I wish Apple would add PowerNap to iOS 6
I like to think that I do pretty well in terms of technology maintenance, but one thing that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do on my own is install updates voluntarily: I just can’t be bothered to go to an app store, tap on updates, and then download them all.
As a result of my laziness, I have well over 50 updates ready to be downloaded and installed on my iPhone 4S and several on my new iPad. After staring at the annoying red badges on my iOS devices, I started thinking about how amazing automatic updates would be.
Now, this isn’t an issue on Android; updates can be completely automated if you want them to be. And it’s not going to be an issue on flash-based Macs, thanks to the PowerNap feature of OS X Mountain Lion that was shown off at WWDC just last week. To be honest, I don’t see why automatic updates isn’t something that could be quickly and easily added to iOS, either.
As I was thinking about automatic updates for my iOS devices, I then thought about how all iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads are also flash-based. Based on that fact alone, there is no reason that a PowerNap-esque technology couldn’t be put into place for iOS. It could be activated only when the WiFi-connected iDevice is locked and plugged into a power source, a common task for a lot of people when they hit the hay.
Then again, some people like to read the release notes for each individual app before they update it. But, just like PowerNap on OS X should be, PowerNap on iOS would be something that the user could turn on or off; it should be added anyway, with the choice of having it on or off.
Unfortunately, this will probably not be a feature that’s added to iOS, since a PowerNap-like feature for iOS would’ve been featured at WWDC. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not holding my breath. If we see it added to iOS at all, it likely won’t be until at least iOS 7.
Of course, this might be a problem that lies only with me; after all, I did state that the only reason this bothers me is because I’m lazy. So, I have to ask: would you like to see automatic updates added to iOS?
