With all the wireless capabilities now built into the iPhone and iPod touch such as push email and syncing via MobileMe, you could literally go for days if not weeks without having to plug your iPhone/iPod touch into your computer. Technically the only thing that needs to be "sync'd" via the USB cable anymore is pictures and other media such as songs, movies, etc.

However, there is a danger in going too long without a sync. Every time you plug your iPhone/iPod touch into sync it first does a backup of the device onto your hard drive. This backup contains the things that are on the iPhone that you may not be thinking about such as your Notes created on the device, data for all your dozens of apps, text messages, call logs, etc.

If for some reason your iPhone/iPod touch becomes damaged, lost or stolen and you get replacement, you'll only be able to restore as of your last backup! If you haven't backed up in a while you could lose a lot more than you're thinking about right now.

So to combat this potential loss of data, backup on a regular basis by plugging in and doing a sync.

I sooooo wish Apple would allow this over Wi-Fi because I think people would do it more often if they didn't have to physically plug in!

Are we still stuck with having to back up to only one particular computer?

My guess on why syncing over Wifi isn't a feature yet is fear of the battery going out during the sync. Some people would probably try to sync 5-20 gigs of Content (Photos, Music, Video, Applications) on a low battery and wonder why the battery quit after 15-20 minutes. Contacts (address book, calendars, etc.) typically sync much faster.

Again, just a guess...

I think that is a very likely guess. It certainly makes sense.

A couple of easy ways around this:
1) it could be restricted to a certain level of remaining battery before working.
2) it does the backup first anyway and worse case is that if it died, during the sync nothing is lost. Same as yanking the cable out during a sync. Software updates could still be done (required) via the cable.
3) it could also be restricted to a certain amount of data. So if you're syncing more than say 5GB it would require the cable.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave:
My guess on why syncing over Wifi isn't a feature yet is fear of the battery going out during the sync. Some people would probably try to sync 5-20 gigs of Content (Photos, Music, Video, Applications) on a low battery and wonder why the battery quit after 15-20 minutes. Contacts (address book, calendars, etc.) typically sync much faster.

Again, just a guess...

Backup has been enabled on multiple computers pretty much since day one:

I sync Media (music, movies, etc.) from my iMac
I sync data and photos from my MacBook Pro

When I plug in to either computer to do a sync it backs up first on either computer.

quote:

Originally posted by Donna:
Are we still stuck with having to back up to only one particular computer?

So your most current backup would be on whichever computer you used last? That would be perfect for me. At least if my laptop (which is where I currently back up my Touch) were lost or stolen , I'd have another backup on my desktop at home. Correct?

yes, that is correct.

quote:

Originally posted by Donna:
So your most current backup would be on whichever computer you used last? That would be perfect for me. At least if my laptop (which is where I currently back up my Touch) were lost or stolen , I'd have another backup on my desktop at home. Correct?

You could limit wireless backup to happen only when plugged in to charge, that, most of us do daily.