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frosse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 23, 2007
843
165
Sweden
I remember that someone mailed Jobs about wifi sync for iPhone and his answer was something in the lines of "yeah...one day it will".

Why is the real reason it hasn't been done yet? Is it because they have MobileMe which is partly a calendar/mail sync function or is it due to security reasons, or both? I vaguely remember Jobs saying something about the potential security issues with a wifi sync but is there really one? Couldn't he just use a VPN solution between iPhone and iTunes?

And then of course it's the size issue to sync apps, music, calendar, mail whatever, but with N-speeds on wifi it should be alright, what he could do is limit the wifi sync to only calendar and apps or something so if you'd wanna sync music you'd have to connect the iPhone to your mac/pc with usb...

Wifi sync is also a good thing for laptop users. I've been thinking about getting one of those iPhone docks but with a laptop it's totally useless unless you use it only for charging. Having a desktop mac and a dock makes perfect sense as the dock is always connected to the mac which gives both charging and syncing but with a laptop it's unlikely that the dock would be connected 24/7. I'd like to have a dock that I can put my iPhone in and both the charging and [wifi] syncing.

Basically, I want Wifi sync for my iPhone...err...yesterday!
 
I think part of the issue is that different people have different sync habits.

For me (and maybe you?), I don't sync that much. My music stays pretty much the same, and I don't really swap photos much. The only thing that usually gets synced are a few new podcast episodes each time. That would sync really well over wifi. Sure, it would be a bit slower, but the convenience would be great.

For others, though, they sync a LOT of stuff. Some people have it set to rotate new photos, rotate new music, add new videos, etc. every time they sync. This could be gigabytes worth of data for some people.

I think the thing holding Apple back is trying to design it for the heavy syncers, even though it would work fine for lighter users right away.

I think a possible solution to this would be to have settings for different things, though. Like wirelessly sync podcasts, but not photos or music, especially for those who usually do a lot in those categories.
 
I think part of the issue is that different people have different sync habits.

For me (and maybe you?), I don't sync that much. My music stays pretty much the same, and I don't really swap photos much. The only thing that usually gets synced are a few new podcast episodes each time. That would sync really well over wifi. Sure, it would be a bit slower, but the convenience would be great.

For others, though, they sync a LOT of stuff. Some people have it set to rotate new photos, rotate new music, add new videos, etc. every time they sync. This could be gigabytes worth of data for some people.

I think the thing holding Apple back is trying to design it for the heavy syncers, even though it would work fine for lighter users right away.

I think a possible solution to this would be to have settings for different things, though. Like wirelessly sync podcasts, but not photos or music, especially for those who usually do a lot in those categories.
Actually, I would only sync my calendar I think, I don't really use the iPod function that much since I use Spotify and of course, we all have our different sync habits.
 
And then of course it's the size issue to sync apps, music, calendar, mail whatever, but with N-speeds on wifi it should be alright, what he could do is limit the wifi sync to only calendar and apps or something so if you'd wanna sync music you'd have to connect the iPhone to your mac/pc with usb...

What do you mean? Over-the-air syncing is already possible with calendar, contacts, and notes in the form of MobileMe, apps can be downloaded directly on the iPhone, and many providers' mail use IMAP. The only thing missing is OTA syncing of music/other iTunes stuff.

Actually, I would only sync my calendar I think, I don't really use the iPod function that much since I use Spotify and of course, we all have our different sync habits.

Get MobileMe (or equivalent) then.
 
What do you mean? Over-the-air syncing is already possible with calendar, contacts, and notes in the form of MobileMe, apps can be downloaded directly on the iPhone, and many providers' mail use IMAP. The only thing missing is OTA syncing of music/other iTunes stuff.



Get MobileMe (or equivalent) then.
I'm not gonna pay 99/year for calendar syncing...
 
Get Google calendar then.

I think the point here is to get the phone to sync on wifi, not find every third party solution out there to sync different items on the phone.

And yes it would be nice to sync over wifi, but we know Apple doesen't release stuff until they think they have it right... I guess they are not to that point.
 
I think the point here is to get the phone to sync on wifi, not find every third party solution out there to sync different items on the phone.

And yes it would be nice to sync over wifi, but we know Apple doesen't release stuff until they think they have it right... I guess they are not to that point.

But I want iCal. :rolleyes:

Then get MobileMe. Syncs over the air too.

But you can sync iCal to Google calendar using NemusSync, Spanning Sync 3, etc.
 
I think the thing holding Apple back is trying to design it for the heavy syncers, even though it would work fine for lighter users right away.

I think you are right here, although I'd add in that the size varies depending on what you are syncing. You might not think you're a heavy syncer because you're only getting a couple things, but they're really large. Add in the variety and slowness of wifi and I don't think they're quite there yet (although WiFi N on the iPhone 4 might help).

I've been getting some of the This Week In vidcasts lately. They look beautiful on the iPhone 4, but they're varying between 500 megs and 900 megs a pop. I'd hate to see how long it would take to sync a week's batch over wifi (even with WiFi N). Multiple gigabytes for just a few episodes.
 
Then get MobileMe. Syncs over the air too.

But you can sync iCal to Google calendar using NemusSync, Spanning Sync 3, etc.

Guys, you can sync ical calendar using Google natively - you don't need any third parties as far as I am aware.

Also you can sync contacts too. Just setup m.google.com exchange server.

I don't sync *anything* except photos/music to my computer. Everything else is synced over the air to Google using the exchange server it provides.
 
Guys, you can sync ical calendar using Google natively - you don't need any third parties as far as I am aware.

Also you can sync contacts too. Just setup m.google.com exchange server.

I don't sync *anything* except photos/music to my computer. Everything else is synced over the air to Google using the exchange server it provides.

That may be a perfectly good solution for some people, but Google is a third party solution. I like to keep my data to myself.
 
I think they'll have two different MobileMe, one free (possibly with iAds) and one Pro which will cost $49.99. The free will include contacts, mail and calendar sync and the pro will have free+iDisk and find my iphone.
 
That may be a perfectly good solution for some people, but Google is a third party solution. I like to keep my data to myself.

How's MobileMe any different? Your data is in Apple's cloud.

I think they'll have two different MobileMe, one free (possibly with iAds) and one Pro which will cost $49.99. The free will include contacts, mail and calendar sync and the pro will have free+iDisk and find my iphone.

I doubt anybody would spend $49.99 just for iDisk and Find My iPhone, especially considering you can get 2GB DropBox free of charge. It'd have to do more than iDisk and Find My iPhone to make it worth the $49.99.
 
How's MobileMe any different? Your data is in Apple's cloud.


I never said it was any different. It to is a third party solution, even if it does come from Apple. The $99 is just even more of a reason not to use it for me.

Edit: Although I would trust Apple with my data a lot more then Google.
 
I never said it was any different. It to is a third party solution, even if it does come from Apple. The $99 is just even more of a reason not to use it for me.

Edit: Although I would trust Apple with my data a lot more then Google.

Well I think syncing things to the cloud is more practical. After all, it's pretty risky to only keep copies of your data on your phone / home machine (burglaries and fire), and since most people are risk averse you can only assume that they then have to keep some form of off site backup synced too.

Being a pragmatic person I prefer to keep things in the cloud, where I am reasonably sure (and frankly don't care) that it is not being used inappropriately by Google.

Also, Google does web services a lot better than Apple - what do Apple even do in this area apart from Mobile Me?
 
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