Chapter 3

Synchronicity: Getting Stuff to and from Your iPhone

In This Chapter

Starting your first sync

Understanding iCloud

Syncing iPhone with iTunes

Synchronizing contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, and bookmarks

Synchronizing ringtones, music, podcasts, video, photos, and applications

After you pass basic training (in Chapter 2), the next thing you’re likely to want to do is get some or all of the following into your iPhone: contacts, appointments, events, mail settings, bookmarks, ringtones, music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, courseware, photos, documents, and applications.

We have good news and . . . more good news. The good news is that you can easily copy any or all of those items from your computer to your iPhone. And the more good news is that after you do that, you can synchronize your contacts, appointments, and events so they’re kept up-to-date automatically everywhere you might need them — on your computer, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. So when you add or change an appointment, an event, or a contact on your iPhone, that information automatically appears on your computer and other devices.

This communication between your iPhone and computer is called syncing (short for synchronizing). Don’t worry: Syncing is easy and you find out how it works in this very chapter.

Here’s even more good news: iOS 5 and 6 let you use your iPhone PC-free, which means it doesn’t require you to connect to a computer running iTunes. You’ll discover how to sync both with and without connecting your iPhone to a computer in this chapter. But bear in mind that certain tasks — such as rearranging icons on your Home screens and managing media — are quite a bit easier on a computer than on the iPhone’s smaller screen. And some tasks, such as rearranging the order of Home screens, are only possible using iTunes on a computer.

The information in this chapter is based on iTunes version 10.7 and iOS 6.0, which were the latest and greatest when these words were written. If your screens don’t look exactly like ours, you probably need to upgrade to iTunes 10.7 or higher (choose iTunes⇒Check for Updates) or to iOS 6 or higher (click the Check for Update button on the Summary tab shown in the upcoming Figure 3-2 and follow the instructions for updating your iPhone), or both. By the way, both upgrades are free, and both offer useful new features and have significant advantages over their predecessors.

You start this chapter with a description of how to set up a new iPhone both with and without a computer. Next, you take a quick look at iCloud, Apple’s free wireless storage and synchronization solution, and find out how it can make using your iPhone better. Finally, you get started syncing.