Disclaimer: This is for educational purposes only, we do not recommend updating to iOS 8 before its official release (probably) on September 10. If you don't have a developer ID and install iOS 8 your warranty may be voided.
The iOS 8 release is likely to be announced alongside the iPhone 6 following Apple's trend of announcing devices on Tuesdays and releasing iOS updates on Wednesdays. A fairly safe bet would be that iOS 8 will be released on 10 September. But what if I told you that you could get iOS 8 on your iPhone 5s earlier than that?
Before you begin
Before you begin the upgrade to iOS 8 Beta you'll need to make sure you've gathered everything together to ensure you can follow the instructions and keep the installation as smooth as possible.
It should be noted that iOS 8 doesn't support iPhone 4 so you'll need one of the following devices to get early access to iOS 8: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, 3rd and 4th-gen iPad, iPad Air, 5th-gen iPod Touch, iPad Mini, and iPad Mini with Retina display.
The only official way to get your hands on the iOS 8 beta is to go through Apple's UDID registration program but allegedly there are a number of sites that host the iOS 8 beta that don't require you to go through the registration process.
Make sure that:
- You have iTunes 11.3.1
- You have the USB cable for your device
- That your device is running the latest version of iOS 7 (currently iOS 7.1.2)
Engage!
- Attach your device to your computer
- Open iTunes (although your computer should do this automatically)
- Go to the "Summary" section and for Windows hold the "Shift" key and left click "Check for updates". For OS X machines hold the "Alt" or "Options" key and left click "Check for updates".
- A window will open, select the iOS 8 firmware, click Open
- A window will open, click Update
- Your device will then go through usual update process
- iTunes will give you a pop-up when the update is complete
- At this point you'll need to unplug your device from iTunes and won't be able to plug it back in (due to activation issues)
Success
You can now enjoy the iOS 8 Beta on your iDevice. If you somehow did manage to update without registering your UDID as a developer, you can no longer connect your device to iTunes without activation errors.
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