Apple Is Reportedly Launching a Toaster Oven-Like Device to Update Unopened iPhones

A photo of iPhones in their boxes.

If there’s any company obsessed with perfection, it’s Apple. So, of course, it makes complete sense that the company would create a new device capable of wirelessly updating iPhones that are still in their boxes with the newest Apple software. The funny thing is that this new groundbreaking system reportedly looks like a toaster oven.

French tech news site iGeneration got a first look at this system, which is said to be called “Presto.” The photo shared by iGeneration shows off a silver and sleek-looking device composed of multiple racks. According to a Google Translation of the report, each rack can fit six iPhones at once. It looks like the entire Presto system can accommodate multiple racks, which likely means it’ll be possible to update more than a handful of iPhones at one time.

The Presto system reportedly installs the newest version of iOS in between 15 and 30 minutes. Apple is said to be aiming to eliminate the roughly 20 minutes it can take to update a new iPhone to the latest iOS after customers open the box.

But wait, why don’t new iPhones come pre-installed with the newest software before they get put in their boxes? The answer is easy: time. Sometimes devices stay in their boxes for months, during which Apple may have released several iOS updates. These updates are important, as they not only provide new features and fix bugs but also include important security patches.

It’s not clear yet how this purported system works. Ars Technica has a good guess, though. According to the outlet, it’s likely that Apple will use the NFC chips in the phones during the process. While Ars Technica explains that it’s unlikely that Apple will use the NFC connection to deliver the software update itself given that it has a maximum data rate of 848 kbit/s, the connection is probably sufficient to connect the iPhone to wi-fi and deliver the update that way.

We’ve been hearing about the impending launch of the Presto system for a few months now. Last October, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple was working on a new proprietary system to update iPhones without opening their boxes. According to Gurman, the system can wirelessly turn on the iPhone, deliver the update, and then turn it off.

In a recent report, Gurman stated that Apple was planning a wide rollout of the Presto system in its U.S. retail stores in April, and will have all its stores stocked with these systems by summer. Gurman reports that Apple is using MagSafe and other wireless technologies to turn on the iPhones.

While this new system is certainly innovative and saves the user a couple of minutes during set-up, it seems very much like a first-world problem. Who asked for this? I’ve been using iPhones for years and it’s never something that I jotted down on my Apple wish list. Oh well, it’s cool, I guess.

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