Do I need iTunes to upgrade to iOS6?

Question

Once iOS6 is released, does anyone know if I can upgrade my iPad 2 to it via WiFi or do
I need to use iTunes?
What about all my photos and other data, will it get wiped?
-Frankie

Answer 1

Let me start off by saying that I have done the last two updates via WiFi and had no issues whatsoever. Those two updates were incremental updates from iOS 5 to 5.0.1 and then to 5.1.1. Actually, I have never once had an issue with an iOS update starting with iOS 3 when I bought my first iPad and iPod Touch.
Can you update with a backup? Not sure on this one. Would I recommend that? Not it would not. But it's your choice.
This next update will be the first major update since iOS was released. We all had to update via iTunes in order to get iOS 5. Since iOS 5 rendered iDevices PC free I'm not sure what the process will be .... Meaning I don't know if the device will be erased and then restored which was part of the process of updating from iOS 4 to iOS 5.
You can read this to see how the update from 4-5 goes.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4972
Frankly, I don't know if the next update will require the device to be erased and restored like this one required. If I had to guess, I would assume that before the update process begins, you will get some sort of explanation as to what the update includes, how it is going to occur and would still have the opportunity to back out if there is something that you don't like or don't want to do. That's the way the incremental updates worked.
I would never update any of my iDevices without taking the necessary precautions, but like I said, I don't know how this will one will go. We will have to wait until Wednesday to see how it all plays out.
Assuming that nothing goes wrong ... IOS 6 should be upgradable from iOS 5 without the use of iTunes, but like I'm saying, I don't know how iCloud will come into play in this.