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iTunes Reveals Potential iOS 5 Feature: “Automatic Download” [Update]

With WWDC right around the corner, many people are getting their scorecards ready. Here’s the center spot for your iOS 5 Bingo card: “Automatic Download” for your iDevices. MacRumors discovered that iTunes is now showing a new sentence on the My App Updates page. It reads, “Or if your device has Automatic Download enabled for apps, your updates will download to your device without having to sync.”

Seems like a very clear indicator that iOS 5 will have the option to automatically grab app updates to your iOS device. Currently, you must either sync or download the updates themselves through the App Store app on iOS.

“Automatic Download” could also suggest that the option could be for more than just iOS apps. People have been wanting a service like this for quite some time and Apple has been rumored to be moving toward the direction of OTA updates and wireless syncing.

Monday, at 10am PDT, we’ll know for sure where the future of iOS (Lion and iCloud) is headed in the coming months. We’ll have live coverage of the event, so please tune in here Monday, June 6 at 9:30 PDT.

Edit by Cody Fink (1:17 AM): Apple was quick about this one. Checking for app updates no longer reveals the message posted above. Instead, Apple has seemed to have temporarily killed the service completely. With my editor and I downloading updates through the App Store on iOS, no updates are available via iTunes update, and the message has been removed.

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