How to Download iOS 6 the Fastest Way (how to)

If you didn’t know, iOS 6 is starting to trickle out to iPhone (and iPad and iPod Touch) users today.  We’re based in Los Angeles, and while we can’t say it’s distributed based on geography, it did become available here around 10am this morning.

In terms of software updates, iOS 6 might be the most significant to date.  Why?  Simple, because it ditches the relationship with Google, and adds free turn-by-turn directions supported by none other than TomTom.  There are also a bevy of other updates, which include Siri improvements (you can post on Facebook, send a Tweet, launch an App, and something called Eyes Free for select vehicles), Facebook integration, shared Photo stream, Passbook (boarding passes, movie tickets, store loyalty cards), Facetime over cellular, phone improvements (do not disturb, reply with a message), mail improvements, Safar improvements, and what should be celluar+wifi support (update: this last feature didn’t seem to make it into iOS 6).

Here’s our list of the top 31 best iOS 6 features.

Now, the best and fastest way to download iOS 6 is to do so on your computer:

1. Plug in your iPhone to your computer
2. Open iTunes
3. Click on the iPhone icon in the left nav bar
4. Then check for updates
5. You can then download or download and install the software
6. On our WiFi connection it’s taking about 15 minutes to download the 600MB+ file
7. Make sure you sync your phone before you complete the update otherwise you’ll lose your most recent apps

Alternatively you can download the update to your handset directly, though this can prove timely and if you lose your WiFi connection the download will discontinue and you’ll probably have to start from scratch.

1. Unlock your iPhone
2. Make sure you have a good amount of battery juice left or plug in your iPhone
3. Select Settings>General>Software Update
4. Next push the download and install button
5. Our iPhone 4s is showing an “estimated time remaining…” of between 3 minutes and 1 hour.
6. Needless to say once the download is complete the installation process should automatically begin

Again, if you’ve got a computer, we recommend utilizing this method since the iOS 6 software package is 623MB and will download at probably twice the speed.  You’ll also need to make sure you have that much extra storage space available on your iPhone, otherwise you’ll be relegated to downloading the software on your computer and then installing.

Update: We had to restart our Macbook Air simply because the iPhone wouldn’t “backup”.  Nevertheless, this resolved the issue.  If that doesn’t work, make sure you’re running the latest version of iTunes, and if need be have the latest iteration of your install OS on your computer.