According to a report just posted on Mashable via 9to5Mac the day where iPhone, iPad, and iPod users don’t have to connect their devices to their computers via a wired connection for operating system updates might be upon us with the advent of the next version of iOS, iOS 5.

“How can this be?” you may be wondering. The answer to that is it will be accomplished through the magic of OTA (Over-The-Air) Updates something that has long since been commonplace for Android users.

The site 9to5Mac has multiple sources which are telling them that Cupertino has been in talks with Verizon Wireless to provide these OTA updates but those same sources will not not comment on whether these same talks were going on between Apple and AT&T as well. Similarly, the 9to5Mac article points out, no word on Apple talking with any “international carriers” and that includes all the providers north border here in Canada.

According to Mashable, in order for these updates to work OTA, it is said that Apple will have to make fundamental changes to the way their update system works. Namely, Mashable opines, Apple will need to stop requiring their uses to download the entire operating system when it is just an update and not a major overhaul. I don’t know how much I agree with that because no one ever said they are going to remove the option to do updates via a cable connection with a computer. Further, Apple has shown that they are more than willing to force people to only be able to use a feature over Wi-Fi if they think doing it over the cellular network will negatively impact the customers’ experience with the product - think FaceTime - but the fact that they are in talks with Verizon does seem to indicate that they are expecting people to use the cellular network for updates.

Either way, I personally think that while OTA updates are cool and awesome and all that, if I don’t have a recent backup/sync of my device I would much rather plug in to a computer, get everything backed up and then go through the update process. Call it paranoia if you want, or maybe I am too old fashioned, but I have a lot of important/memorable things on my phone and therefore I want to do as much as I can to preserve that memory. If that means every time I do a backup of the phone’s OS I have to connect to a computer, that is fine by me.

As evidence that current versions of iOS has the capability already built into it to do OTA updates the 9to5Mac article points to the Apple TV which is iOS-based and does OTA updates with no connection to iTunes.

Obviously, this entire post is pure speculation so we can’t say whether anything is going to happen one way or the other with any confidence. What we are pretty sure about is that the iPhone 5 is going to be released in the USA in September and many think that with the iPhone 5 will be released iOS 5. But again, this is all just speculation - Apple could release iOS 5 next week for all I know (although to me that does seem pretty unlikely, I was just making the point).

For More Info:

9to5 Mac post here

Mashable post here