Could 4, 2011: Stories flow into that Apple is negotiating with carriers to carry over-the-air updates to iOS, starting with iOS 5.
Such a transfer would free iPhone homeowners from utilizing iTunes to get updates for his or her gadgets. Which means no extra plugging an iPhone into a pc through USB to obtain the most recent model of iOS.
The primary over-the-air iOS replace
As I’ve famous earlier than in “Right this moment in Apple historical past,” the method of upgrading to the most recent software program has gotten immeasurably simpler through the years. Again within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, Mac updates got here on floppy disks or, later, CD-ROMs. These demanded premium costs, even after they weren’t full releases. This additionally meant Apple issued fewer updates due to the bodily prices concerned in delivery out the software program.
From the beginning, customers might obtain iOS updates as a result of working system’s smaller file dimension in comparison with the Mac working system. (iOS was additionally obtainable at no cost to iPhone customers. iPod contact prospects paid $10 for the primary couple of updates.)
Nonetheless, getting the most recent iOS replace through iTunes proved a cumbersome course of. Android, against this, supplied over-the-air updates way back to February 2009.
iOS 5.0.1 brings ‘PC-free’ updates to iPhones
In the long run, the rumors of OTA iOS updates circulating on Could 4, 2011, turned out to be proper on the cash. In November, Apple issued iOS 5.0.1, its first “PC-free” replace for its cellular working system.
All in all, 2011 proved fairly a major 12 months by way of how Apple issued all its software program updates. That 12 months’s Mac os x lion marked the primary time Apple didn’t initially announce bodily distribution on CD or DVD-ROM of a brand new Mac working system.
As a substitute, customers downloaded the working system at residence. Alternatively, they might do it via an in-store obtain at an Apple retail location. Later, Apple gave customers the choice to purchase a preloaded USB flash drive on-line.
Today, in fact, Apple pushes out free variations of iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS and visionOS, in addition to firmware updates for gadgets like AirPods, HomePods, Apple Pencils and even battery packs.
What are your most memorable software-updating recollections? Do you bear in mind iOS earlier than over-the-air updates? Go away your feedback under.
