Really, there’s only a small handful of things that are broken in iOS — notifications, multi-tasking, and syncing. While the first two are rumored to be getting an update in iOS 5, syncing is on the minds of a lot of iOS users. It’s bad enough having to tether to your computer for extended amounts of time while your 64 GB iPad syncs all of your precious data, but having to go over to the desk every time you want to upgrade the operating system of your device is getting old pretty quickly. Even worse, having to go to your computer to update your iPhone in a post-PC world is turning into a bit of a problem.
Over the air (OTA) syncing has been on the mind of a lot of people and pundits alike. If we’re truly living in a post-PC world, then why do we need a computer to update our phones and other iOS devices? Most people have 3G, and if that’s not enough, most people access Wi-Fi while in the home with their mobile devices.
It would seem then that OTA updates are definitely on the horizon. If we’re going to continue encouraging people to treat an iPad as a primary computing device, it needs to be able to act like one. Updating your device needs to be an option for those who have both a regular computer and those without one.
If the rumors are to be believed, and at this point it sounds pretty likely, point releases after the major iOS 5 update may be delivered over the air, directly to your device. Of course, there are going to be detractors, and there’s always the carrier problem. Surely they would discourage pushing such large amounts of data across the 3G network. But on the whole, we would like to think that this would be a huge move in the right direction. After all, when was the last time carriers supported something innovative?
It sounds like the technology certainly exists, and that Apple may be on the brink of changing the way we both update our iOS devices, and sync its content on a day to day basis. If that happens sooner than later, we could find ourselves smack in the middle of the post-PC world faster than we might realize.
Article Via The Next Web
Photo Credit: olleeriksson (via iDesk)