New software update Kola Nut 1.8.5 is ready

From someone totally new to smartphones and hopes to get stepwise manual instructions

  1. How can you first update to 1.8 but not the unified storage. Is it a
    two step process and you chose not to follow the second step?
  2. What does flash back to 1.6 mean and how do you do that?
  3. do you keep the sd-card in the phone while udpating?
  4. What do you mean by “sync of all my accounts manually” and how do you do that?
  5. Is textSecure an downloadable app that you use for sms and contact
    list? Why is this better? And, is this related to question 5?

Thanks for you patience