Upgrading to iOS 4? Read me.

Unless you've been living under a rock, it's hard to avoid the news that Apple released a new iPhone, the iPhone 4. But for those of you with an iPhone 3 or 3GS, you may find it hard to stomach the cost of the new phone along with renewing your contract with AT&T for another couple years. So another one of Apple's announcements, the newly available upgrade called iOS 4, is welcome news for the rest of us.

"iOS" is Mr. Jobs' new name for the iPhone operating system and iOS 4 upgrades the core capabilities on the iPhone 3 and 3GS and to a lesser degree the iPod Touch and original iPhone. Even without the latest iPhone, you can get a lot of its features of the iPhone 4 with a simple software upgrade.

There's tons of articles about what features are included in iOS 4, so feel free to read Ars Technica's review of iOS 4. However, we know that a lot of our customers have iPhones, so we figured we'd pull out a few key things that every iPhone user should know about upgrading before they push the button.

The process is simple, but some iPhone users, including one of our very own techies, have reported lost data in the upgrade process. While there's a very small chance of this happening, remember this easy 3-step process - 1) Backup, 2) Sync, and 3) Photos - before upgrading.

In iTunes, right click (or control-click) on your iPhone and select Backup. Then once that is complete (it could take a number of minutes) hit the Sync button in the lower left to sync your downloaded applications and music to your computer. Finally, using iPhoto or Aperture, download your iPhone's photos to your computer. Now your data is protected.

iTunes will prompt you to upgrade anytime the iPhone is plugged in, so that part is easy. However, in our tests, the upgrade can take some time. We've seen it take anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours, so don't start the upgrade 10 minutes before that important conference call.

Once upgraded, you'll instantly see some of the great new features, but others are a little bit less obvious. Try double-pressing the home button and flick left and right on the bar that comes up on the bottom. You can control your iPod easily after a flick right and launch other apps quickly when you flick to the left. You can create your own playlists directly in the iPod application as well, just tap on the "Playlists" button on the bottom (hit More if you don't see it) and you can create a new playlist and add songs. There are 100s of other features.

For those of our customers with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Servers, there are also some key features that no one's talked. Last year, Apple added support for the iPhone to sync directly to the Snow Leopard iCal Server over the Internet, and in iOS 4, you can now sync with the built-in Address Book Server in 10.6 Server. That means, for the first time ever, Apple users can sync their iPhone with calendars and contacts wirelessly to your Mac Server.

For iPad users, iOS 4 features are still a few months out, but it's clear that Apple's intention is to make sure that both the iPhone and the iPad are on the cutting edge of mobile devices worldwide. Just a few years ago, getting a Mac to work with a mobile phone was an impossibility. My, how things have changed!

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	Upgrading to iOS 4? Read me. Login or register to post comments Unless you've been living under a rock, it's hard to avoid the news that Apple released a new iPhone, the iPhone 4. But for those of you with an iPhone 3 or 3GS, you may find it hard to stomach the cost of the new phone along with renewing your contract with AT&T for another couple years. So another one of Apple's announcements, the newly available upgrade called iOS 4, is welcome news for the rest of us. "iOS" is Mr. Jobs' new name for the iPhone operating system and iOS 4 upgrades the core capabilities on the iPhone 3 and 3GS and to a lesser degree the iPod Touch and original iPhone. Even without the latest iPhone, you can get a lot of its features of the iPhone 4 with a simple software upgrade. There's tons of articles about what features are included in iOS 4, so feel free to read Ars Technica's review of iOS 4. However, we know that a lot of our customers have iPhones, so we figured we'd pull out a few key things that every iPhone user should know about upgrading before they push the button. The process is simple, but some iPhone users, including one of our very own techies, have reported lost data in the upgrade process. While there's a very small chance of this happening, remember this easy 3-step process - 1) Backup, 2) Sync, and 3) Photos - before upgrading. In iTunes, right click (or control-click) on your iPhone and select Backup. Then once that is complete (it could take a number of minutes) hit the Sync button in the lower left to sync your downloaded applications and music to your computer. Finally, using iPhoto or Aperture, download your iPhone's photos to your computer. Now your data is protected. iTunes will prompt you to upgrade anytime the iPhone is plugged in, so that part is easy. However, in our tests, the upgrade can take some time. We've seen it take anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours, so don't start the upgrade 10 minutes before that important conference call. Once upgraded, you'll instantly see some of the great new features, but others are a little bit less obvious. Try double-pressing the home button and flick left and right on the bar that comes up on the bottom. You can control your iPod easily after a flick right and launch other apps quickly when you flick to the left. You can create your own playlists directly in the iPod application as well, just tap on the "Playlists" button on the bottom (hit More if you don't see it) and you can create a new playlist and add songs. There are 100s of other features. For those of our customers with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Servers, there are also some key features that no one's talked. Last year, Apple added support for the iPhone to sync directly to the Snow Leopard iCal Server over the Internet, and in iOS 4, you can now sync with the built-in Address Book Server in 10.6 Server. That means, for the first time ever, Apple users can sync their iPhone with calendars and contacts wirelessly to your Mac Server. For iPad users, iOS 4 features are still a few months out, but it's clear that Apple's intention is to make sure that both the iPhone and the iPad are on the cutting edge of mobile devices worldwide. Just a few years ago, getting a Mac to work with a mobile phone was an impossibility. My, how things have changed!