carpeaqua

I gave my dad an iPhone 3GS this past week. He’s been chugging along with an iPhone 3G running iOS 3.0, but it was becoming more slow and unresponsive by the day. He was also starting to run into issues where he couldn’t use some apps because the developers only tested on 4.0 and assumed 3.0 support as an afterthought.¹

The goal: transfer his settings, apps and data from the iPhone 3G to the new 3GS as easily as possible and gift him a copy of an app he was interested in called My Measures & Dimensions. My dad is still using Windows XP on an ancient laptop that doesn’t even have USB 2 ports, so he has never synced his phone. Here’s the step-by-step process I went through to accomplish what I thought would be a one or two step process.

1. Plug the iPhone 3G into my MacBook Air.
2. Perform a backup of the device to my copy of iTunes.
3. Unplug the iPhone 3G and plug in the 3GS.
4. Restore the 3GS from the backup. This copies along the contacts and calendar data, but doesn’t seem to bring along apps or music. He doesn’t have any music and only a few apps, so not that big of a deal.
5. Pop the SIM card into the 3GS since iTunes won’t activate without it.
6. Update the device to iOS 4.3.1.

At this point I ask my dad for his iTunes username and password. He informs me he doesn’t have one and has been borrowing my brothers. As I am sure you can imagine, this went over really well at the family dinner.

1. Goto Settings.app and signup for a new iTunes account where you have to enter personal information and a valid credit card. At this point iTunes sends him an email to activate the account.
2. Head upstairs to my dad’s ancient computer and login to his Gmail account to click the “Activate” button.
3. Start downloading the free apps my dad had on his old phone via the App Store. I cry a bit on the inside that his settings and data from the old phone wouldn’t transfer. He doesn’t seem to notice.
4. On my iPhone 4, I head to the App Store and search for My Measures & Dimensions.
5. I gift him a copy of the app. iTunes emails him to let him know he has a copy of the app he can redeem.
6. Head back to my dad’s computer to find that email in his Gmail. I’m expecting this would be in the form of a promo code much like I am able to offer journalists and friends for my apps. Nope. There’s a giant Redeem button that I am supposed to click to launch iTunes and claim the code.
7. Head back downstairs to my MacBook Air and login to his Gmail account from there.
8. Click the Redeem button to launch iTunes.
9. Enter my dad’s iTunes account credentials and let the download process.
10. Deauthorize my dad’s iTunes account from my Mac so I don’t take up one of his 5 slots. I realize he has one computer that is nearly a decade old, but I am an anal retentive computer nerd.
11. Grab the iPhone 3GS, head to the App Store and search for My Measures & Dimensions.
12. Download the app to his home screen.
13. Finally present his new, updated phone to my dad…an hour later.

If this were a WebOS or Android device I am confident the number of steps would be cut in half. When you purchase a new Android or Palm device, you enter your Google/Palm Profile login and it will automatically import all of your data, apps and settings from the cloud.

iOS’s biggest flaw is its dependence on iTunes as a syncing conduit. Four years ago when the iPhone first launched it may have made sense given that was how iPods had always synced. Today it feels like the last cord holding me back from fully embracing iOS as the future of the Apple platform. You can’t claim iPhones and iPads are post-PC devices until they no longer require a PC to accomplish simple tasks like activating and transferring data.

I again look forward to the mythical North Carolina Data Center solving all of Apple’s problems.