You bought a few apps for your iPhone / Touch from the iTunes AppStore. You installed them are now using those applications as the developer had intended you to.

 

But… what if the application developer decides that there is a feature they want to add or there is an issue that they have fixed. How do you know? How do you get a update to the one your using?

 

Developers are currently updating their apps and provide those at no additional charge. Some time off in the future, they will surely want to release a very different version that they will want to charge for – that day is not here yet and will carry some confusion about versions. We will cover that when it happens.

For now, updates can be downloaded and installed either via iTunes or directly to the iPhone / Touch via wireless. 

 

When you launch iTunes, the left upper part of the screen will look similar to this:

If you choose Applications, the right side of the window will show all of the applications you have purchased – including those you have uninstalled from your iPhone.

iTunes will from time to time call ‘home’, back to the AppStore and check if there are any updates. If you wish to do this manually, click on the “check for updates” along the bottom right corner of the iTunes window. This requires a Internet connection.

 

If there are any updates, you will get a box requesting you either update later or update now.

Notice that the quantity of the apps that have updates will appear next to the “Applications”. This happens when iTunes automatically finds updates or you manually check.

Choosing the option to update now will log iTunes onto the AppStore’s “My Apps Updates” area. Here you choose each app you want to download the update for or you can choose to do all. While you will of course want to have all of your applications updates, sometimes you have a slow speed Internet connection and will only want to download the apps updates that are important to you then – the rest will be waiting for your on your next visit.

As the apps are downloaded, the number next to ‘Applications’ will go down.

 

The next time you connect your iPhone / Touch to your computer and sync, the updated apps will automatically be installed over the older version.