Perhaps the best new feature on iOS 8 for families is the Family Sharing functionality. Up to six people can be part of your "family" and share purchases from iTunes, iBook, and the App Store — without sharing an account! That means if Mom downloads the latest Katy Perry song on her iPhone and her son (who has his own iTunes account) wants the same song for his iPad, it's done — no trading passwords, no paying twice for the same song. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, as my kids would say.
There's also a shared calendar function that gives parents the ability to put events on everyone in the family's calendars, see where everyone is, send reminders, and assign who is going to take them where.
Family members' photos can be congregated into a family photo album (if they want them there), so there's less texting and emailing photos.
Family Sharing's "Ask to Buy" feature can be turned on, so kids must ask permission (it pops up on Mom's screen) before they download apps, music, movies, or books. With the new feature, kids under 13 can have their own Apple IDs hooked up to their parents' credit cards, but parents don't have to worry about finding strange charges on their bills, because they'll be approving all the purchases.
