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Apple is going to release iOS 8 today.
Many of us will download it as soon as it’s available, and many more will do it as soon as a notification pops up on our iPhone or iPad.
iOS 7 was a major upheaval: A different user experience for iOS. People using low-end devices found that the upgrade was a little too much for their systems to handle, and some of the new features broke compatibility with existing apps.
Even though iOS 8 isn’t as major a change as iOS 7 was, there are still good reasons to wait.
Backup
If you haven’t synced your iOS device to your Mac or PC, or if you haven’t used iCloud Backup, please don’t upgrade yet. Make sure you have a backup of your device before you install the upgrade.
If something goes wrong, and your phone is bricked or you have to restore it, you don’t want to be put in a situation where you will lose precious information, family photos and other irreplaceable content.
Broken apps
Developers have had months to get their apps compatible, and already we’ve seen updates to apps that list “improves compatibility with iOS 8” among their features.
But there are still plenty of applications that won’t work right, like Dropbox, and it’s going to take some time for developers to find all those problems and fix them.
Your corporate apps may not be ready
If you work for a business or organization that supports iOS devices and you’re dependent on your iPhone or iPad to get work done, give a call to your organization’s IT to find out what their official position is on iOS 8 support.
You may be setting yourself up for a world of hurt if you update your device only to find that crucial apps or services necessary for your job have stopped working, or that the folks supporting your device may not be ready to support the new software.
Upgrading to iCloud Drive can cause problems for Mac users and others
Upgrading to the new operating system will prompt you to convert your iCloud storage to iCloud Drive. iCloud Drive is terrific — Apple’s making it easier than ever to share files in the cloud between Mac and iOS. But iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are core requirements to use iCloud Drive. Yosemite isn’t out yet, and likely won’t be out until October.
Have a Mac or iOS devices that won’t make the iOS 8 cut? You might want to punt on iCloud Drive, at least, until you’ve worked out how you’re going to share files between them, or until they’re all ready to handle the transition.
There is no downgrade
Upgrading iOS is a one-way street, as far as Apple is concerned. Once you’ve upgraded, there’s no mechanism for downgrading to a previous iOS.
No Continuity for iPhone 4s, iPad 2 and iPad 3 users
Continuity is a new feature of iOS 8 that helps to make a seamless transition between using your Mac and using your iOS device. You can make phone calls from your Mac if your iPhone is nearby, for example. You can start an email on your iPhone and continue it on your Mac without skipping a beat.
Only one problem: Continuity doesn’t work on the iPhone 4s or the iPad 2 or iPad 3. If you’re using one of those devices and had hoped to see Continuity in action, you’re out of luck.
Are you ready to update?
If you’ve taken appropriate precautions and you’re ready, willing and able to deal with first-day issues, then by all means update your device.
I recommend to wait at least 2 days to upgrade:
reason 1: Majority iOS users will be trying to update on first day and everybody will get bad/slow experience with download
reason 2: in first 2 days you will get info on which apps are broken and probably all major bugs in iOS
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