What say you? Any advantages/disadvantages to either approach? (My DL speeds are nearly identical.)

While going the wired route seems better (to me), what I presume to be intuitive, just ain't always that way…

If by "wired" you mean downloading via iTunes with the iDevice connected to your Mac, then I believe you will retain a copy of the downloaded iOS on your Mac.

Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage is up to you.

P.S.--If you have multiple same iDevices that you want to update, then this could be an advantage; the time to download on each is avoided.

That's exactly the kind of info I was seeking. Bravo.

Many thanks, Ira!

"wired where you can, wireless where you can't" has always been my advice.

V1,

That's what I would have thought, but if the DL remains on my phone, even after installation, then I see the wisdom of what Ira says.

Have you additional thoughts in that regard?

The one potential gotcha is that OTA wireless updates are usually delta updates (you transfer only the parts of iOS that have changed), whereas wired updates are full fat updates (they contain a full install of the entire OS), and so wired updates are bigger.

That won't be the case with iOS 7, where the whole operating system is going to be updated regardless. But I remember when iOS 6.1.3 was released, the OTA update was tiny, and the wired update was huge.

Thanks, Tacit.

I presume the fat/combo updates offer the same advantage with the iOS as they do with the OS. But is that a reasonable presumption?

Or, is this just another example of what I hold to be true, really ain't?

And of course, any tips on deleting the installed iOS once its done doing its thing will be most appreciated.

Slightly off topic, but I have noticed that 4G LTE is often faster than wireless for downloading.

Depending on your data plan, there could be costs associated with LTE downloads (i.e., how many "free" GB's do you have?)

The same delta vs. fat installs apply to iOS as to Mac OS, in the sense that the delta contains only changed files (so if there is some other operating system damage/corruption, the delta won't fix it) whereas the full fat install replaces all OS-related files (so it can repair a damaged install).

I'm not sure how o delete the full version from iTunes if you download it on a Mac.

All the iTunes App downloads are found in the user's ?Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications with a .ipa extension so I would assume the iOS updates would be there as well.

I just installed iOS 7 via iTunes. I know I started the process at exactly 12 noon, but could find no files in the suggested folder with a time after noon. Thus, I wonder if the file is deleted when done, much as it is with OS X.

There must be a simple or obvious answer to this but what passes for my brain can't work it out. I just did my iPhone iOS 7 update via iTunes and then repeated it for the iPad. Two gigabyte updates which put quite a dent in my download allocation.

Before I do the iOS 7.0.2 update (although this appears to be smaller), can you tell me how to get at the downloaded copy stored on the Mac from the first device so I can then update the other device without further impacting my limit?

Your plan to keep a copy of iOS or the updater(s) around is a good one. Unfortunately, the various model iDevices each have their own and different iOS versions and updaters, so using the iPad version for the iPhone (or the other way around) won't fly. See Download iOS Updates Once for Installing on Multiple Devices for details.

Yep, I went through the same thing.

The iPad and the iPhone are very different devices under the hood, with different processors and different hardware. iOS for the iPad won't work on an iPhone and vice versa. I noticed that iOS 7 was a huge download for both my iPad and my iPhone, but once I had downloaded it, I didn't need to download it again to upgrade my girlfriend's iPhone.

Wow, thanks for the link! I'll check if my daughter now has a 4s like me (amazingly, or perhaps not, she loses her phone so often that it's hard to keep track - heh heh!) and give it a go.