iOS 7: Get your iPhone and iPad ready for the update
The new iPhones and the free iOS 7 update are imminent. The articles regarding which devices can run the new Apple mobile operating system and how to prepare for that momentous occasion of installing it on your device are plentiful.
Christina Bonnington of Wired, in her article How to Prep Your iDevice for iOS 7, offers three salient points that you should either consider or physically do with your iOS device before you install iOS 7.
The first item is to make sure your device is compatible. Our very own Yoni Heisler wrote an article noting that iOS 7 won't run on the iPhone 3GS or earlier, or the original iPad; some features will be iPhone 5 only, including some device-specific iOS 7 features. Another article by Brock Kyle from EveryMac.com details the exact iOS 7 features supported by each device from the iPad 2 to the fifth-generation iPod touch.
The second item is to back up your device. David Cooper commented on the Wired article and points people to a video he created on how to accomplish making a backup. His video is aimed at the absolute beginner and is perfect for those who find technology confusing (like my 90-year-old mom). The four-minute Understand Apple prepping your Apple device for iOS 7 resides on YouTube. Steve Sande has a set of text-based instructions in his article on TUAW, World Backup Day 2013. It doesn't matter whether you back up to the Cloud or your computer, but please back up! If you need help in choosing whether to backup to your computer or iCloud, Apple has a support article just for you: Choosing an iOS backup method.
At the very least, remove your video or photographs, so that you don't lose any of them. Apple's Image Capture software (included with every Macintosh) is a great little app to copy items off your iPad or iPhone.
The last bit of advice Wired recommends is to clean out your iOS device. If you do not want to rummage through all the apps on it, just be aware that some apps may not work smoothly with the new iOS.
Stay tuned for a plethora of articles coming up on TUAW on the new features of iOS 7 over the next few days.
