- Since the upgrade to iPhone's 2.0 software and above, iTunes does a full image backup of your iPhone whenever you make changes to the apps you have installed, including music, videos, podcasts, games, photos, contacts and calendars. This is important to back up since tasks and apps change so often with the iPhone.
- One way to speed things up is to always make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your phone. Keep automatic updates turned on so you don't have to worry about this. If you just want to sync your iPhone without backing everything up, you can simply hit the "X" next to "Backing Up" during the sync process in iTunes. If you don't use your iPhone to its full capabilities or you are just impatient, you can manually shut off iTunes backup. Quit iTunes and open the Terminal app. Type in "defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true" and hit return. Your iPhone will no longer perform an automatic back up with each sync. To turn your backup setting back on change "true" in the terminal command to "false" and hit return.
- Not only is iPhone via iTunes backing up your data and music, but it's also logging and storing location information on your phone's whereabouts. Tracking capabilities shouldn't be a complete surprise to most consumers since many people use their iPhone as a GPS device to get directions. The fact that the location data is being saved and used for research, however, has raised eyebrows. Google already uses location data to provide consumers with advertisements local to them. This is a downside to using an iPhone or Android device. There is no setting on your phone to turn off this automatic tracking, even if you never backed up your phone and never used iTunes. The only way to not have your locations logged is to disable GPS and the wireless Internet, which are probably some of the features that attracted you to the iPhone in the first place.
- IPhones can do so many cool things, but they also require a lot of upkeep. If your backup setting is switched off you will not be able to restore your iPhone from a backup and you will lose your settings and other saved information. Any backups you have on your computer won't be of much help either if you've made changes since your last backup. Waiting through a ten to fifteen minute backup each time will save you a trip to the Apple store later when your phone becomes inoperable due to the lack of maintenance on your part.