Sep 18, 2014 04:13 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Now that Apple has proudly released iOS 8, the very latest and greatest mobile operating system, users may be looking for reasons to upgrade.

So here are 8 of them.

1.     A more sophisticated Find My iPhone

As Davis Pogue noted for Yahoo, iOS 8 enables your iPhone to send out a signal of where it is before the battery runs out. This is incredibly useful if a user loses his or her device and the battery dies, as Find My iPhone would not normally work under such conditions.

2.     Same Siri, better features

Thankfully, Siri does not appear to be headed in the direction of Apple Maps. Since Apple first introduced Siri, the company has promised to make the voice command better, but this time they really followed through. Now users can ask Siri a question without holding down the home button.

How? Just say, "Hey, Siri." (Settings > General > Siri. Turn on Hey Siri).

Siri can also tell you the name of the song you're listening too, a la Shazam, CNET reported.

3.     The Swype Keyboard is finally iOS-compatible

The ultra-fast smartphone-typing feature has been around for a while and it works as well as advertised, but has never been compatible with iOS.

Until now.

App developers are bound to create their own free versions, or you can download the official Swype app for $0.99.

4.     Notification Center extensions

Users can now put some of their favorite apps into their Notification Center, and no, not just Apple's own apps. For example, BuzzFeed and Evernote are just among the apps that have developed their own.

5.     Updates to messaging, not that it really needed any

Ever received a text message only to come to the devastating realization it's a group SMS thread? So has everyone. With iOS 8, Apple Insider reported, you can back out of those groups messages. The new iOS also allows users to tell their iPhone to automatically delete text threads once they've gone idle for a certain period of time.

6.     HealthKit

While it remains to be seen how effective this will be, HealthKit should be pretty cool when paired with an Apple Watch.

7.     Micromanaging the battery

Users will now be able to see what exactly is eating their battery and be warned when his or her phone is working extra hard to find a signal. In the case of the latter, simply put your iPhone into Airplane Mode so the device does not strain itself looking for a signal that isn't there.

8.     iOS 8 wants to help you optimize iOS 8

You may noticed an app called Tips, which will help 8 users master the new iOS. Check it out, because after all you can't delete it.

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