates is not all the razzle and dazzle features the media brags about. It's all the framework and security updates under the hood. That's why I try to update within a week or so. A week delay is enough time for the masses to find any new holes created by patching the old ones.

[reeftool]

Oh, I will update but I will wait a bit to see if issues turn up like the bad 8.0.1 they had to do a quick fix for. I haven't used my phone in days anyhow. It's dead at the moment. Now that I'm retired, I have little use for it and may not get another one. I do use my iPad quite a bit. All those great new features the media hypes? It really hasn't mattered. I load my photos on it when I'm on a trip and I store photos to show people. I stream Netflix. It works pretty much the same as it always has although the new Photos app in iOS 8 is a big improvement.

[fgaudet]

I too upgraded to Yosemite on my macbook pro and to 8.1 on my iphone 5 and so far no issues what so ever (aside from VMWare requiring an update on the mac). I don't have enough data on my house plan (I live in the bush, cellular is my only internet option) so I don't use any icloud stuff.

But I must say, just for the SMS relay (green bubble friends now work just like imessage) and call from your mac it is worth upgrading.

[Ash]

I was on the beta program for Yosemite, and it has had its development issues. But the public release is a stable and good looking interface. The font to me is clear and legible even on my non-Retina displays. iOS8.1 doesn't feel a great deal different from iOS7 on the iPhone 5 but the iPhone 6 brings out the best in the iOS upgrade. I too see the iCloud Drive as being a passive income generator for Apple and only use the minimum amount of Drive space to optimise wireless functionality. And as my city has finally got itself 4G wireless speeds for most carriers, the functionality is at least on par with the current ADSL speeds.

Handoff, SMS relay and Phone relay are quite useful features (things that make a tangible difference and make you think 'why wasn't this thought of before?') and worth upgrading the operating systems of all the iDevices.