Until you’ve at all times bought a brand new iPhone on launch day, chances are high good that you just’ve run right into a traditional chicken-and-egg downside: attempting to revive your present iPhone that’s working the newest model of iOS onto your new iPhone that’s one or two variations behind.
Since Apple manufactures thousands and thousands of iPhones that sit on cabinets for weeks or typically months at a time, it’s common to unwrap a brand-new iPhone and discover that it’s not already up to date to the newest model of iOS. That downside will get even worse when you’re buying an older mannequin. For instance, Apple nonetheless sells each the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 13, as do many carriers and different retailers. Chances are high good that when you purchase an iPhone 13 at present, you’ll discover it’s nonetheless working some taste of iOS 15 since that was the norm for its period.
Since Apple continues to be manufacturing these older fashions, you may luck out and get one thing more moderen, however that’s on no account assured. Even when you’re choosing up a shiny new iPhone at present, chances are high slim it’ll include iOS 17.4 put in until it got here off Apple’s manufacturing line previously two weeks.
Typically, that is even an issue with a launch day iPhone. Final fall, iPhone 15 preorders shipped with iOS 17.0, however an iOS 17.0.1 replace was obtainable by the point they landed in clients’ fingers.
Not having the newest iOS model in your iPhone is greater than only a minor inconvenience. It additionally will get in the best way of transferring information over out of your outdated iPhone because the variations doubtless received’t match up. For the reason that very early days of iOS, you’ve been unable to switch a backup made with a more moderen model of iOS onto an iPhone working an older model — even when that’s as delicate as working iOS 17.4.1 in your outdated iPhone and iOS 17.4 in your outdated one.
Nowadays, a brand new iPhone will usually provide to replace itself if you attempt to restore a backup made with a more moderen model of iOS, however that takes extra time, and it doesn’t at all times work, requiring you to set the iPhone up as new, apply the replace, after which wipe it once more so that you could restore your iCloud backup onto it.
Fortunately, Apple has been engaged on a intelligent strategy to pace this course of up, and it seems prefer it’s able to roll it out, a minimum of to its shops in the USA.
Final fall, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on a brand new approach that Apple had developed to push software program updates onto sealed, new-in-box iPhones, and now it seems like that system is prepared for prime time.
On this week’s Energy On e-newsletter, Gurman notes that it’s getting ready to roll this method out to all US retail shops in April, anticipating that will probably be prepared nationwide by the summer season.
The software, which Gurman says “seems a bit like a metallic cubby for footwear,” takes benefit of MagSafe and “different wi-fi strategies” to energy up the iPhone whereas it’s nonetheless within the field. It then instructs the iPhone to obtain and set up new software program and energy again down as quickly because it’s carried out. When a buyer buys a brand new iPhone, it can then come out of the field able to go along with the newest model of iOS put in.
The system is dubbed “Presto” by Apple, and the corporate has been testing it at choose shops since late final 12 months. Gurman says the approach might be utilized whereas units sit within the stock room earlier than they’re bought; whereas plainly the iPhone must be positioned contained in the “metallic cubby” to start out the method, it might not want to remain in there till the replace completes, because the iPhone would presumably do this over Wi-Fi. Which means an Apple worker may conceivably run by means of updating dozens of iPhones in fairly brief order.
There’s no phrase on whether or not Apple will make this software obtainable to different retailers like Finest Purchase or put it to make use of in its warehouses earlier than fashions are shipped to these retailers. Even when that’s within the plans, it received’t doubtless occur anytime quickly, which implies that you’ll want to purchase your iPhone from an Apple Retailer if you wish to be certain it’s totally updated if you take it out of the field. Additional, since this depends on points of the iPhone’s {hardware} and software program, it’s not clear if will probably be potential to use updates this strategy to older fashions that will nonetheless have iOS 15 or iOS 16 put in.