APPLE devices iPhone and iPad regularly produce back-ups of their memory when connected to a computer. That is practical if there is a malfunction, but over the long haul, it takes up a lot of hard drive space. No longer necessary backups can be deleted in iTunes settings, according to the German magazine iPhone Welt (iPhone World). The relevant menu can be found under “Devices”. To ease the decision-making process, the records are categorised according to device and date of creation. Thosewho do not want to delete the back-ups but would rather archive themon a separate data store have a somewhat more complicated task. The files are hidden in a different directory depending on the operating system but can be located by searching for “Apple Computer”. The displaying of hidden files must, however, be activated. The individual back-up folders are listed with long, cryptic strings of characters, which is the identification number of the Apple device. The so-called UDID will appear by clicking “Serial number” in the device overview on iTunes. – dpa
source : The Sun, Dec 28, 2011 - page 24
