Gadgetory

it's time to get ready for the arrival of iOS 8 I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update Apple's iOS 8 will be available to download Wednesday but before you upgrade your iphone or ipad you'll want to prep your device and make some space for the software last year the iOS 7 update required about three gigs of free space to install now it didn't actually eat up that much space it only took up about 700 megabytes but this time around you should expect that you'll also need about three gigs free to upgrade start by deleting unused apps photos also take up lots of space so you'll want to transfer them to your main computer and you can also use a service like iCloud in case there's any major problems during the update you should make a backup of your files and contacts you can do this with iCloud over Wi-Fi or by connecting your device to the computer and using iTunes you can get more instructions on cnet and if you have an older product such as the iphone 4s or the ipad 2 you may want to avoid upgrading last year some iphone 4 owners complained of performance issues when they jumped up to iowa 7 now with iOS 8 comes new notifications you can respond to events reply to messages and interact with alerts right from the lock screen and the drop down menu double tapping the home button shows your recent apps but now it'll also have shortcuts to the people you've spoken to most recently with icons of their faces across the top of the screen and you could just tap their face to quickly call or message them if you have a model with a fingerprint scanner like the new iPhone 6 or the 5s the touch ID security system can be used by other apps there's also more of a focus on having a hub for your health data with health kit there's also a home kit for controlling internet-connected gadgets in your home the keyboard is more adaptive to the way you talk and you can send audio clips and maps of your location as messages to your friends photos also get new editing tools when iOS 8 arrives you'll find a walkthrough of these features on cnet you've heard quite a bit about Apple pay but that will only be available next month for those with the new iPhone 6 models with the NFC sensor and for now that NFC sensor can only be used for Apple pay other apps can't make programs to use that sensor for other things and while we're on the topic of cleaning up your memory it's also good to review your Facebook settings for outside apps facebook updated the app settings page so you can easily see which programs have access to your Facebook friends lists and other key information you may be surprised to see how many apps connect with your Facebook account and for security you'll want to delete the apps that you don't use anymore that's your tech news update be sure to subscribe to the podcast to stay updated daily from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey