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iPhone 5 on a PPC?

U

Ulyaoth

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2012
3
0
Florida
Hi everyone. I'm a longtime lurker of these forums but never had the need to post until today.
I have a PowerBook G4 that I haven't had to change after all these years since it's still working just fine for my needs. This computer is also what I use to sync my 3GS and iPad 1 with, and I went ahead and pre-ordered the iPhone 5 since I figured it was time to replace my trusty 3GS (it still works great though, I really just want the better camera and LTE speeds).
Problem is, of course, that I read on the tech specs that iTunes 10.7 is required to sync with the 5, which was dropped for the PPC machines.
I've read in another thread that some people have been successful in syncing iOS6 with 10.6.3, so my question is, would that also work with the iPhone 5?
I called Apple and they said it wouldn't work but I'm not too sure they've tried (it even took them a minute to realize there was such a thing as a Powerbook...). I appreciate if anyone can shed some light on this subject. Thanks!
 
Sadly, yes. I won't be able to sync my iPhone 5 either. Apple dropped development on AppleMobileDeviceSupport for PowerPC.

It's not a matter of what OS the phone runs, but the hardware of the phone itself, ie the Lightning connector.
 
I see. So, is there any way around this? Maybe backing up the older iPhone to iCloud and then restoring when getting the 5 with the Cloud? I'm guessing that would ultimately be less than ideal considering I would have to manage everything from the phone itself, so maybe it's just time to bite the bullet and update the computer.
 
Ulyaoth said:
I see. So, is there any way around this? Maybe backing up the older iPhone to iCloud and then restoring when getting the 5 with the Cloud? I'm guessing that would ultimately be less than ideal considering I would have to manage everything from the phone itself, so maybe it's just time to bite the bullet and update the computer.
Click to expand...

Doing everything via iCloud is your only option. Luckily, you don't really need a computer anymore since Apple implemented OTA updates in iOS 5 last year.
 
adcx64 said:
Sadly, yes. I won't be able to sync my iPhone 5 either. Apple dropped development on AppleMobileDeviceSupport for PowerPC.

It's not a matter of what OS the phone runs, but the hardware of the phone itself, ie the Lightning connector.
Click to expand...
Does that really matter when the other end of the Lightning cable is a standard USB connector?

At the very least you should be able to charge the iPhone 5 off a PowerPC computer.

I preordered the iPhone 5 myself and plan to try syncing it with iTunes 10.6.x. Maybe I won't be successful, but I'll try anyway. There's another person in another thread that has his 3GS with iOS6 syncing to iTunes 10.6.x.

I hear a lot of anguish about this new connector. That's fair, considering there are a lot of docks out there with the old 30 pin connector and Apple wants $30 for an adapter. But from the perspective that the other end of the cable is standard USB, I just don't get it.
 
adcx64 said:
Sadly iCloud is the only way. Even worse is that iCloud does not back up everything either... :(
Click to expand...
As close as those. The only thing I can really think of that it won't backup is music. However, if you got the songs from iTunes, on the phone go iTunes -> Downloads -> Purchased -> Not on this Phone...(or something along that lines) and can re download them to phone. Similarly for apps.
 
Thanks everyone for all the info.

eyoungren said:
I preordered the iPhone 5 myself and plan to try syncing it with iTunes 10.6.x. Maybe I won't be successful, but I'll try anyway. There's another person in another thread that has his 3GS with iOS6 syncing to iTunes 10.6.x.
Click to expand...

Would you mind to please post your results after you try syncing to iTunes 10.6? I tried to cancel my iPhone 5 pre-order but it was too late as they are ready to ship, so I'll just have to wait 'till I get it and then return it... but there is a little bit of hope that it will still work.
 
Yeah, I'll post the results once I get the phone. In any case it's not something I am concerned over. I use my iPod Nano for music, not my phone and when it comes to photos, video and apps I usually just keep those on my phone. But, I have two PCs and Virtual PC to use if I don't get anywhere with this and there is actually a need to sync with iTunes. I have a 3GS, but I rarely even use iTunes to sync with it. Most of my syncing is with my Nano.

For me, there's just certain things I'm expecting not the be able to use because I'm behind the Apple tech curve. Unlike a lot of people I'm fine with that because I don't use my phones as my primary connection to the outside world (that would be the two PowerBooks I lug around each day). And for whatever features I am going to miss, well, I'm coming from the perspective of a person who's used an HTC Touch Pro with WinMo for the last three years. This is going to be a big jump for me and I'm looking forward to it.
 
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If it is the connector, what about if you were to use an older cable plus the adapter for the new connector, would that make any difference to how the computer sees it?

The AppleMobileDevice.kext file seems to only be a few KB in size (both in the iTunes 10.7 installer package and the copy already installed in OS X) though, and contains only two plist files and nothing else (that we can see at least) - it's not even recognised by any utility that reveals what architectures it contains and isn't shown by System Profiler as being loaded :S The other kext that comes with iTunes 10.7, AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext, is larger and is recognised as being Intel-only, whereas the older ones contained PPC code as well, but not sure this would be used for the sync connection. Just checking in case there was any chance of them having left PPC code int he required kets - the new iTunes.app is definitely an Intel-only one though.
 
MacSince1990 said:
Hm. Maybe you could get it to run via Virtual PC running WinXP.
Click to expand...

That would be my advice as well.(Edit. latest iTunes runs on Xp, hard to believe)
BUT, I think there might be a problem here, the connector is not the old 30 pin anymore, and there lies the problem.
If Apple released a compatible .Kext it would work, I think He is out of luck.
But, we will find out soon if this is the case, only a couple of days before some people with a PPC computer and the new iPhone to start complaining.
If only we had the source code to compile it for PPC.....
 
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I updated my iPhone 3GS to iOS 6 via iTunes 10.6.3 yesterday. Synced fine. Last night, I decided to see what would happen if I swapped out the previously mentioned kext files.

It means nothing at the moment because I don't have my new iPhone, but after a restart my 3GS still synced with iTunes. IDK if that means that I got the right files, or if it will let my iPhone 5 sync with iTunes 10.6.x or not (I have absolutely no idea what the heck I'm doing as far as this goes), but it did not inhibit syncing with my 3GS.

Oh yeah. I got the kext files from the iTunes 10.7 installer package. I used Pacifist to get them out.
 
And…it made no difference. I plugged my iPhone 5 in and was told by iTunes that I had to use iTunes 10.7.

I managed to get iTunes 10.7 installed on VPC7. That took ages. I tried to start it and it looks like it's doing something and then nothing. I didn't wait around to see if it opened or not as I was tired of waiting.

Ultimately, I ended up plugging the phone into my PC. It's a great irony to me. iPhone 5 with Lightning cable plugged into a USB 1.1 port on a 1GHZ PC with 512MB ram.

It did sync on the PC though.

Hopefully someone can figure this out. I don't even know if the files I used were/are the right ones or if there is a way to do it at all.
 
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eyoungren said:
And…it made no difference. I plugged my iPhone 5 in and was told by iTunes that I had to use iTunes 10.7.

I managed to get iTunes 10.7 installed on VPC7. That took ages. I tried to start it and it looks like it's doing something and then nothing. I didn't wait around to see if it opened or not as I was tired of waiting.

Ultimately, I ended up plugging the phone into my PC. It's a great irony to me. iPhone 5 with Lightning cable plugged into a USB 1.1 port on a 1GHZ PC with 512MB ram.

It did sync on the PC though.

Hopefully someone can figure this out. I don't even know if the files I used were/are the right ones or if there is a way to do it at all.
Click to expand...

Just to see how bad VPC7 and itunes were on powerpc I downloaded my free copy from my university msdnaa, and tried it with one of those 100mb tiny xp isos.
Well it took more time to install itunes than to install xp, and in the end it said "itunes was not installed correctly".
Then I managed to get those XP Sp2 images that came with VPC7 and again it took ages too install itunes (maybe 2h I guess, this on the powermac of the sig), and it started fine).
Be sure to put windows with max performance (windows 98 theme with no animations), because before that it was slooowwww.
If you don't have any other chance, grab vpc7 (update it to 7.0.3) and try it.
If you have 20eur or so grab a pentium 4 or any windows box and do it.
If you have more spare time ,grab your official copy of xp and nlite it for your needs (those 100mb xp are too agressive),maybe you will have a better performance.
 
eyoungren said:
It's a great irony to me. iPhone 5 with Lightning cable plugged into a USB 1.1 port on a 1GHZ PC with 512MB ram.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't really call it irony but tragic convince. Microsoft, unlike Apple, never had to go through a hardware migration where they had to port everything from one hardware system to another. This makes compatibility a different beast.

That and MS has much different compatibility obligations that Apple kind of has to play with - they can't cut out XP, but it's been available in some form or fashion ever since 2001 - that's forever. Apple has progressed much faster. It's the wired quirks of hardware and software compatibility
 
I was meaning more from the speed aspect, not so much hardware.

I'm seeing this kind of like having a Ferrari or high performance sports car, but the manufacturer put a speed governor on it so you can't go over 35mph.
 
I'm in the same boat, I have a G5 Tower. I was hoping to have a new iMac by now but Apple is still to upgrade them to 2012 spec.

And for me the 'sync to iCloud' option is grayed out in iTunes so it's not an option. I do have a PC running XP but then I'd have to transfer my music library off my main computer, plus it's C drive is currently too small for the 65Gb of music I have... plus all the other files on the PCs tiny 160Gb HDD.

Guess my 3Gs will have to do a few more months duty until I get a new Mac.

Its sad that Apple has dropped iTunes support for the PPC but it still works on PCs with XP Pro when XP was release 6 years before Leopard!
 
paulbennett95 said:
Can't you sync over wifi?
Click to expand...
No.

Here's why. In order to sync the iPhone 5 over WiFi, the machine that you wish to sync with has to be running iTunes 10.7. But, it's not possible to run iTunes 10.7 on a PowerPC Mac (currently). So, the only real option (at the moment) is a PC box running iTunes 10.7.

You can probably sync wirelessly with the PC running iTunes 10.7 though.
 
eyoungren said:
I was meaning more from the speed aspect, not so much hardware.

I'm seeing this kind of like having a Ferrari or high performance sports car, but the manufacturer put a speed governor on it so you can't go over 35mph.
Click to expand...

But it isn't about speed that's the problem though. It's more of a square peg and round hole problem. Your computer could run the software, if it was written with a square hole in mind. The problem is that requires much more of an investment for a system that they haven't sold in many, many years.

Apple in affect is dealing with an issue that MS never had to worry about. They never had to commercially support a totally different codebase.
 
pdjudd said:
But it isn't about speed that's the problem though. It's more of a square peg and round hole problem. Your computer could run the software, if it was written with a square hole in mind. The problem is that requires much more of an investment for a system that they haven't sold in many, many years.

Apple in affect is dealing with an issue that MS never had to worry about. They never had to commercially support a totally different codebase.
Click to expand...
I get it. My original joke (it was a joke) wasn't that deep. I was just contrasting the speed that a Lightning cable was supposed to give you to the speed you can expect from a USB 1.1 port. I just found that funny/ironic. Nothing deeper than that. :)
 
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