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I only connect it to the Mac to transfer videos on it, to save the photos and transfer purchases, everything else is done wirelessly via MobileMe or other apps. And only when to update the firmware, that is not so often.
 
This is so true. I know plenty of people who just buy all of their apps on the device and never backup.

My wife has never plugged her iPhone into the computer. It only gets synced when I upgrade her OS while she isn't looking.
 
Will iCloud really solve this? If users don't sign up for an iCloud account then this solves nothing. Will you be forced to have an iCloud account in order to use the phone?

People that aren't manually syncing the iPhone now are not likely to sign up for iCloud if they are not somehow forced to do so.

I personally know two people that have iPhone 4's and have never synced. I cannot image that magically with iCloud that they will do that.
 
Until iCloud is up and running, iTunes is the #1 source for backing up, syncing, updating etc. I'm surprised at how many people can go without ever syncing...
 
The dumbing of society starts by making things "Simpler"

These are the clueless folks having computer problems and blaming it on everything but themselves...

I know plenty of lawyers, for example, some of them top litigators (i.e., in Toronto) that aren't very bright when it comes to tech. When it comes to figuring out public policy and legislation, however, they're stars. But work in that industry and witness it for yourself.

Same thing in academia. Same thing in several other professions, especially among more senior members.

Understanding tech is no signifier or marker of intellect. Tech is a tool, that's either comfortable to use to get actual work done, or it isn't. And a lot if it isn't.

It's often a case of smart people using bad tools. There's going to be friction.

This is where Apple comes in. And consumers have responded - from what appears to be all walks of life, especially a lot of smart people that have traditionally shied away from tech or felt intimidated by it. There is simply a lot of bull.sh.it when it comes to tech - a lot of stuff that gets in the way. It can be a huge PITA. Whoever can simplify it while allowing us to get most of the same things done will be a star. Apple is one of these stars. The industry has taken notice and is going through growing pains to shift toward Apple's model - some with more success than others.

Remove complexity, enhance what's left over. Working from that model, we end up with blessings, not headaches.
 
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My parents are technically illiterate, so I can imagine that they've never sync'ed their 3GSs. OTOH, I back up every few days or when I've changed something on my phone. My JB is why I'm not on the cutting edge.
 
The saying "90% of the problems a user may encounter happens between the chair and the keyboard (touch screen in this case)" rings true just based on the headline alone.

I've come across way too many people who have an iPhone and constantly complain about it having an issue here or there but don't realize that the problems require user intervention. Most of the time, a simple restart of the iPhone fixes all their issues; the only thing is that many of these people have never restarted their phone since they walked out of the store with it. Go figure. :rolleyes:
 
My wife syncs her phone every few months.
I try to every so often but even adding a CD of songs takes so long, half teh time i wait since it'll take 10 minutes whether I back up a lot or add three songs.

I know a person who said a co-worker has not plugged their phone into a computer since the day he got it (NEW) and that is a 3G or 3GS.
 
For those people, Apple should have a separate area. Call it the "Genius (Yes, we're being sarcastic) Bar".
 
That’s really scary!

It’s also scary that you can’t restore just ONE app’s data from backup. It’s all or nothing. I’m sure that will change—it has to. Maybe with iOS 5 or soon after? Please?
 
I'm sorry but those 50% are idiots and don't deserve a smart phone. They are probably the same people that type the word "google" into the google search area of a web browser.

Funny thing is I just did that today. Yep, there I was a second later looking at 'google.com' with "google.com" as search text. Felt weird. :)
 
I rarely sync most of my devices - there's simply not a big need to do so, for me personally anyways.

My media is already stored on a server, and I load up my devices with what they need once and I'm done.

Generally the only time I sync is for a new SW load.
 
That's just amazing. People trust their whole life to their phone... Store their calendar, contacts, and all their precious vacation photos IN the phone, but never sync it to a computer to back it up? WOW.
 
I don't think that most iPhone users understand that they're carrying around a small computer that requires the same attention as any other computer.
 
I am exactly the other way around.. if I want new stuff on my iPhone I browse iTunes on my MBP first and then add it on there. This way I know it'll be both in my MBP and iPhone.. it can get awkward the other way around after being used to do it this way since day one.
 
This is a great reality check for a lot of posters on these forums who think Mac Rumors members are a good representation of the wider iPhone owning community. We're not, we're a geeky minority. The majority of iPhone owners neither know nor care what iOS, WWDC or iCloud are.
 
Not syncing/backing up iPhone? That's nothing. Virtually all mac users who are non techies that I know never update their Mac. You know the Software Update of the OS...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

This is absolutely true. I'm actually surprised it isn't more than that. In my time at Bar, I found that around 80% were synced only initially, or (at best) twice due to having to install an update. Not to generalize, but overwhelmingly women and teenage girls failed to sync: college students, male and female, did so far more often, and businesspeople tended to sync about once every two weeks.

It is AMAZING how much can be resolved by syncing, particularly if you never do it!
 
Same here. I plug into charge, but only since once a week or less.

I have clients that don't see why it's important to plug in once in a while to sync and update. They see them as phones and not computers.

iCloud is going to be a HUGE benefit to the iPhone-using community across the board.
 
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