New user questions

[CHIP72]

Hi everyone, last night I received my iPhone 4 16GB (Verizon) that I bought a few days ago on eBay. I have a couple questions:

1) Is there a way to download the most current Apple iOS version (5.0.1) without activating the phone line (i.e. through Wi-Fi only)? I intend to activate the iPhone in the next few days but don't want to be required to activate it to download iOS 5 if at all possible.

2) Is there a way to sync my iTunes/App Store account between an iPod Touch and an iPhone 4 if the phone isn't activated on a phone line (i.e. through Wi-Fi only)? I noticed on the iPod Touch there is a setting to sync previous downloads across iOS devices but I didn't see it on the iPhone.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[anon(153966)]

1. I believe to even get to the wifi screen you have to walk through the 'setup' on the device. I bet during this process it would activate the 'line'.

2. once on wifi, you can use virtually all features, hence you can use iTunes and your account and download and install the latest iOS.

 

[fury]

1. You can do this through iTunes. Plug your phone into your computer and iTunes will prompt you to update to the latest version of iOS. The phone should allow you to connect to Wi-Fi and finish the iOS 5 setup even without a cellular connection.

2. It sounds like your phone is on 4.2.x, which did not yet have the automatic downloads settings in the store. You will be able to do this once you have upgraded to iOS 5.

 

[CHIP72]

1. You can do this through iTunes. Plug your phone into your computer and iTunes will prompt you to update to the latest version of iOS. The phone should allow you to connect to Wi-Fi and finish the iOS 5 setup even without a cellular connection.

2. It sounds like your phone is on 4.2.x, which did not yet have the automatic downloads settings in the store. You will be able to do this once you have upgraded to iOS 5.

Thanks for the assistance! With #2, my free downloads on the iPod Touch (which was all of my downloads) didn't move over, so I moved them over manually. I take it only paid apps are automatically synced between devices.

 

[fury]

It's not so much a "sync" switch as it is a "when I download new apps on one of my other devices, download them to this one too".

You won't keep the same saved data between the two, but at least you won't have to go to the store on each device to download the app from now on. Existing apps you already had, yeah, you have to sync or download those manually; it doesn't populate all your current apps (for that, you'd have to restore from the backup of the device that you want to replicate, or sync them from iTunes). Any app downloads you do in the future will happen across both devices automatically, though, both free and paid.

So, say you find an awesome new game on the App Store. You download it on the phone. Your iPod touch and computer will also download it. And vice versa. But unless the game uses iCloud or Game Center or some other online service to sync game data, you'll have two separate save files.