20-plus eye-popping Black Friday 2014 tech deals

iPhone 6, iPad Air, Samsung Galaxy gear and big cheap TVs among the hottest electronic deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2014.

Black Friday is upon us
Word is that more retailers will relent to public pressure – I mean do the right thing for their employees – and close on Thanksgiving Day this year. But that won’t prevent them from going all out online, where much is automated and the workers are less prominent. Here are some of the best deals on network and technology offerings for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and in between. (Compare with last year’s deals)

Dell: Inspiron 15-inch laptop
Powered by an Intel Celeron processor and running Windows 8.1, this system boasts 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Dell’s special pricing for those getting through online beginning at 12 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, is $190, a $110 discount off what Dells calls the “market price” (though Dell appears to regularly sell the laptop for $250.

Target: Apple TV
Like other retailers, Target has a number of deals on Apple products. Among them: $11 off an Apple TV device, which you can get for $89 on Black Friday.

Target: iPhones, iPads and gift cards
Apple gives retailers little leeway in terms of discounting its products, so Target and others often resort to selling the Apple products for the regular price, but bundling the with gift cards. Target is offering a $100 Target gift card with an iPad Air 16GB WiFi tablet ($400), iPad mini 3 16GB WiFi tablet ($400) or iPad mini 2 16GB WiFi Tablet ($300).

Best Buy: Samsung Gear Fit Fitness watch with heart rate monitor
Best Buy is slashing the price on this gadget, which comes in black, from $150 to $100. Count your steps taken and calories burned in style, with this device, which syncs up with various Android phones. Best Buy’s online sales will run Thursday/Friday, with stores opening at 5 pm on Thanksgiving Day where allowed, and again at 8 am on Friday.

Best Buy: Surface Pro 3
The retailer is cutting $50 to $150 off the price of Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets with 128GB of storage or more (they start at $1,000 before the discount). Note that this does not include the keyboard for the flexible 12-inch touchscreen device.

Best Buy: Panasonic 50-inch LED TV doorbuster
This 33-pound Panasonic TV, which serves up a 1080p and 60Hz HDTV picture, usually costs $550. The pre-Black Friday price is down to $500, but will go for just $200 in this in-store-only deal on Thanksgiving/Black Friday.

Microsoft: Tablets and games
The Microsoft Store lists a slew of deals, some for which you need to wait until Thanksgiving or Black Friday, and others that you can snag ahead of time. Among the early bird specials is a Lumia 635 phone for 1 cent with a new service contract. The phone has a 4.5-inch screen, runs Windows 8.1 and has 8GB of storage. Microsoft also has lots of Xbox and game deals available in its store this holiday shopping season.

Staples: Asus x205-TA Laptop computer
This bare-bones Windows 8.1 machine, with a 32GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM, normally goes for $250. It’s already been marked down to $200, and for Black Friday, Staples is cutting that price in half. The laptop, featuring 802.11abgn WiFi, is powered by an Intel Atom processor and has an 11.6-inch screen.

Staples: JLab Pro-7 Tablet
OK, can’t say we know this brand either, but for $40, it could be worth a shot if you just want to play around with a small Android tablet. The device usually sells for $70. It only packs 8GB or storage, but has a MicroSD slot for adding up to 32GB more.

RadioShack: RC Surveyor Drone
Satisfy your drone curiosity and freak out your neighbors with this 2.4GHz quadcopter that’s been marked down from $70 to $35 for Black Friday. This lightweight flyer comes with a built-in 1080x720 camera, can be controlled up to 65 feet away and can even do stunts. RadioShack will be opening on Thanksgiving morning, again late in the afternoon, and then at 6 am on Black Friday.

Costco: HP Envy 15.6-inch TouchSmart Laptop
This computer is powered by an Intel 4th generation Core i7 processor, runs Windows 8, features Beats audio and a 1TB hard drive. Costco, which is tossing in a second-year warranty, is slashing its $800 warehouse price by $150 for Black Friday shoppers who come into the store.

Office Depot/Officemax: Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
The price on this 10.1-inch Android tablet has been axed to $250, which is $100 off the usual price. Yes, this isn’t Samsung’s latest model, but it only came out in April. The device features a 1.2GHz quad core processor, and 16GB of storage, expandable to 64GB.

Meijer: Samsung Galaxy Tablet Lite
This 7-inch, 8GB tablet will run you $99 on Black Friday, which is $40 off the regular price. Plus, you’ll get a $20 coupon for your next shopping trip. The touchscreen tablet boasts a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor.

Sears: 55-inch Samsung LED TV
This 1080p Smart HD-TV, usually priced at $1,400, is available for $800 starting on Thanksgiving night (though note that Sears already lists TV for $1,000, not $1,400). It comes integrated with services such as Netflix and Pandora.

Belk: iLive Bluetooth Soundbar
This 32-inch black bar will enable you to wireless boom your tunes for $70 -- $30 off the usual price. Works with iOS gadgets and most Android and BlackBerry devices. Can also sync up with your TV, game systems and more. This is an online deal.

Shopko: Kindle Fire HD tablet
This lightweight 7-inch WiFi tablet (with 8GB of storage, 1GB of which is internal memory) will have its price shaved by $20, so you pay $80. The retailer’s Black Friday deals start at 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day, though look for additional doorbusters as early as Wednesday.

Various retailers: Record Store Day specials
Got an MP3 hater in your life who prefers to spin big ol’ discs? Record Store Day, an annual April event designed to accommodate record lovers, expands for a Black Friday event that will feature limited-edition offerings from a variety of singers and bands, including The Afghan Whigs, The Beatles and Chvrches.

Walmart: iPhone 6
The monster retailer, which has said it will match Amazon prices in all its stores to kick off the holiday shopping season, has a pretty fine deal on the iPhone 6, which will cost $179 for a 16GB model with a two-year contract (typically $199). What’s more, you’ll get a $75 Walmart gift card, plus another $200 gift card for a smartphone trade-in. (Some industry watchers have warned about whether the 16GB size will only lead to frustration for iPhone 6 users...)

Walmart: 65-inch Vizio LED TV
This behemoth set will go for $648 this Black Friday, a savings of $350. Walmart says a 60-incher last holiday season went at $688, so you can see where pricing for big TVs is going…

Walmart: Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity Bundle
This package, including the Microsoft game console, the new edition of Assassin’s Creed and Version IV: Black Flag, will be available for $329 starting on Thanksgiving Day at Walmart. That’s down from the usual price of $400, though actually that price has already been marked down to $349.

Toys R Us: 5th generation iPod touch
You don’t hear about these much anymore, but it makes sense that Toys R Us would sell this Apple mainstay. The 16GB model is selling on Black Friday for $150 -- $50 off the usual price. It comes in many pretty colors, too!

Kohl’s: Innovative Technology portable power bank
Kohl’s isn’t the first retailer we think of for tech products, but we did come across this possible stocking stuff: a Justin 2200mAh Power Stick Portable Power Bank for $10, which is $15 off the regular price. USB-pluggable, works with most smartphones to keep you from running out of juice when not able to plug in.

Hhgregg: LG 50-inch smart LED TV
The electronics retailer has a ton of TVs on sale, with many prices slashed by $100 or more. One example: The LG 1080p 120Hz LED WebOS Smart HDTV, which will go for $658, down from $800. You get a free 6-month Spotify subscription to boot.

eBay: LG 60-inch Plasma Smart TV
The online auction site is offering this big HDTV, with two pairs of 3D glasses, for $750 starting at midnight EST on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 26.

Newegg: CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme H710 Desktop PC
This machine, boasts an Intel Core i7 4790K (4.0GHz) processor, 8GB DDR3 and 2TB of storage, and runs Windows 8.1 64-bit. The price has been slashed from $1,100 to $800.

Newegg: Asus 13.3-inch Chromebook
The online retailer is knocking $50 off a $250 Asus 13.3-inch Chromebook with Intel Celeron N2830 (2.16GHz) processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory and 16GB SSD.

Amazon: HP Chromebook
Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday lines are blurred big time, with the online retailer rolling out deals early and often. Among them: This 11.6-inch Chromebook with 2GB of SDRAM and a 16GB solid state drive for $150 — $130 off the regular price.

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A guide to the top mobile payments options

 The launch of Apple Pay last month jump-started the mobile payments business, with several companies pushing hard to become your preferred payment method in stores. Even more competitors are on the horizon, promising to bring a lot more security and convenience compared to today's plastic payment cards.

The magnetic-stripe cards currently used in the U.S. are simply not very secure. Your name, card number and expiration date are all encoded on the stripe without protection, and hackers have been targeting payment terminals to steal that data, jeopardizing the security of tens of millions of card holders.

Banks are racing to introduce more secure, chip-based cards by October 2015, but phone-based systems like Apple Pay and Google Wallet are here now and offer a good deal of convenience and security. But not all mobile payment systems are equal. Here's a look at the major systems out there and how they work:

Apple Pay
Included with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and upcoming Apple Watch, Apple Pay allows users to load their credit card details and then make payments using a short-range wireless system called NFC. With it, users simply bring their phones close to a terminal for a payment to be made. It's more secure too, because the card number isn't sent. Instead, a substitute called a token is sent so the retailer never sees your card number. The token, if stolen, is useless for subsequent purchases and the only time it gets matched to your card number is by your bank.

Apple has created a system that's incredibly easy to use: the cardholder authenticates the transaction by putting their thumb on the phone's fingerprint sensor, which happens in seconds. It only works with banks and card companies that have partnered with Apple, but that list is growing. Apple is keen to point out that it never sees details of your purchases. Only U.S.-issued cards are supported at launch, but it will expand to other countries in 2015.

Google Wallet
Also based on wireless NFC technology, Google Wallet appears similar to Apple Pay, but it's a little different behind the scenes. When paying with Google Wallet, Google assigns your phone a MasterCard number. It exists only in your phone -- you don't receive an actual card, and you don't have to go through a credit check. When you pay, the retailer gets that MasterCard number and Google immediately charges your chosen credit or debit card for the same amount. The two-step process, which is invisible to the user, means any U.S. debit or credit card can work with Google Wallet. It also means the retailer never sees your actual card number, which makes it more secure, but also means that Google can see every purchase you make.

Softcard
Backed by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, Softcard is another NFC-based payment system. The service requires a dedicated Softcard app, customized by each carrier, and a special SIM card that has a secure payment chip. The SIM card is available free. It works with phones running Android 4.4 (KitKat) or above and Windows Phone 8.1 and supports cards from American Express, Chase and Wells Fargo. For other banks, Softcard will set up a virtual American Express card that can be used in much the same way Google Wallet uses a virtual Mastercard. With that, any debit or credit card is supported.

PayPal
The eBay-owned payments company is pushing beyond the virtual world into brick-and-mortar retail. One version, in use at Home Depot, allows PayPal account holders to purchase goods by tapping in their phone number and a PIN code at payment terminals. A newer version involves the customer "checking in" on a PayPal app when they enter a store that accepts the payment system. That action alerts the store to your presence and paying is as simple as telling the cashier you want to use PayPal. The check-in action transmitted your presence and account details to the store, so the cashier just needs match the charge to your account. The app is available on Android, Apple and Windows Phone.

CurrentC
CurrentC (get it? "currency") has been developed by some of the biggest names in retail in the U.S. including Sears, Target and Wal-Mart. It will be launched in early 2015 and, while many details are still unclear, appears designed to solve two problems for its backers. The first is the roughly 2 percent fee that credit card companies charge on each transaction. CurrentC will work with a customer's bank account, avoiding the fees although also losing the fraud protection offered on cards. Secondly, customers will be able to share personal information, like their name, birthday and contact details, with a store, presumably for incentives although quite how that will work is yet to be detailed.

A big difference lies in the technology used by CurrentC. Unlike Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Softcard, it doesn't use NFC but instead displays a barcode on a phone screen that is scanned by the cashier.

The system was under the radar until October when two CurrentC members, CVS and RiteAid, stopped accepting NFC payments right after the launch of Apple Pay. That brought a wave of negative publicity and eventually forced the company to divulge a little more about its plans. The CEO said additional forms of payment, including cards, might be supported and CurrentC could switch from a barcode to NFC or Bluetooth. But for now, we're just waiting to see what the retailers will come up with when it launches.

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Hey Samsung: Not everybody has to be a platform

It's easy to see why everybody wants to be a platform these days. Just look at Apple: By owning both the hardware and the operating system, it gets total control over what developers build on its platform -- and a sizable cut of the revenues besides. In return, developers get an unmatched distribution channel directly to customers' devices. As Apple extends to new devices, those developers get to come along.

So it's no wonder that Samsung, eternally defining itself by its struggles with Apple, wants to be a platform, too, especially in the face of shrinking profits. On paper, it seems so simple: Samsung has the hardware business. It's making some wearables, investing in a connected home business with the SmartThings acquisition, and getting into virtual reality.

Open some APIs, give out some SDKs, talk about "open" and host a big-time developer conference in San Francisco (as in, the Samsung Developer Conference I write this from) to make sure everybody knows how committed you are.

But what Samsung is lacking, what major platform providers have in spades, is something harder to pin down, and much harder to imitate. Apple, Salesforce, even Microsoft lately, have demonstrated that most vague, but most important notion. They have vision -- a clear and present mission that drives them forward, even when that path isn't immediately obvious.

But Samsung? Samsung has really good phones and some solid tablets and a partnership with Oculus and SmartThings and now Project Beyond, a super nifty 360-degree streaming 3D high definition camera. But in the entire two-hour keynote session this morning, attendees were treated to a rapid-fire string of previously announced non-news like the Simband open health wearable platform (now open for developer sign-ups), a demo of what's possible with SmartThings and a reaffirmation that the company will keep investing in Samsung Knox, its enterprise workspace feature.

Other than the virtual reality stuff, and the Project Beyond camera, which are actually, really, very cool, it's mostly a lot of the same old. The only "new" thing coming to Samsung devices is Samsung Flow, a me-too take on Apple's cross-device Continuity features. Other than that, the company was just trying to show developers that products exist and can be built upon without offering a tremendously compelling case for why. It's not really leadership material.

When Apple is selling watches, Google is selling Nest thermostats, and Microsoft is revamping Windows for the multi-device future, Samsung's follow-along mentality of "just add developers" just doesn't seem like enough, no matter how many sensors it adds to Simband.

(The company's technical keynote takes place Thursday; maybe there'll be something more impressive that will change my mind. But I doubt it.)

The point here is that Samsung is a hardware company, in so many ways. It's succeeded in the first place by making devices that people actually want to use. And part of how it got there was by being part of somebody else's ecosystem. And yeah, it must chafe those at Samsung corporate command to have Google to thank for the success of the Galaxy S line of phones. But maybe, just maybe, throwing your support behind an operating system that nobody asked for, wants, needs or supports (Tizen) wasn't the right answer, no matter how technologically proficient it is.

And in the same way people ask whether Microsoft's hardware business is good for Microsoft's vision as a service provider, they have to also ask whether this whole insistence on being a software provider is good for Samsung's business. Nobody seems excessively jazzed about developing for the Samsung-backed Tizen ecosystem in a world where Android and iOS are already pretty well standardized.

"Ecosystem" is just a fancy word for building the stuff that users, not corporations, want. Rather than controlling everything, maybe a renewed focus on being the best part of the Android ecosystem -- and on making what customers actually want -- would do Samsung good.

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'The cloud is the new normal,' Amazon Web Services executive says

Andy Jassy touts larger customer cloud deployments at the AWS user conference

The cloud is no longer relegated to handling ancillary jobs, but is quickly become the base for mission critical -- or even all -- enterprise IT operations, the head of Amazon Web Services said.

"The cloud is the new normal," said Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services senior vice president during Wednesday's opening keynote of the company's annual Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.

In order to test the cloud, organizations might first try using it for ancillary hosted services, Jassy said. They then might use the cloud as a launching pad for new services, rather than operating those in house, sidestepping the burden of moving legacy applications or data to a different environment. Next up for those testing the cloud might be to ramp up its use for mobile or analytic applications.
aws andy jassy 500 Joab Jackson/IDG News Service

Andy Jassy, Amazon senior vice president in charge of Amazon Web Services, speaks at the AWS re:Invent conference 2014 in Las Vegas.

Increasingly, however, AWS is finding that organizations are moving entire data centers, as well as their entire IT operations, to the cloud, Jassy said.

An organization may have a lease coming up on a data center or need to do an expensive hardware refresh, and the pending costs or long-term commitment to infrastructure "that is kind of frozen in time," may cause it to more heavily consider the cloud, Jassy said.

"This is a trend that is accelerating at a very fast rate," he said.

AWS' win of a government contract to run the services of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 2013 caused a lot of other organizations to take notice, Jassy said. "A lot of customers would say if it's secure enough for the CIA, it is probably secure for us too," Jassy said.

To this end, Jassy brought to the stage Tayloe Stansbury, chief technology officer for financial software and services provider Intuit, which is in the process of moving many of its core applications to AWS. Intuit employs 8,000 workers, 3,000 of which are engineers. It has 50 million customers and generates about $4 billion in annual revenue.

The AWS cloud is good enough for Intuit, evidently. The company first set up a few small apps tools to run online. Impressed with the results, the company then proceeded to move to the cloud one of its data centers that was coming up for lease renewal. Doing that cut costs by up to six times, Stansbury said.

In addition to cost savings, running on AWS brings Intuit a number of other advantages, Stansbury said, including the ability of developers to create services more quickly. if Intuit acquires a company that already uses AWS, the integration process goes a lot more smoothly.

Intuit runs 33 applications, 26 services and eight tools on AWS. The company's popular Mint financial adviser service now runs on AWS. Over time, the company will move all of its offerings to the cloud, Stansbury said.

Other AWS customers have also come to rely almost entirely on the cloud, including Condé Nast and News Corp. media companies, Suncorp bank, Hess energy company and a number of independent software vendors such as Infor and Splunk, Jassy said. Of course, one of AWS' big early wins was the Netflix streaming service.

In addition to customer wins and big-picture predictions, Jassy also unveiled new and forthcoming services on AWS.

Perhaps most notable is a fully relational database, called Aurora, aimed at competing with traditional enterprise-oriented relational databases from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.

In early 2015, the company will start offering a set of tools to ease and streamline the process of writing and deploying applications within AWS, including AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeCommit.

The company also unveiled some management tools for administrators. The AWS Key Management Service eases the considerable burden of managing encryption keys that are used to protect an organization's data and applications.

The AWS Service Catalog gives administrators a central location for an organization's employees to procure AWS services from a central portal.

AWS Config provides a way to document how AWS services are used and configured, which could be a big help for organization that uses ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) or a CMDB (configuration management database) to manage resources.

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10 cool new features found in iOS 8.1

Don't be fooled: iOS 8.1 is no mere "dot" release. This rapid update from Apple is chock-full of great new features, several of which could change how you work, shop, and share.

Not your average iOS update
Don’t be fooled: iOS 8.1 is no mere “dot” release. This rapid update from Apple is chock-full of great new features, several of which could change how you work, shop, and share.

iOS 8.1 is available for the iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch (5th generation) and later—although many of its standout features are only compatible with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3. To get this latest release, go to Settings > General > Software Update. To take advantage of the many Continuity features included with iOS 8.1, make sure to also install OS X Yosemite on your Mac.

Ready? Great. Read on to learn the ten most notable features of iOS 8.1.

Apple Pay
This is the big one—using your iPhone to pay for your purchases. It’s a snap to set-up. Launch Passbook, and if you already have a card linked to your Apple ID—which is how you buy apps and media from the App Store and iTunes—your card should be listed there if it’s one of Apple Pay’s partner cards. If you don’t have a linked card, or you want to add a different one, you’ll see the option to add a card to Apple Pay. Your iPhone’s camera will launch, and then you’ll simply take a picture of the card. It may take a few seconds for the issuing bank to verify the information, but once that happens, you’re ready to begin using Apple Pay—assuming you’re in the U.S. (You can add multiple credit and debit cards to Apple Pay, and you can also change the default card for payments by going to Settings > Passbook & Apple Pay.)

Several retailers, apps, banks, and card providers are already on board. To use it in a brick-and-mortar store, place your iPhone on the cash register’s payment terminal. Your iPhone will detect the terminal and launch Passbook, and then Touch ID will request your fingerprint to complete the purchase.

Yes, it’s that simple, and yes, it’s secure. Thanks to Apple’s “secure element” chip, which encrypts your payment information, neither the retailer nor Apple has access to your actual credit card number. Retailers don’t even see your name.

Hardware requirements limit Apple Pay to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3, and the upcoming Apple Watch. Because the new iPads do not include an NFC chip, they can only use Apple Pay for in-app purchases and not at retail point-of-sale terminals.

Camera Roll
Hello there, old friend! Apparently, Camera Roll on the iPhone mattered a great deal to tons of users—and for some third-party app functionality. Apple brought this feature back with iOS 8.1. Once again, your iPhone’s local photos are kept inside the trusty Camera Roll album. Photo Stream, a folder of your synced photos, still remains…er, sorta. Beginning with iOS 8.0, Apple introduced iCloud Photo Library. Switch on this beta service and “Camera Roll” disappears, even with iOS 8.1, replaced with a catchall “All Photos” album.

iCloud Photo Library
Apple’s iCloud Photo Library stores the full-res versions of all your pictures across all of your Apple devices in iCloud, including iPhone screenshots and any edited photos. This beta service is now accessible to all devices running iOS 8.1. Just go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library.

However, this feature is not without issues. Lots of pictures mean lots of space. Apple still provides 5GB of free iCloud storage for all your needs. After that, however, it costs $1/month for 20GB or $4/month for 200GB of storage space. Need more than that and you may wish to consider non-Apple alternatives, such as Dropbox.

Another thing to consider is that your photos are uploaded to iCloud Photo Library at full resolution. This matters because all your connected iOS devices will now automatically download these same photos, which chews up the hard drive on your mobile device. To mitigate this, Apple lets you choose to “Optimize iPhone (or iPad) Storage.” Select this setting and only the iCloud Photo Library will store the full resolution photos and videos, with the optimized (smaller) files stored locally.

Continuity continued
If anything in iOS 8.1 rivals Apple Pay, it’s the build-out of Continuity features Apple first revealed at WWDC. This latest release is bursting with cross-platform Continuity goodies. Draft a Pages document on your Mac, for example, and continue working on it on your iPad, from the exact spot. Work on a Keynote presentation on your Mac, and then finalize it on your iPhone moments before the meeting starts. Your iCloud account keeps everything in sync.

To make this magic happen, you must first enable Handoff. Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.

Handoff works with Mail, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Calendar, Maps, and other programs. App developers can even incorporate Handoff into their apps.

Phone calls on your Mac
One very cool new Continuity feature in iOS 8.1 is the ability to make and receive calls on your Mac running Yosemite. As with all Continuity features, you must have Handoff enabled on your iPhone. Now, when a call comes to your iPhone—even if it’s being charged in another room—it will also ring on your Mac. Even better, you can call anyone from your Mac.

It’s a bit tricky to set up at first, but trust me, this feature is totally worth it. Your devices (e.g. iPhone and Mac) must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network and signed into your iCloud account.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > FaceTime > iPhone Mobile Calls > On.

On your Mac, go to FaceTime > Preferences, and check iPhone Cellular Calls.

Done! To place a call from your Mac, click on a phone number from Contacts, Calendar, Safari, Spotlight, or Messages, or a contact inside FaceTime. According to Apple, your Mac will even auto-dial a conference call passcode if it’s included in the Calendar event.

Text everyone everywhere
Apple allows iMessages to be sent between the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod touch. It’s already great service, but it’s even better with iOS 8.1. Now you can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from any device, just as you would send an iMessage.

To enable this feature, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone. As a security precaution, Apple will then send you a code that you must enter to activate this feature. Done! Now you can chat with even non-iPhone folks from inside Messages on your Mac.

Hint: You must have an email address enabled in iMessage before Apple’s activation code can be sent: Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, and add an email address there.

Instant hotspot
iOS 8.1 makes setting up a personal hotspot a breeze. Just go to Settings > Personal Hotspot > On to enable this feature. That’s it. Now, your iPhone will show up in the list of Wi-Fi connections on your Mac or iPad—provided your Mac is running Yosemite and has Bluetooth enabled. Oh, and be mindful of your carrier’s data limits.

Save money
Two minor iOS 8.1 features could actually save users money. You can now choose between 2G, 3G, or LTE networks for cellular data—provided these are available from your carrier. Check it out by going to Settings > Cellular.

Another clever feature: With iOS 8.1, Apple has made it possible to share Passbook passes via AirDrop.

Missing in action
With every new iOS release, several users witness their devices mysteriously rebooting, or experience their battery life depleting more quickly. Unfortunately, at least for older devices, there are no noticeable improvements in speed or battery life with iOS 8.1, but you can figure out which apps suck up the most battery life by going to Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage.

Tricks and treats
We’ve already revealed several tricks with iOS 8, but since the iOS 8.1 release is still relatively new, there are probably some hidden gems that we’ve missed. If you spot any clever tricks, share them in the comments below.

Cult of Mac found one hiding amongst the many Accessibility features. This trick lets you adjust the brightness on your device by tapping the home button three times.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Zoom. Turn zoom on, and tap your screen three times with three fingers to pull up the contextual menu. Select “choose filter,” then select “low light.”

Still with me? Now go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, and set to “Zoom.”

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