How to Upgrade to iOS 8.0

How to Upgrade to iOS 8.0

Are you ready to upgrade to iOS 8.0? Don't worry, Apple has made the process for upgrading the operating system on your iPad is rather easy. The iOS 8 update had some great features like AirDrop Handoff, which lets you hand off what you are working on to your iPhone or Mac, and Extensibility, which allows you to install widgets into your notification center and replace the on-screen keyboard with a third-party keyboard.

The iOS 8.0 update requires around 6.9 GB of free storage space on the iPad and a bit over 4 GB on the iPhone. If you have the 16 GB model, this amounts to a big chunk of your storage. You can check your available space in Settings -> General -> Usage. Find out more about checking usage and clearing up storage space.

There are two ways to upgrade to iOS 8.0: You can use your Wi-Fi connection, or you can connect your iPad to your PC and update through iTunes. We'll go over each method.

To upgrade using Wi-Fi:

Note: If your iPad's battery is under 50%, you will want to plug it into your charger while performing the update.

1.Go into the iPad's Settings.

2.Locate and tap "General" from the menu on the left.

3.The second option from the top is "Software Update". Tap this to move into the update settings.

4.Tap "Download and Install". This will start the upgrade, which will take several minutes and will reboot your iPad during the process. If the Download and Install button is grayed out, trying clearing up some space. The space required by the update is mostly temporary, so you should gain most of it back after iOS 8.0 is installed.

5.Once the update is installed, you may have to run through the initial steps of setting up your iPad again. This is to account for new features and settings.

To upgrade using iTunes:

First, connect your iPad to your PC or Mac using the cable provided when you purchased your device. This will allow iTunes to communicate with your iPad.

You will also need the latest version of iTunes. Don't worry, you will be prompted to download the latest version when you launch iTunes. Once it installs, you may be asked to setup iCloud by logging into your iTunes account. If you have a Mac, you may be prompted on whether or not you want to enable the Find my Mac feature.

Now you are ready to begin the process:

1.If you upgraded iTunes earlier, go ahead and launch it. (For many, it will launch automatically when you plug in your iPad.)

2.Once iTunes is launched, it should automatically detect that a new version of the operating system exists and prompt you to upgrade to it. Choose Cancel. Before updating, you will want to manually sync your iPad to make sure everything is up to date.

3.After canceling the dialog box, iTunes should automatically sync with your iPad.

4.If iTunes doesn't automatically sync, you can manually do it by selecting your iPad within iTunes, clicking on the File menu and choosing Sync iPad from the list.

5.After your iPad has been synced to iTunes, select your iPad within iTunes. You can find it on the left side menu under Devices.

6.From the iPad screen, click on the Update button.

7.After verifying that you want to update your iPad, the process will begin. It takes a few minutes to update the operating system during which time your iPad may reboot a few times.

8.After updating, you may be asked a few questions when your device finally boots back up. This is to account for new settings and features.

After iOS 8.0 is installed:

There are a few key features of the iOS 8.0 update that you may want to set up after installing it on your iPad. The first is Family Sharing, which allows each member of the household who owns an iOS device to have a separate iTunes account while sharing the same access to music, movies and most apps. The second is iCloud Drive, which extends the iCloud service to a full-fledged cloud storage solution.

iPad Usage: Where Did All My Storage Space Go?

Find Out Which Apps, Music and Videos Are Taking Up All Your Space

Have you found your iPad running low on storage space lately? If you are running with a 16 GB model, or if you carry around a large music and movies collection, you can quickly run into space problems on your iPad. And while deleting a few apps or a game that you never play anymore can be a quick fix, the time will come to do a deep cleaning.

But where to start?

The iPad is capable of telling you where all your space has gone through the iPad usage in the settings. This screen will break down your storage problems by listing all the apps on your iPad, starting with those that are taking up the most space. It will also group your music, movies and photos into separate categories and list them alongside your apps, so you can quickly tell if carrying around your entire music collection is the culprit or if it's keeping the entire Infinity Blade series that is taking up too much of your storage space.

Here's how to view your iPad usage:

1.Go into your iPad's settings by launching the Settings app. (Find out how...)

2.Choose "General" from the left-side menu.

3.Scroll down until you locate "Usage". It is just under the Lock Rotation/Mute setting for the side switch. Tapping Usage will bring you to the usage screen.

4.It may take a few seconds for the iPad to calculate and categorize your storage.

5.You can delete specific apps from this screen by tapping them to view storage details and tapping the "Delete App" button on the details screen.

6.You can also delete all of your music from this screen, but you cannot delete individual songs. So if you just want to weed out the rarely-played artists and songs, you'll want to do so in the Music app.


Hint: You don't need all of your music or videos on your iPad for use in the home. Find out how to set up home sharing in iTunes to save space on your iPad.

What Is a Good Internet Connection Speed?

My wife and I are on cable Broadband 100, which means we get approximately 100 megabits-per-second download speeds. 100mbps is currently the fastest modern-day connection that you can get for wired home service in North America. While most of you don't need 100mbps, you should be getting at least 8 megabits per second to consider yourself a modern user. Anything less than 8 mbps is slow.

Here is a visually-pleasing way to test your internet connection speed. Speedtest.net is a Flash-Javascript tool by the people who made Ookla. Use this free tool to measure your internet service provider.

eBay 101: a Primer to eBay Navigating, Buying, and Selling

An Overview and Summary of eBay for New Users (Part of the Become a Confident eBayer reference series)

Part 1: How eBay Works.

eBay started in 1995 in San Jose, California. This is when computer programmer, Pierre Omidyar, and his wife decided to trade collectible goods online using the World Wide Web. Calling on his software experience, Pierre designed and launched a website, 'Auctionweb', where traders could meet to sell their goods to other collectors, all within an environment of professional trust. While limited in scope and size, Auctionweb did meet success and Pierre later renamed the service to eBay (with a lower-case “e”).

eBay.com has grown into the largest and most successful online business model in history. Today in 2014, tens of millions of people converge daily at eBay.com and eBaymotors.com to buy and sell millions of dollars in new and used merchandise. From simple products like old Monopoly games and used Elvis records, to wholesale electronics and digital cameras, all the way up to exotic motor vehicles, high-end artwork, and expensive real estate, eBay has become the global trading platform for the everyperson.

The eBay business model is magnificently simple: provide a safe and motivating online marketplace where anyone can gather to trade products with confidence. Charge people a small fee to sell their wares, make it very easy to transact money in confidence,and enforce safety and trust for everyone.

At its base level, eBay works exactly like an electronic 'flea market':

1.eBay sellers pay a small flat fee plus a 1.5% percentage fee to eBay in order to market their wares;

2.eBay buyers visit and use the marketplace without any surcharges;

3.Any parties that abuse the system or each other will be disciplined or ejected.

At a higher level, eBay is different from a regular flea market for several reasons:

1.The eBay marketplace is international, and crosses language and national boundaries;

2.The massive choice of goods is awe-inspiring;

3.Sales can either be auction format (competitions between bidders), or traditional fixed price format. The sellers choose whichever format they prefer;

4.The buyers and sellers will likely never meet in person;

5.The buyers do not get to see the product in person before purchase, but are given various post-purchase guarantees to ensure satisfaction;

6.Very sophisticated computer measures are implemented to minimize electronic dishonesty on all sides;

7.Fulltime staff are employed to enforce safety and fairness across the system;

8.An honesty incentive model called 'positive feedback' is used to motivate buyers and sellers to trade with integrity;

9.Professional third parties payment services, like Paypal, Bidpay, and Escrow.com, are brought in to ensure safe and trusted payment between eBayers;

10.eBay is easier to use than a flea market.


What are the downsides to eBay?:

Certainly, no system is perfect. eBay has its fair share of frustrations. Here are the negative aspects of eBay that you may experience:


1.Slowness of delivery: this is the most common dispute between eBayers. While most eBay buyers do ship products within days of the purchase, some eBayers wait weeks to receive their products in the mail.

2.Surcharges for sellers can add up if you are a regular seller. Particularly if you are a very serious seller who wants to make eBay your fulltime income, eBay surcharges will start to feel like franchising fees for a restaurant.

3.Misrepresented products: Some amateur sellers will do a poor job accurately describing their products online, and will disappoint some buyers when the product is finally delivered.

4.Quality control can be very amateurish, depending on the seller: By the very nature of the flea market format, most anybody can sell on eBay. Some amateur sellers are plagued by poor quality control, packing, and shipping: they will ship broken products, the wrong products, or the wrong size of product.



Gratefully, the good elements far outweighs the bad at eBay. eBay works well because it motivates its sellers to treat their customers with honesty and integrity. The great majority of eBay sellers provide honest and reliable service, and you will know who those people are by their high public feedback.

Nine reasons only a tool would buy the Apple Watch

Tim Cook has announced the Apple Watch, including a solid gold version for £13,500. But who would actually buy it? And why would they want to?

It’s difficult to know what the defining news moment of 2015 has been so far: the consecration of the first female bishop in the UK? The explosive Westminster cash-for-access scandal? Patricia Arquette’s inspiring call for equality in her Oscars speech?

Or yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Watch from company chief executive Tim Cook. #ICYMI (in case you missed it), the most valuable company in the world announced the specs and models of its timepiece – and a new MacBook – at a ceremony that included a lot of whoops and clapping from middle-aged white men, and a video of supermodel Christy Turlington Burns training for a half marathon in Africa.

So is the Apple Watch worth a purchase in any of its guises? Here’s why I’m not too impressed, and why you shouldn’t be either.

1. ‘If you’re an email junkie, you can read full emails’
Said Cook, excitedly, as though the idea of us being able to access phishing scams, PR requests, political party propaganda and long-ago subscribed-to newsletters 24/7 was a good thing.

One of the rudest things a person can do is check their phone over dinner. Soon to be usurped by checking one’s Apple Watch over dinner.

2. Embracing a two-tier health system
There is no doubt that the Health angle of the Apple Watch is very impressive. The company has worked with the likes of the University of Oxford to create health monitoring apps, including for breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and Parkinson’s disease.

This means that as the Tories privatise the NHS and Obamacare faces an uncertain future and we all crumble into dust, those of us able to afford the Apple Watch and newer model iPhones will be kicking back with a resting heart rate of 50, while spamming social media with our 10k run PBs. Sorry about the rest of you.

3. Apple Pay = flash spendthrifts
We envision a future in which Apple Pay becomes the new American Express Black. All of us currently feel a little James Bond about our contactless debit cards (right?), but imagine a world in which Apple Pay allows for limitless transactions; a sea of Christian Greys flashing their wrists at waiters and pointing it at bell-boys.

4. $17,000 (£13,500) for a gold watch is absurd
I’m just gonna throw this out there: anybody who is considering purchasing a $17,000 (or £13,500 in the UK) solid gold watch – don’t. First of all, spending what could be the deposit on a flat, or a whole car, on a timepiece is ridiculous. But if you must, at least go for a brand with a little class and heritage.

Or, I dunno, just go to Frieze and buy an original artwork. Culture, innit.

5. The Internet of Things is turning us into robots
Pretty soon, every single thing in our lives will be connected – this concept is known as the Internet of Things, which is annoying in itself.

But with the forward march of Apple Watch and other products – and their integration with literally everything – we’ll soon be living in a world in which going back to someone’s flat at the end of an evening will result in them discussing how they control their underfloor heating with just the swipe of a watch face. Great.

6. There is a Mickey Mouse edition watch face
I used to have a Lion King watch when I was at school. I was seven. Any adult who orders a Mickey Mouse Apple Watch is a tool. Worse, anybody who buys a $350 (£230) watch for their child, is also a tool.

Kids are muddy and messy and roll around and spill things and break things and lose things. No point to this Mickey Mouse watch face, then.

7. Shazam integration

Now the type of people who can’t sit through a movie without providing a running commentary, or listen to a song without either Googling it or Shazam-ing it can run wild without even reaching for their pocket.

Shazam is a service that allows users to instantly call up the title and details of a song by recording a snippet of it on a phone. With a special app for the Apple Watch, the use of Shazam will become a lot of more frequent. Imagine a sporadically romantic moment ruined as your new bae calls up his watch to identify Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You playing in the restaurant. Aw.

8. Probably contributing to dodgy economics
Apple Watch is the company’s most environmentally friendly product. But there are still some concerns over the conditions of the factories where Apple’s products are made, and the lack of benefit to the American economy. Do you really wanna be another cog in the great evil capitalist machine? Are we all just abandoning our morals for shiny things? (Yes.)

9. All the other things you could be buying
Just, for example, things that would make you look much cooler than having the cheapest model Apple Watch: a sharp Aquascutum suit, this cute J Crew dress, a first edition Bill Clinton, Wimbledon tickets … I mean, pretty much anything.

The plus point, however, to owning a new Apple Watch? It’s very good at telling the time. Yup.

Time for a loan? Solid gold Apple Watch will cost $17k

The Californian technology company revealed full details of its smartwatch range, including a luxury range that starts with a solid 18-carat gold version for $10,000

Apple will make its entry into the world of high-end fashion with a solid 18-carat gold Apple Watch costing over $10,000.

Uncharacteristically for the company, Tim Cook gave the price of the Apple Watch Edition as “from” $10,000, with no corresponding price at the top of the range, but the company’s website reveals that it can rise to $17,000 when bought with the “modern buckle”, a strap containing a chunky solid-gold clasp.

The mid-tier Apple Watch, by contrast, starts at $549, but can rise to double that, $1,099, with the larger screen size and most expensive watch bands.

Despite being made from solid gold, few analysts had predicted a price of more than $10,000 for the watch. A poll of Guardian readers pegged the likely price at half that: $5,000. Some observers guessed even lower, around $2,000–$3,000, based on reports that the company was employing a new method for making gold alloy, using ceramic particles, which required 28% less gold by volume for an 18-carat.

In the end, the company appeared to base its pricing on comparably high-end analogue watches. A rose gold Rolex costs $18,000 (£12,000), while a similar Omega watch, set with diamonds, can be as much as £24,000.

But unlike those watches, which are designed, and often explicitly advertised, to last long enough to pass down to one’s children, the Apple Watch will eventually be obsolete, replaced by newer models.

Some thought that the company may have announced a way around this problem, either offering the ability to upgrade the internal components, or to trade in the old watch for money off a new one. But no such programme was announced, suggesting that the advice in the future to owners of a newly obsolete £13,500 watch will be the same as it is to owners of a newly obsolete £600 phone: suck it up and buy a new one.

Apple Watch arrives in stores – but gold ones are like gold dust outside London

The biggest company in the world has launched its newest device, but the reception has been muted compared to previous launches – deliberately so

The Apple Watch was made available to order on Friday, with the company’s attempt to discourage customers from camping outside Apple Stores proving largely successful.

At 8:01 on Friday morning, London’s major Apple stores in Regent Street and Covent Garden had bare pavement outside – a far cry from the bustling scenes greeting the company’s last major device launches, the iPhones 6 and 6 Plus.

But Angela Ahrendts, the company’s retail chief, won’t be sad at the lack of a scrum, having advised customers directly that online was as good as offline. “To provide the best experience and selection to as many customers as we can, we will be taking orders for Apple Watch exclusively online during the initial launch period,” she said in a press release.

Those stores (as well as the Apple outpost in the Selfridges department store) do have one unique draw: the only units of the solid gold, £8,000 Apple Watch Edition available to try on in the whole of Britain. Customers will still have to book an appointment, in slots of up to 15 minutes, using the company’s website, before they can put the 18-karat slab of gold on their wrists, however.

No other city in Britain will have any units of the gold watches available to try on (or even look at) in-store, leaving the watch – Apple’s attempt to compete with traditional watchmakers tendency to sell expensive solid-gold watches to the super rich in the West and abroad – a London-only prospect for the time being.

That’s not to say would-be buyers can’t pre-order the watch in other cities, though. But they won’t be able to try them on before they buy them, meaning they may as well have stayed at home. As Ahrendts made clear,the Apple Watch isn’t available for pre-order directly in any Apple store, with the company moving to an all-online system: customers are able to try on the watch (including the Watch Edition, in the three London stores), but then have to use in-store iPads to pre-order them.

As for the gold Apple Watch, the hefty price tag doesn’t seem to have put off buyers. Pre-order now, and the earliest it will arrive is this June.