Tag: iCloud

How to update your iPhone/iPad to the latest iOS version

Any day now, Apple will release iOS 8. I am sure Apple's update servers will be slammed and for many of us the download will take forever. I've owned iOS devices since the first iPad was released in April 2010. Over the years I've learned that there are certain things I can do to make updating my iOS devices easier.

Backup

The first thing I do before applying any iOS update is to back up my current device. My first backup is to iCloud. If you don't have an iCloud account, create one. It's free and a requirement in my home. We have eight iOS devices in our home (one iPad and one iPhone per person) and each one is backed up to an iCloud account. I explained it to my family this way. If you have important photos and videos on your device and that device is lost, stolen or damaged all those photos are gone. Toast. Never existed. Upgrading to iOS 8 is free.

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iCloud
iCloud

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Storage & Backup
Storage & Backup

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Back Up Now
Back Up Now

Once you have your iCloud account setup, launch the Settings app. Tap the iCloud icon and then Storage & Backup. From that screen, enable iCloud Backup and then tap Back Up Now. Your iOS device needs to be plugged in and connected to a wi-fi network. The iPhone will not backup over a cellular network.

Once my iCloud backup is complete, I repeat the process to create another backup. Yes, I'm a bit paranoid. But I want to make sure that I have a good useable back up of my iOS device.

One I have completed the second iCloud backup of my device I connect the device to my computer and launch iTunes. I'm a Mac but the process should be the same for Windows. From iTunes, select the device and click to view the Info screen. Click the "Back Up Now" button to start the back up.

Backup to iTunes

Just like I did for the iCloud backup, I do this twice. When I'm all done, I will have 4 recent backups of my iOS device; two in iCloud and two in iTunes on my local machine. Now I can go ahead and update to the new OS.

Updating

In my experience, updating one iOS device is easier if done directly over a stable wi-fi connection. From the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update. The update will show up and you can tap to start the installation process. NOTE: You iOS device will need to be plugged in and on wi-fi to download the update.

However, I have eight devices to update and on the first day of a new iOS release, Apple's update servers are usually flooded with requests. For me it's more efficient to use iTunes to download the update once from Apple's servers and then do the updates on each device independently while connected to iTunes and my Mac. Instead of eight devices fighting for network bandwidth on my home network while also fighting for a place in the download queue at Apple's servers, I download once and deploy multiple times. This also give me the advantage of seeing if update caused any issues. One device hosed is bad, eight devices hosed is a disaster.

To download an update a device using iTunes the device must be plugged into a computer running iTunes. Once your device is connected to your computer, launch iTunes, select the device icon, and then click the info tab. If there is an update for your device, iTunes will indicate that and prompt you to download and install the update. I usually download the update first and then I use that one download to apply it to each device.

All done

Good luck. Hopefully the iOS update will be out in a few hours and we'll all get to enjoy it's new features.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Anyone else having OS X 10.9 issues?

I’m not having a good experience with Mavericks on my 2008 iMac. I think the upgrade messed up my keychain in some way. Mail, Contacts and Calendar (my Google account) no longer sync — I’m constantly prompted to enter passwords over and over again. Removing the account and adding them back doesn't resolve the issue. Since my contacts and calendar are hosted by Google I don’t have access to them locally.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr integration are also not working. I've removed them from the "Internet Accounts" panel in System Settings but the system won't let me add them back.

The iCloud Keychain won’t activate at all. I get an error message that my Mac failed to contact the iCloud server. Sigh!

What's annoying is that everything works fine from my wife's 2013 MacBook Air. I don't have any problems using any of the new features from my account on that MacBook.

In the mean time, I have switched to using AirMail and I may also switch my contact over to Cobook. AirMail takes a while to start-up but once it gets going it does a great job. I especially like that I can attach documents directly from cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive. Cobook also has an iOS version. I like that close integration.

Anyone else having OS X 10.9 issues?

Regular People Have No Idea How To Manage Photos On Their iPhone

I found this post by Bradley Chambers via Daring Fireball.

Apple needs to do one of the following things (in my opinion):

Buy Everpix and integrate that functionality right into iOS and the Mac. I love Everpix as standalone company, but a lot of people aren't ever go to hear about them unless it was functionality built right in by default. Also, photo stream needs to be reversed. Apple should store ALL photos/video taken with your iPhone and just store the most recent 1000 (or 30 days) locally on the device.

Make iCloud free for the total size of all the active devices backing up to that account. If I have a 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPad, I should have 48GB available on iCloud for backups. If a device doesn't "check in" every 90 days, then that amount is removed from your quota. This would also be another reason to buy higher storage devices.

Make iCloud storage a terabyte for all users for free. This is almost the same as number two, but giving you so much that you'll likely not run out for a decade or so. Yahoo did it for Flickr, why can't Apple?Bradley Chambers

I disagree with Bradley. Apple and Yahoo ( and Google ) are in different business. Yahoo and Google make money from selling advertising. The end-user is the product. Google and Yahoo can offer seemingly free services in exchange for collecting and analyzing use information. The continuous advertising revenue generated by the user offsets the cost of providing those services. Apple, however, sells an actual product. The end-user is the customer. I only buy a new Apple device once in a while but Apple would have to give me service for the lifetime of that product. I have no MBA or large business experience but I just don't see how Apple would recoup the costs or running these services?