<p>So I finally got an iPhone and every time I plug it into my MacBookAir, the little iTunes icon bobs up and down and says “you can’t use your iPhone because it needs version 10.6.3 or higher – please install now”</p>
<p>So I go to the iTunes store and click “install” (via my laptop keyboard so I’m doing the install on my laptop as opposed to on my phone) and…nothing happens. What I mean is, I still get the same pop up message when I plug my phone into my laptop.</p>
<p>I thought all downloads “synced” to the phone, but obviously not.</p>
<p>I have tried going to iTunes.com on my phone, but there is no clearly recognizable option to “download the latest version of iTunes to your iPhone”.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s like those high-pitched dog whistles – it’s right there, but I’m too old to see/hear it…</p>
<p>Guess I’ll go back to humming to myself if I want music in my life. Just one step away from having lipstick on my teeth and tucking my blouse into my pantyhose. Just shoot me now.</p>
<p>Yeah, checking iTunes versions, it looks like the current version is 11.0.2. So go to Apple -> Software Update and update iTunes and then try to sync.</p>
<p>Agreed. There’s no good reason to stick with 10.6.3 when upgrading to the latest/last version of Snow Leopard(10.6.8) is just a free download away from apple updates or from their website. </p>
<p>Especially considering 10.6.3 is so outdated that even some online banking websites won’t allow you on due to upgraded security/software on their end. Found this out the hardway with a few friends with 10.6.3 and my mother with Leopard(10.5.8) about 2 years ago and upgraded them. </p>
<p>Granted…mom’s upgrade required me to pick up a Snow Leopard upgrade disc from the Apple store.</p>
<p>Also, depending on how old your macbook air is, you may want to look into getting a more current Mac OS…like Mountain Lion(10.8.x).</p>
<p>I didn’t know that it was free. I bought a family-upgrade for Snow Leopard many years ago and I’m very happy with it. I’ve read about lots of problems (graphics drivers) on Lion and Mountain Lion and those Operating Systems are far more resource hungry (because they do a lot more for you) compared to Snow Leopard.</p>
<p>Apple is not stupid, in order to sync your phone with your Mac, you will need to update to Mountain Lion! You might be able to find it cheaper on Amazon than at the Apple store.</p>
<p>I still back up my phone through iTunes and iCloud, not really sure why other than I like to know I am covered. When I had my very first iPhone, the Genius at Apple was helping me with an update as I was receiving a message that was different than normal. Well, the Genius manage to delete all my contacts on the phone, but said no worries, they are still in your back-up. Yeah, right, when he went to sync my phone with my computer, he manage to loose them again Obviously my Genius, was not a knowledgeable Genius!</p>
<p>It wasn’t free. I paid $29 for that upgrade to Snow Leopard. It was free to my mother because she’s mom. :)</p>
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<p>Not everyone needs the higher level functionality provided by newer versions of operating systems, office suites, etc.</p>
<p>In fact, this is one major factor in why Microsoft & Apple have both instituted limits as to how long they support legacy operating systems/software. Even so, there has been pushback as the case of Microsoft’s XP when corporate/institutional customers refused to migrate from XP and even demanded downgrade rights to it from Vista because of budget, support, and bugginess issues. </p>
<p>It’s one reason why XP will be supported with security updates till sometime in April 2014. Even though many folks with 10+ year old machines would be happy to continue using XP forever…after April 2014, Microsoft will cease further support for XP…including security updates. This means anyone still running XP then will either be forced to upgrade to Windows 7/8, buy new machines with it, or take a risk that they may be unprotected by undiscovered/unpatched bugs/security holes within XP. </p>
<p>Apple not only does this with each of their operating system versions…but also institute hardware limits so one can’t continue using older operating systems on newer hardware or vice versa and software vendors like Turbotax have done likewise. A reason why last year I was able to use Turbotax 2011 on my G3 Imac running 10.4.11 Tiger and yet this year…I can’t even run the current Turbotax 2012 on 32-bit Core Duo intel macs even when they’re running 10.6.8…the minimum OS required to run it. </p>
<p>Worse…Turbotax didn’t clearly label their software with the warning that it’s only compatible with 64-bit systems on the Mac side. In contrast, one can still run Turbotax 2012 on 32-bit Windows PCs like an old Pentium 4 running Windows 7*. </p>
<ul>
<li>Runs surprisingly well on less than 1 GB RAM. Granted, it can only serve as office/internet machine.</li>
</ul>
<p>Mountain Lion has graphics drivers issues with certain Mac models, particularly those with nVidia graphics cards. We’ve had numerous motherboards replaced for graphics problems and Lion and Mountain Lion are known to exacerbate those problems.</p>
<p>As a software engineer for almost 30 years, I completely understand why companies don’t want to support old versions. There are significant costs to maintaining multiple code lines, requiring engineers to backport fixes to older versions, running regression tests on multiple hardware and operating system platforms, etc.</p>
<p>I think that the amount of money that customers spend on maintenance contracts pays for those costs but the PC model doesn’t really do maintenance contracts in the consumer space. The Apple stuff works quite well and I’m happy with support but I could move up to a newer system were Apple to provide attractive enough reasons for me to do so.</p>
<p>There were problems with 2007-2008 systems with nVidia 8600s and these were recalled, sometimes multiple times, and fixed. There were problems with the mid-2010 MacBook Pros too. My son’s system had two or three motherboard replacements. He still had problems but he did a lot of work and wound up fixing the problem by installing drivers from nVidia instead of Apple. There are other people that I’ve found on one of the massive Apple Forum threads where they’ve had a lot of difficulty getting Apple to replace their motherboards. These are typically outside the US but even people in the US have had this problem. Local Apple service is not even - it can depend on who you get to look at your system. Some customers have gone back to the store for another person or have gone to another store where a different store would fix the problem but one might now.</p>
Obviously my Genius, was not a knowledgeable Genius!</p>