TILTS: iTunes in the cloud

I have been grumbling about my iPhone a lot recently. Mainly because I have been having problems syncing it with iTunes on my computer.

It's hit or miss whether my iPhone even shows up in iTunes when I connect it to my computer with a USB cable. And when it does show up, about 80% of the time, it disconnects in the middle of the syncing process.

Worse yet, it recently disconnected during a software update (iOS v4.01) which left my phone in an unrecoverable state meaning I had to completely restore the phone to factory condition and rebuild it. And I still don't have everything back on it because of the same syncing problems (which didn't go away after a factory restore).

Tried everything

I've played around with different USB cables and even different USB ports (front vs. back) on my computer. But it's all still hit and miss.

Which brings me to today's Technology I'd Like to See (TILTS). I want my iPhone to do 100% of its software updates and syncing through the air. In other words over the 3G cellular network or my local wi-ficonnection.

It seems the iPhone is getting closer to this every day. I can install new apps from the App Store over the air. I can purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store over the air. I can now even access my Audible.com purchases over the air with the new Audible app.

But I still need to connect my iPhone to my computer to receive software updates and to manage music in my iTunes library that I didn't purchase from iTunes (ie, I ripped from CDs, etc.)

Don't make me connect to my computer

In my perfect world, Apple would let me rip my CDs in iTunes and then let me sync them to some online iTunes account. Then my phone could access my online account and sync everything over the air.

iTunes Cloud

This solution kills two birds with one stone as my iTunes library would also be automatically backed up.

So c'mon Apple. Where's the cloud version of iTunes? I'm waiting.

Disclaimer: Technologies presented in the Technology I'd Like To See (TILTS) series are based on my original (and sometimes delirious) thoughts. I present them here to the public only because I can not afford to implement any of them myself. If you steal borrow one of my ideas and end up filthy rich because of it, please remember where you got the idea and throw a little love my way. Something like a BMW or a big fat check would do just fine.

1 comment for this blog post so far...

  • #1
    August 03, 2010 at 6:08 am

    Heather!

    Glad to see I’m not the only one!  My husband was able to get the recent update on his iPhone, but when I try to update mine, iTunes just hangs.  Says it’s syncing, but it stays like that forever, until I get sick of waiting and disconnect.  Thought it was my computer.  What up with that?  It’s driving me crazy!

    By the way, apparently with the update you can make folders on your desktops, which allows more apps to appear (within the folders).  I want that capability, but so far...no good.  :(

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