iLounge

Apple plans on delivering incremental point updates to iOS 5 over-the-air (OTA), according to a new report. Citing multiple anonymous sources, 9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple has been in talks with Verizon Wireless over the feature since early this year; similar talks with other carriers could not be confirmed. As noted in the article, some iOS updates can weigh in at over 600MB, a size that will likely need to be reduced in order to secure agreements with the carriers, and since OTA updates don’t offer users the ability to backup their device to a computer before the update begins, Apple could conceivably offer a cloud-based backup system instead. It is also expected that similar functionality would be available for the iPad and iPod touch under iOS 5; the second-generation Apple TV, which runs a variant of iOS 4.x, currently offers similar, iTunes-free update functionality.