iOS 8.1 Features Detailed For Your iPhone 5/5s

This afternoon iOS 8.1 launched for the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5s, iPad, and basically every device from the past couple of years. We know what iOS 8.1 means for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but what about the iPhone you have in your hand right now? What if you DIDN'T just go out and purchase a new iPhone this generation? What features do you get from this download if you've got previous-generation hardware without NFC? No Apple Pay for you, for starters.

Unless you own an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus, you simply do not have the hardware to work with Apple Pay. You need an NFC chip to do that. Future iPhones will have this same hardware, so count on Apple Pay being ready to roll with the iPhone 7 in a couple of years as well.

Inside the newest update to Apple desktop and notebook computers you'll find two new features that work with iOS 8.1. As outlined in our OS X Yosemite Review, you'll find that your iPhone and your desktop screen can work with one another closer than ever.

While you might not have known it before, the videos and photos your iCloud account has been backing up have not necessarily been full resolution before now. With this update, any photo or video you upload to iCloud, manually or automatically, will be uploaded in their original format and resolution.

Starting today iCloud Photos is an interface you're able to use freely. This service gives you 5GB of data for free or more for a monthly price. For the first 20GB you'll pay $0.99, 200GB for $3.99 per month, and on up to 1TB.

Did you notice Camera Roll disappearing earlier this year? It's back now. Mentions of Camera Roll will actually make sense in software and Camera Roll will once again be a real-deal app.

We're exploring iOS 8.1 now for more oddities – but first you're going to want to be aware of this: iOS 8.1 breaks several prominent game system emulators. If you love to emulate, you need to think twice. Fixing this might require some jailbreaking, if you dare.