Zapping Apps to Your iPhone

Promises, Promises

Earlier this month, Apple announced over 200 new features that will be available to owners of iPhone 3GS and 4 models, and the iPad and iPod Touch, when the company releases the newest version of its mobile operating system, iOS5, sometime this fall.

But one of those new and super-useful functions is available for “iDevices” right now:  The ability to “zap an app” to your gizmo.

Zap Those Apps

Apple doesn’t call it “Zap An App”—that’s the phrase I coined for it. This feature lets you cut the cord between your PC and your “iDevice” when you want to download a new app.  If you live in the U.S. or Canada, just download and install iTunes 10.3.1 beta for Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (it works on Macs, too).  You can set up iTunes to automatically download apps (music and books, too).  This story from Engadget explains how to do it.

But Does It Work?

About a month after I bought my iPhone in 2009 I suddenly could no longer get it to sync with my desktop PC. After hours and hours spent on the telephone with Apple Tech Support I still could not get syncing to work.

Good news: I could set up iTunes on my Dell netbook and synch my iPhone using that computer which I always have with me at home or when traveling.  Bad news: The netbook has a slow processor, and iTunes loads slowing on it.  So if I wanted to get a new app for my iPhone, my choices were to try to download it directly to the phone (which is a bit slow, and doesn’t work at all when downloading large-file-size apps over AT&T’s 3G network), or download to iTunes on my netbook (slower yet) and then do a complete sync (yet more time spent twiddling my thumbs until the sync was complete).

Now I don’t care if I can’t sync my iPhone to my desktop PC. I just launch iTunes on that computer, find the app in the App Store, and download it over my super-fast cable-Internet connection.  When the download is complete, the app automatically is installed on my iPhone, regardless of whether the phone is turned on or off!  And if I owned an iPad or iPod Touch, the app would be already on it, too! Wow!  Shazam!  Terrific!  Boffo!