iOS 8 is here. Get ready with these 3 steps. [Updated]

It's here.

It’s here.

Sometime today, Apple will serve up a steaming, delicious bowl of its latest mobile operating system. The smart money says iOS 8 will drop around noon CDT. If you’ve got an iPhone 4S or later; iPad 2 or later; all iPad minis; and iPod Touch 5th generation, you’ll be able to install it, either wirelessly or by connecting your device to a PC or Mac running the latest version of iTunes.

But there are a few things you’ll want to do first before you take the plunge. These three steps could save you frustration and heartbreak later.

1. Update your apps. If you haven’t already, check the App Store on your device for new versions of the apps you use. If you’re set up to automatically download new software, you don’t have to worry about this. But if developers have been busily cranking up versions of their apps that work with iOS 8, and you’ll want them in place when you upgrade the operating system.

2. Clear some space. If you plan to update your device by downloading iOS 8 wirelessly, you’ll need at least 3 gigabytes of free space. Deleting video, unneeded photos, apps you don’t use and image/video-laden text message threads will do the trick. Go to Settings > General > Usage to see what apps and their data are using the most space. Note that if you can’t clear at least 3 GB, you can always connect your iDevice to a computer with iTunes and install that way – it requires less free space. [Note: My 16-GB iPad 3 require a whopping 5.8 GB of free space before the update would begin. Clearing iMessage threads really helped me get to that point.]

3. Back up your device. Connect your device to a computer running iTunes and sync it to do a backup. You can also back up to iCloud, but you’ll need enough space in your iCloud account to complete this. Apple gives you 5 GB free, but if you’ve got a lot of data on your phone, you likely won’t have enough room to store the backup unless you pay for extra server space. Do yourself a favor and, in this case, back up old-school.

Once iOS 8 is available, you’ll be able to go to Settings > General > Software Update to get it. If you’re the impatient type and want it immediately, you’re likely to find Apple’s servers are swamped. Adjust your Zen, wait a few hours, then try again.

And GeekWire has a warning: Don’t turn on iCloud Drive – Apple’s version of Dropbox or Google Drive – until AFTER the next version of OS X is out and installed on your Mac.

One of the things that iOS 8 brings with it is the ability to use iCloud Drive, a Dropbox-like system that brings folders to a user’s iCloud storage. It works okay for users who are also beta testing OS X Yosemite, but most normal users will see nothing but problems from a premature upgrade to iCloud Drive. Apps that rely on iCloud functionality to sync data will see that syncing capability broken if users switch to the new setting.

Yosemite is due next month. Patience, in this case, will be more than a virtue.

I’ll update this post once iOS 8 is available.

Update: iOS 8 is now showing up on compatible Apple devices. Go get it (after you’ve done the three steps listed above, of course).