Is it just like an Iphone without any phone/internet capabilities? i.e. same sized screen? If so I guess if you make games for one, they'll run on the other? There's a lot of hype about iPhone games right now but some people have said that it's annoying when your finger blocks the view and as it's not a gaming device there's a limit to what you can do with the games. Perhaps though people just need to think up different styles of games?
So, the Ipod Touch vs the Iphone...
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/So, the Ipod Touch vs the Iphone... I think they are pretty much the same but Touch has no phone, mic, speakers, bluetooth or camera. It does have wifi internet tho.
They both have tilt controls as well.
They both have tilt controls as well.
Oh, interesting that it has wifi Internet (and a browser I presume), that's handy. Yeah the tilt controls are being used for some games like MonkeyBall.
...and a browser, yes. Safari, I believe.
I think they are pretty much the same but Touch has no phone, mic, speakers, bluetooth or camera. It does have wifi internet tho.
Latest revision of the iPod Touch includes volume buttons, better battery, and a built-in speaker.
Anyways, from what I've seen, iPod Touch and Phone are basically sisters, just the Phone has more toys (that being the phoning capabilities, GPS, and camera)
I quite enjoy using mine in class (using my campus' WiFi) to look-up image references while drawing.
You can safely say that the iPod Touch is an iPhone without the Phone part. As has already been mentioned, the new revision introduced this week even has a built-in speaker and support for a microphone. All revisions always had full WLAN support (which works very well).
With firmware version 2.x, the iPod Touch is compatible with Apple's AppStore and thus allows for the installation of third party software.
Mail became available with the January 2008 applications update which needed to be purchased for 20 USD. Since firmware version 2.0, which also needed to be paid for around 10 USD, Mail has Microsoft Exchange push mail support.
Those apps have been around since firmware 1.0:
Safari
Calendar
Contacts
Clock
Calculator
Notes
The online apps Maps, Stocks, YouTube and Weather are also on it.
Of course, it is a video, photo and music player.
Useful third party software that I recommend for installation:
Currency (free)
Light (free)
FileMagnet (not free) - allows you to read PDFs, Word docs and other files on your iPod Touch or iPhone
WARNING:
Apple's DRM is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUTT. "Synchronizing" an iPod means ERASING ALL DATA on it and copying the contents of the current computer's iTunes library to it. Duh!
And you can ONLY copy files that you've bought on the iTunes store from an iPod to your computer; iTunes won't even let you copy DRM-free mp3 files from the iPod!
And the worst part: Neither the iPod Touch NOR the iPhone can be used like a normal USB stick or external hard disk (that's only possible with the iPod Video). So you cannot plug it to your computer and store stuff on it without iTunes.
As mentioned above, Apple likes to charge iPod Touch users for firmware updates. I've already paid for two of them: The 1.1.4 (with apps) update and the 2.0 update. It is noteworthy that I bought my iPod Touch in January 2008 and still had to pay for the January 2008 software update. Isn't that customer friendly?
Apple's AppStore policy is a chapter of its own: You cannot just upload self-written software to it; Apple wants to approve everything first, and it has happened that software magically disappeared from the AppStore without even informing the author --> just look at Nullriver's Tethering software.
If I had known this to this extent when I bought my iPod Touch, I would have left it where it was. Apple's product policy around their iPod/iPhone gadgets has Orwell-like dimensions and the devices are only fun for a few minutes; the moment you really want to use them for something other than listening to music or watching a (QuickTime-format-only) movie, you quickly realize that you just CAN'T. These things are not the PDA they seem to be from a distance, and the word OPEN does not exist in Apple's dictionary.
Although I am more sold from a user's perspective on Macs and OS X than I ever was on PCs and Windows, I cannot recommend purchasing iPod or iPhone devices with clear conscience.
With firmware version 2.x, the iPod Touch is compatible with Apple's AppStore and thus allows for the installation of third party software.
Mail became available with the January 2008 applications update which needed to be purchased for 20 USD. Since firmware version 2.0, which also needed to be paid for around 10 USD, Mail has Microsoft Exchange push mail support.
Those apps have been around since firmware 1.0:
Safari
Calendar
Contacts
Clock
Calculator
Notes
The online apps Maps, Stocks, YouTube and Weather are also on it.
Of course, it is a video, photo and music player.
Useful third party software that I recommend for installation:
Currency (free)
Light (free)
FileMagnet (not free) - allows you to read PDFs, Word docs and other files on your iPod Touch or iPhone
WARNING:
Apple's DRM is a ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUTT. "Synchronizing" an iPod means ERASING ALL DATA on it and copying the contents of the current computer's iTunes library to it. Duh!
And you can ONLY copy files that you've bought on the iTunes store from an iPod to your computer; iTunes won't even let you copy DRM-free mp3 files from the iPod!
And the worst part: Neither the iPod Touch NOR the iPhone can be used like a normal USB stick or external hard disk (that's only possible with the iPod Video). So you cannot plug it to your computer and store stuff on it without iTunes.
As mentioned above, Apple likes to charge iPod Touch users for firmware updates. I've already paid for two of them: The 1.1.4 (with apps) update and the 2.0 update. It is noteworthy that I bought my iPod Touch in January 2008 and still had to pay for the January 2008 software update. Isn't that customer friendly?
Apple's AppStore policy is a chapter of its own: You cannot just upload self-written software to it; Apple wants to approve everything first, and it has happened that software magically disappeared from the AppStore without even informing the author --> just look at Nullriver's Tethering software.
If I had known this to this extent when I bought my iPod Touch, I would have left it where it was. Apple's product policy around their iPod/iPhone gadgets has Orwell-like dimensions and the devices are only fun for a few minutes; the moment you really want to use them for something other than listening to music or watching a (QuickTime-format-only) movie, you quickly realize that you just CAN'T. These things are not the PDA they seem to be from a distance, and the word OPEN does not exist in Apple's dictionary.
Although I am more sold from a user's perspective on Macs and OS X than I ever was on PCs and Windows, I cannot recommend purchasing iPod or iPhone devices with clear conscience.
The Touch that I bought yesterday appears to have all of the functionality of the iPhone, except for the obvious things like 3G and GPS.
Works great here, and costs a fraction of the cost of an iPhone - £640 (or £350 prepaid) vs £169.
For what I'll be using it for (dev stuff), it'll do the job just fine.
I do like the live debugging.
Works great here, and costs a fraction of the cost of an iPhone - £640 (or £350 prepaid) vs £169.
For what I'll be using it for (dev stuff), it'll do the job just fine.
I do like the live debugging.
And the worst part: Neither the iPod Touch NOR the iPhone can be used like a normal USB stick or external hard disk (that's only possible with the iPod Video). So you cannot plug it to your computer and store stuff on it without iTunes.
Use Songbird. from the songbird website
Apple iPhones, iPod Touch and Microsoft Zune devices are not yet supported.
Apple iPhones, iPod Touch and Microsoft Zune devices are not yet supported.
@Brucey
Did you buy the 16 or 32GB version? I'm a little bit unsure about the memory space.
Did you buy the 16 or 32GB version? I'm a little bit unsure about the memory space.
Winni: wow, thanks for the detail. That sure sounds stinky. I have a huge (LEGAL) mp3 library built from my CDs and trance tracks purchased on-line and C64 sid conversions etc that I'd want to put on it.
Did you buy the 16 or 32GB version?
The 8 :-p
I don't need any more space than that.
There's no problem at all playing any old MP3s on the iPod/Phone. I've got 20k+ tracks in iTunes and it will play them all quite happily. It's purely an anti-piracy thing that you can't plug your iPod into another computer and copy them back from the iPod onto the other machine.
Similarly with regards to storing other files on there, no problem at all. Just use Files, File Magnet or Mobile Finder (all available for a couple of quid from the app store) and bob's your uncle. I've got loads of stuff on mine.
Similarly with regards to storing other files on there, no problem at all. Just use Files, File Magnet or Mobile Finder (all available for a couple of quid from the app store) and bob's your uncle. I've got loads of stuff on mine.
@Brucey
Oh don't say this too easily, it reminds me too much of the computer history. ;O)
Personally i often found myself in the situation lacking memory space if enough time passed. What does a full movie costs btw, half a gig?
Oh don't say this too easily, it reminds me too much of the computer history. ;O)
Personally i often found myself in the situation lacking memory space if enough time passed. What does a full movie costs btw, half a gig?
No idea, I'm using it for development ;-)
Well, movies sometimes are part of the development. ;O)
Good point :-)
How can it be an anti-piracy thing when I cannot copy DRM-free, legal mp3s back to any of MY -- AUTHENTICATED! -- computers. Apple let's me copy DRM-free tracks that I've bought from iTunes. They just do not let me copy MY files that I've created by ripping an audio CD in iTunes. In other words: They only let me copy files for which I have paid an Apple tax.
There's no excuse for that kind of 'protection mechanism'. In German, we call this "Kundengängelung". There should be laws AGAINST such software mechanisms. But since only the industry has a lobby strong enough to buy themselves the laws that they need, the customers always have to pay the bill in the end. And here, there is not even a law that forces Apple to implement such a customer-hostile feature. This makes me furious and I would love to ram that iPod down Steve Jobs' throat (if it fits through his turtleneck).
Songbird: Well, as already mentioned above, the iPod Touch and the iPhone are not supported. Why? Because Songbird only works with iPods that can be used as regular storage devices and that grant direct access to their file system, as for example the Fifth Generation iPod Video of my girl friend does; with a software like Songbird or Banshee she -could- use her iPod as a backup device, I cannot.
Taumel: An "iPod High Resolution" mp4 file, as e.g. Handbrake creates them, is usually around 1 to 1.3 GB, depending on the length of the movie.
There's no excuse for that kind of 'protection mechanism'. In German, we call this "Kundengängelung". There should be laws AGAINST such software mechanisms. But since only the industry has a lobby strong enough to buy themselves the laws that they need, the customers always have to pay the bill in the end. And here, there is not even a law that forces Apple to implement such a customer-hostile feature. This makes me furious and I would love to ram that iPod down Steve Jobs' throat (if it fits through his turtleneck).
Songbird: Well, as already mentioned above, the iPod Touch and the iPhone are not supported. Why? Because Songbird only works with iPods that can be used as regular storage devices and that grant direct access to their file system, as for example the Fifth Generation iPod Video of my girl friend does; with a software like Songbird or Banshee she -could- use her iPod as a backup device, I cannot.
Taumel: An "iPod High Resolution" mp4 file, as e.g. Handbrake creates them, is usually around 1 to 1.3 GB, depending on the length of the movie.
You can actually use the phone as a memory stick, at least for photos. You could probably easily trick it into thinking any files are photos by changing the extension.
@Winni
Okay, by the way is it known if the 32GB model consumes more power than the 16GB model?
I suspect this strongly depends on the type of memory you are using and that it would be neglectable compared to what other elements consume, it just would be interesting to know.
Okay, by the way is it known if the 32GB model consumes more power than the 16GB model?
I suspect this strongly depends on the type of memory you are using and that it would be neglectable compared to what other elements consume, it just would be interesting to know.
taumel, I really don't know. The battery won't last long anyway when you watch movies on the iPod. There's only enough juice in it for two movies max (when you don't skip or otherwise navigate).
Jeremy, I don't think that'll work. All file copying is being done by iTunes, and it only shovels compatible image formats to the device that it can actually open and display.
Jeremy, I don't think that'll work. All file copying is being done by iTunes, and it only shovels compatible image formats to the device that it can actually open and display.
RiK: OK thanks for the clarification. I'll add it back to my "to buy" list.
Ah, I just tested it. I thought it was working like a memory card but it's just working like a digital camera. It let's you copy from the phone to the PC but not vice versa. Still, there are a ton of file apps in the app store which handle this.
Additionally, there are remote desktop apps so you can control your PC with your phone from anywhere, FTP programs, and much more.
Additionally, there are remote desktop apps so you can control your PC with your phone from anywhere, FTP programs, and much more.
Yeah, that's another beauty of the Apple world: For everything, you have to BUY a third party product... ;-p
the music is usually in a hidden folder on the ipod named ipod_control, i have use this to transfer and combine librarys often. note:the songs are in a billion folders inside of said directory and are named funny 4 letter combos,but itunes finds the names from the files settings so don't worry.
The only problem is that you just don't see an iPod Touch or iPhone as a disk drive, neither on Windows nor on a Mac. So you just cannot access any folders, because there is no mounted volume. This only works for 'traditional' iPods where Songbird & Co. can use this feature to download files from the device.
You'd think they'd create an app that creates a dedicated folder to store stuff onto and mounts it when connected to the PC so people can't accidentally muck about and ruin any system files in the process.
it doesn't have the spiffy "use as harddisk" option in itunes?
No, it doesn't have the "use as harddisk" option --> which is why SongBird, Banshee & Co. won't work with it. And so far, at least to my knowledge, nobody has a written software to bypass that problem. I have FileMagnet, but it does not give you access to the full file system of the iPod Touch (which is prohibited by the iPhone SDK EULA anyway) and it only works over WLAN.
There is no LEGAL way to access the file system of a non-jailbroken iPod Touch or iPhone.
There is no LEGAL way to access the file system of a non-jailbroken iPod Touch or iPhone.
Yeah, that's another beauty of the Apple world: For everything, you have to BUY a third party product... ;-p
Isn't that a good thing? Not for nothing but if I write some software I'd like to release it in a market that rewards me for my time.
As a side note I picked up Billy Frontier, Enigmo, and Cro-Mag racing today for $10! They are on sale for $3.99, $4.99, and $1.99 respectively. Honestly, these games are the best available for the iPhone in my opinion.
Billy Frontier in particular is a great showpiece and I found it to be very fun. I'm thinking picking up Spore for the iPhone too but I couldn't see spending $10 on that alone today when I could have the 3 Pangea titles instead.
Is it easy to break v2.1s?
I got 1.4.4 jailed here, and I wouldn't mind the bug-fixes/additions of the latest version, but I'm not losing IRC/MSN/netRadio over it.
Main thing I wish my Touch had was a check-list option like iTunes does, so I can easily include/exclude files to be played on shuffle mode.
(and manually creating playlists over iTunes to transfer to the Touch gets old fast)
I got 1.4.4 jailed here, and I wouldn't mind the bug-fixes/additions of the latest version, but I'm not losing IRC/MSN/netRadio over it.
Main thing I wish my Touch had was a check-list option like iTunes does, so I can easily include/exclude files to be played on shuffle mode.
(and manually creating playlists over iTunes to transfer to the Touch gets old fast)
I'm still missing a simple "repeat" feature in that thing.
I don't know if 2.1 is already jailbroken. I've read that the 2.0 version is. I haven't used my Touch since the 2.1 update and can't even say if there is a difference in the software. I'm currently no longer commuting, so I don't have much use for the Touch at the moment. I used to call it my "People Protection Device (TM)" when I was still riding the subway everyday - a great way to fade out all the blah blah. ;-)
I don't know if 2.1 is already jailbroken. I've read that the 2.0 version is. I haven't used my Touch since the 2.1 update and can't even say if there is a difference in the software. I'm currently no longer commuting, so I don't have much use for the Touch at the moment. I used to call it my "People Protection Device (TM)" when I was still riding the subway everyday - a great way to fade out all the blah blah. ;-)
For file storage:
There's an iPod Touch/iPhone app called AirShare that was released this week that turns it into a WebDAV server so you can copy file too and from it and view the files on it if they're supported. It works well and it's free for the next week and a half (and will cost about £6 thereafter). It's the top rated app in the "Top 25 > Free" section.
There's an iPod Touch/iPhone app called AirShare that was released this week that turns it into a WebDAV server so you can copy file too and from it and view the files on it if they're supported. It works well and it's free for the next week and a half (and will cost about £6 thereafter). It's the top rated app in the "Top 25 > Free" section.
I'm thinking of buying an Ipod Touch aswell, but some of the classic ipods can hold 150+gb of stuff for the same 200$ price, while the Ipod Touch only holds 8gb for the 200$ model
ive got a 160gb classic myself
(as stated up there and ages ago by myself in another thread) any synced songs get converted to those stupid 4 letter name and folder options, but as an anti piracy measure its ok ish, you could copy the files before itunes auto synced if not turned off or even installed but it would be a bugger to manually rename em back to their logical albumtitle-tracknumber-tracktitle or risk having aacz over written by another aacz which is a song you REALLY hate
but as its seen as a hard drive unlike the nano and touch i can dump alsorts of data to it
ive got my zoom h2/h4 full quality wav's on there as well as their own brand m4a's so when i go oop norf i dont have to cart a few cd roms around with me (i gave up trying to burn DVD's it dont like me) and if something in my brothers collection catches my ear i can dump it to a folder (and later track down the CD for myself)
i know the touch has a better screen, but i cant justify the price differance from ram to disc, afaik when i got mine nothing else was as large for the money, everything was ram and 8gb average perhaps 64 max?
i had a 2gb dixons own brand that did the job for me but after a while 2gb seemed tiny and i was forever taking albums out within the week, ive yet to fill mine and have boxes of CD's still to rip ... i just lack hard drive space on this box and should invest in an extra drive purely for music/videos/pictures
(as stated up there and ages ago by myself in another thread) any synced songs get converted to those stupid 4 letter name and folder options, but as an anti piracy measure its ok ish, you could copy the files before itunes auto synced if not turned off or even installed but it would be a bugger to manually rename em back to their logical albumtitle-tracknumber-tracktitle or risk having aacz over written by another aacz which is a song you REALLY hate
but as its seen as a hard drive unlike the nano and touch i can dump alsorts of data to it
ive got my zoom h2/h4 full quality wav's on there as well as their own brand m4a's so when i go oop norf i dont have to cart a few cd roms around with me (i gave up trying to burn DVD's it dont like me) and if something in my brothers collection catches my ear i can dump it to a folder (and later track down the CD for myself)
i know the touch has a better screen, but i cant justify the price differance from ram to disc, afaik when i got mine nothing else was as large for the money, everything was ram and 8gb average perhaps 64 max?
i had a 2gb dixons own brand that did the job for me but after a while 2gb seemed tiny and i was forever taking albums out within the week, ive yet to fill mine and have boxes of CD's still to rip ... i just lack hard drive space on this box and should invest in an extra drive purely for music/videos/pictures
@Winni
I just had some video tryouts and a.o. an almost 3hours movie resulted into approximately 2.2GB.
I just had some video tryouts and a.o. an almost 3hours movie resulted into approximately 2.2GB.