[iphone] Do I need Itunes on PC for new IPhone

[SimpleSi]

I've took out a contract for an 4S for the wife for Christmas.

 

I want it fully setup for her to use straight away and have 2 iphone daughters to sort that out but do we need to setup wife's PC with itunes or can everything be done via icloud thingy nowadays?

 

Si

[Steve21]

You'll need itunes to first configure it, but after that you don't "need" itunes without a) downloading huge apps that force itunes, b) syncing music etc etc

 

I'm assuming you'd like to be able to add music etc, which end of days needs to get onto icloud somehow

 

Steve

[EduTech]

Yeah, So iPhone does not require any initial interaction with the Desktop it's supposed to be able to be configured without doing that part, and then everything can be done over the Home LAN and WAN.

 

You may still need to setup iTunes if you wish to take a copy of your iTunes library off/on your computer, but apart from that my understanding is that iCloud should handle anything so that when you purchase an iPad next year and then a Macbook Pro/Air the year after they shall all talk together

 

Or at least that is what I thought (don't have the 4S)

 

^James.

[pooley]

The newer IOS 5 you can activate via wifi and don't need a pc with itunes to activate it

[mac_shinobi]

Yeah, So iPhone does not require any initial interaction with the Desktop it's supposed to be able to be configured without doing that part, and then everything can be done over the Home LAN and WAN.

 

You may still need to setup iTunes if you wish to take a copy of your iTunes library off/on your computer, but apart from that my understanding is that iCloud should handle anything so that when you purchase an iPad next year and then a Macbook Pro/Air the year after they shall all talk together

 

Or at least that is what I thought (don't have the 4S)

 

^James.

 

I've not used the new features of iOS 5 ref not needing a computer to setup the phone and have always used iTunes for synching of music and activating the phone itself.

 

I did do it once but the only way I could add music to my phone was to go into the music app --> previous purchase history and you can then re download music you had purchased.

 

Although you are now meant to be able to do the same or synch over wireless etc but I don't do that myself as I just use iTunes anyway so not 100% sure on instructions or how to do this correctly.

 

I do understand why you don't want to use iTunes as its pethetic on windows, it's a bit better on OS X but it still has flaws / issues etc.

 

If you do install itunes on her pc it then links the said handset / iphone to said computer so if you uninstall iTunes am not sure if that will muck it up with regards to if you need it restoring although you can do backups to iCloud , I've only restored from the cloud once and it didn't restore my contacts.

[Arthur]

not 100% sure on instructions or how to do this correctly.

I think this is how it works with iOS 5...

 

How to Use Wi-Fi Sync for iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch with iOS 5 « OS X Daily

[Steve21]

I think this is how it works with iOS 5...

 

How to Use Wi-Fi Sync for iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch with iOS 5 « OS X Daily

 

Thing is, a) It still requires iTunes, and b) It needs to be plugged in and charging for some stupid reason And if you're like me I only charge my phone from the computer anyway, so kind of defeats the point

 

Steve

[GREED]

I tried the wireless sync and it was a pain in the bottom, everytime I went near my PC it would ask to sync... quickly switched that off!

[Oaktech]

I've just done this for one of our members of staff... remember the phone here: i phone problems well, i made a back up and restored to her new phone via itunes, but i did not use her apple id, i then took the device to her, activated it all, got her to sign into icloud with her apple id and backed the phone up to icloud (she doesn't own a computer), got her to sign in to itunes and downloaded all her itunes. sadly the apps from her previous phone were lost but as far as she can remember she only really had angry birds!

 

so, as far as i can see, itunes is not required if you have a phone backed up to icloud, or you are starting from scratch.