What’s the most annoying thing about iOS to date? There’s a lot of stuff to gripe about. Some things aren’t optimally designed, like notifcations, and other things are afterthoughts, like multi-tasking. But, there’s one thing that hasn’t even been addressed yet, and I think that iOS 5 could provide the best possible opportunity to introduce it: data syncing across iOS devices.
As we’re all very aware of, Apple’s sitting on a giant data center in North Carolina. They’ve already announced that the site will go live this spring, and many believe that it will be part of a MobileMe relaunch. Apple’s come out and said that the data center is specifically for MobileMe and iTunes. But, what if it was also used to sync data between your iPhone or iPod touch and your iPad. Heck, this feature would be a stellar new feature in a new MobileMe.
It should already be a part of Game Center
Currently, the most obvious need for the syncing is games, and with Game Center still lacking in some areas, it would make sense that Apple would eventually let users sync their saved games between devices. I’m sure everyone’s spent time getting annoyed that Angry Birds data isn’t carried over from one device to another. There are ways to sync the devices manually, but it isn’t exactly for the faint of heart or the beginner.
Heck, it should happen for all apps
Getting your game files is one thing, but getting access to your documents and app specific information from one device to another is even more important moving forward. While this kind of functionality usually just takes syncing support on a web server somewhere, the large volume of apps that don’t support syncing of your information is a testament to this dire need.
Why shouldn’t I be able to create my grocery list on my iPad, then have it automatically show up on my iPhone by the time I get to the store? Again, this technology already exists, but I wouldn’t mind if Apple made it easier for developers who don’t have piles of money to burn on servers in the cloud.
When iOS was released all those years ago, most people had one device, but now that a large number of iPhone and iPod touch users also have an iPad, getting information from one device to another needs to be addressed relatively fast.
Apple could make this happen in iOS 5, and we would all be better off with it in our arsenal.
Note: If you liked this post, you’ll probably like our post on a new iOS lock screen.
