Apple Details Smart iDevice Diagnostic Tool in Patent

It’s Apple patent time again here at iDownloadbBlog, and the latest to be discovered by Patently Apple points to a fancy new iTunes based diagnostic tool for iOS devices.

The new tool will create and monitor in-depth change logs, as well as check things like the device’s location and other physical conditions. The idea is that the logs show what a device was doing and where it was doing it at definable points in time. The patent mentions the logs could be generated at every restart, every day, or every time a particular action is performed…

“The log may be generated periodically (e.g., every 5 milliseconds, every 30 minutes, every 5 hours, after every reset, or at any other time based or event based or environment based event occurs). Each generated log may be stored on the Apple device or uploaded to a remote entity, and each log may be retained or overwritten by a more recently generated log depending on available storage space and/or processing capabilities, for example.”

As anyone who’s ever visit an Apple Genius Bar will attest, the more information the better, and no doubt Apple employees would love to have a tool like this at their disposal. Perhaps in conjunction with, I don’t know, a web based diagnostic tool?

We told you just yesterday of an Apple project that could see iOS devices be repaired remotely, using a unique ticket number that could be emailed to an iDevice owner by an Apple Genius. Saving a trip to a busy Apple Store is always a good thing, and if you’re anything like us, it could well save you money, too!

These two diagnostic tools could change the way we get iDevice help in the future, with the problem being detected by a detailed log file, and repaired remotely by a Genius. As with all patent applications though, there’s no guarantee this technology will ever see the light of day.

Would you rather have your iDevice problems repaired remotely, or do you love the smell of an Apple Store in the morning?