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5 things to know before installing iOS 8

By James Lu - 18 Sep 2014

5 things to know before installing iOS 8

iOS 8 is here. Last night, Apple officially released the latest version of its mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad users. iOS 8 is the second major OS released under the leadership of Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, following iOS 7 last year. New features include support for third-party keyboards (such as SwiftKey), Touch ID for third-party apps, and new widgets for quick app alerts in the notification center. 

For a more detailed look at iOS 8's new features check out our WWDC 2014 coverage acticle.

You can download iOS 8 by going to the settings menu (Settings > General > Software Update) on your device or by connecting your device to iTunes.

But before you do that, here are five things you should know first:

1. iOS 8 is compatible with any iPhone from the 4S on, or any second-generation or better iPad (it also works with the fifth-generation iPod Touch). 

A few features of iOS 8 are exclusive to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, including Apple Pay (which won't be available locally anytime soon anyway), Reachability (one-handed) mode, and the 6 Plus' landscape mode. Everything else (including these awesome new camera features) is available for all compatible devices.

Time-lapse photography is now available on all iOS 8 compatible devices!

2. If iOS 7 was all about design and aesthetics, iOS 8's focus is on functionality.

There aren't many aesthetic changes in iOS 8, but the update does include a number of features that fans have been asking for for years, including better synergy between iOS and OS X, the ability to install third party keyboards, widget apps in the notifications menu, battery usage statistics for individual apps, and improved SMS and voice messaging.

The new battery usage chart shows you just how much juice that Kim Kardashian game is actually taking up.

3. You'll need nearly 6GB of free space available on your device

The over-the-air iOS 8 update package is about 1.1GB depending on your device, however users are required to have 5.7GB of free space on their device in order to actually download and install the update. It's worth noting that if you download the update directly through iTunes, you'll need less space.

If you're stuck for space, now might be a good time to back everything up and do a clean install on your iPhone.

4. If you're using an iPhone 4S, you might not want to upgrade to iOS 8.

The 4S is nearly three years old now, which might as well be thirty in phone years. The 4S's A5 processor has about a quarter of the performance of the iPhone 5S, and already struggles with iOS 7's transitions and animations and it doesn't get any better in iOS 8. Having said that, iOS 8 has enough functionality upgrades in it that you might consider the lag a worthwhile tradeoff.

The venerable iPhone 4S supports iOS 8, but it's struggling to keep up.

5. Consider waiting for iOS 8.1 (or 8.1.2).

When iOS 7 first released, many users felt that the OS was slower than iOS 6 and noticeably sluggish. Apple seemed to fix the problem in iOS 7.1, which sped everything up, but also included a pretty horrendous battery draining bug that wasn't fixed until iOS 7.1.2. iOS 7 was a drastic and noticeable change in the way your Apple device looked, so many users upgraded immediately. iOS 8 on the other hand looks pretty much the same, so if you can live without its new features for a while, you might be better off waiting for any potential bugs to surface and be fixed, and hold off until iOS 8.1.

We haven't heard of any significant bugs or problems with iOS 8 so far, but to be cautious you might want to wait a bit before upgrading.

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