I’ve been waiting to write this post as I wanted to get familiar with the player before giving my opinion. I’ve had it about two weeks now and I absolutely love it. It’s hands down the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought. It’s quite a lengthy post so I’ve stuck it in an extended entry. Click through for more:
Background:
I had been using an iRiver H120 (20Gb) for the past five years and it never gave me a days trouble. The principle niggles I had with it were folder management and the monochrome screen. It had served its purpose well though and I liked the crocodile clip remote which I stuck on my jacket. However with the iPhone launching last year I began to think about upgrading my player. A few problems with the iPhone (lack of 3G, crappy camera in comparison to my k800i) and the decision by o2 to charge the earth for it in Ireland meant the iPod Touch became an interesting option.
The 8 & 16Gb models were too small though so with the announcement of the 32Gb model, I was ready to buy my first Apple product. I went the eBay route though and got stuck with a seller who had no intention of sending the item. 🙁 It’s all worked out though as I had PayPal payment protection and it’s getting refunded. A couple of weeks later and I ordered two 32Gb models (one for my brother) from the Irish store for €460 each. Quite pricey but after having the trouble with eBay, I didn’t wanna mess around.
Setup and Jailbreak:
A week or so later I had my new toy. I’d heard mention of Apple’s amazing packaging before but this was new to me. It was just so clean compared to other tech products, where wires and manuals are protruding from the box as soon as you lift the lid. After connecting it to iTunes I transferred a few albums and videos. I was amazed at how easy iTunes made it to update track/album information and get artwork. Video files must be in MP4 so you may need to convert some using a tool like Videora.
I’d long been hearing about jailbreaking the software to load custom applications. The one that interested me the most was MobileScrobbler. It takes account what you are listening to on the move and then uploads it to your Last.fm profile which, in turn, suggests other artists to listen to. I’d also heard about MXTube over on boards.ie which allows you to download YouTube videos to watch later without a Wifi connection. So on Wednesday, after much research and reading up, I decided to go with the ZiPhone method as a release only a week earlier had claimed to support the 32Gb Touch. I downloaded, installed and ran the program (after restoring to 1.1.4 from 1.1.3) and, much to my delight, it worked great and soon I was able to install apps/SSH into the unit/take screenshots etc.
Blog Admin:
There’s a plugin for WordPress that provides an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the admin backend. All you need to do is install it and it’ll kick in when accessing it from a device.
It allows you to do almost anything you would need to so hopefully I’ll be able to use it out and about. Actually gonna see if I can publish this post with it. Update from the Touch: It works quite well actually.
11 replies on “My new toy: iPod Touch 32Gb”
GRR
Sounds the shit so it does. Nice post.
Realistically with wifi spots whats the change of a decent connection with most of them being secure signals etc
I think either way il wait until my trip to the states to decide!
I am glad you liked ZiPhone too..
http://www.ziphone.org
Zibri.
So, in order to make the iPod Touch useful, you have to violate the warrantee? That does not speak well to the long term usefulness of this device as you will have to expect that your apps may break every time Apple does an update.
Ben: Well there’s a certain amount of Wifi in the city. Full coverage map here.
Branedy: I wouldn’t say that. It’s a great device out of the box but to get the best out of it you need apps. Apple are bringing them to the device in June but I didn’t wanna wait.
Nice review Tony; I got the 16Gb iPhone myself last weekend (which of course is very similar, and I was looking at the iPod Touch before). I think you should maybe have waited a little longer before jail-breaking it to see what you could do with it as is, but obviously you wanted to try some stuff out straight away. In June or soon after of course you’ll be able to buy all sorts of apps, which will be great. I’d worry about not being able to update to v2 of the firmware (which you’ll need to buy for that) however, since you’ve jailbroken your iPod, and I’m wary of possible problems with that…
“A few problems with the iPhone (lack of 3G, crappy camera in comparison to my k800i) and the decision by o2 to charge the earth for it in Ireland meant the iPod Touch became an interesting option.” – the EDGE network isn’t bad at all here, the camera is not really a feature (But if it’s something you need – and I know you do – then it could be a deal-breaker), and o2 is charging a comparable amount to the rest of Europe; the sign-up package isn’t amazing, but it’s comparable to anything else you’d get from an Irish mobile company, and if you need more than 1Gb of data a month while away from any wi-fi connection, then you must be hitting YouTube very bloody hard.
Kev: Yeah I saw you make a few updates to Facebook from it. The apps which Apple are making available in June may well do what the jailbroken ones have done for me but that is still months away. Most people who have bought the iPhone have jailbroken it. That’s partly down to the techie demographic but Apple have been awfully slow in developing the app platform.
Pat Phelan did a great post about what he calls the iPhone’s “Paddy Tax”. We’re getting screwed, not just on the amount of data but associated text and call minutes. I don’t understand why they haven’t been able to bring Visual Voicemail here either if it’s in the UK.
Apple has been slow to develop the app platform, and I don’t know why that’s been the case; it’s probably they’ve had to create the development tools/environment for it, and push that to the networks. Contrary to popular belief, that has little to do with Apple making money from it, but more to do with keeping the iPhone closed and secure. Remember that the underlying operating system is more or less the same as the one I have on my MacBook Pro, and potentially has some of the insecurities that a full OS has.
The Paddy Tax is not new, and comes down to Ireland being a very small and uncompetitive market. I’m pretty sure that the networks here have been investigated for duopoly practices at least once before. The iPhone is just making it more obvious. You wouldn’t give up your mobile just because you’re not getting as good a deal as you would in the UK, would you? My iPhone plan is actually better value for money than the one I had before.
“I liked the crocodile clip remote which I stuck on my jacket.” Haha your the biggest nerd who ever lived. I remember that clip. All you were missing was a bun-bag. Anyway I am jealous you have a 32 gig one now and I only have a 16. I havent gone near any of the apps. I just did a big rant on college fees and voluntary contributons on my blog. There is nothing that makes you look better than being on a Ryanair flight drinking shit beer at 6 euro for half a can and well not exactly relaxing in your chair as it is rather to do on a Ryanair flight but you can watch a video on your IPOD and you are a King among worms.
[…] met Anthony and Sam, who were fawning over Anthony’s iTouch, and while I attempted to be nonchalant, while I attempted to look as though I was not drawn in by […]
Hey punter, I have been loving a bit of Apple lately even thinking of getting an iMac at some stage and its nothing to do with processing power or blah blah blah they just look cool ok. While we are on the topic of cool, here is something apple did this weekend that was really uncool. I got a pop up when I logged into iTUnes telling me update blah blah blah so I just pressed ok and went about my business. Guess what those lets paint everything white bastards snuck in on me. SAFARI!!!! Its not exactly an update when you have never installed it. It didnt ask me did I want to install it and it definately never asked me did I want it as my default browser. SNEAKY SNEAKY!!! BAD APPLE!!! I general trusted Appled up to this point and just clicked yes on updates where as with microsoft and google I would be reading everything those bastards tried to hit with me in an update. Can you not trust anyone. As far as I am concerned its like buying a €100,000 car and then they put in an air freshner your allergic to in the car but its not over the mirror where you could just tear it off and throw it onto the M50, its coming through the air vent and you cant turn it off!!! BAD APPLE, bAD!
John, while it was a dubious action, I think you are over-stating the case just a little. I’m running both Mac OS 10.4 and Windows XP on my Mac (at the same time, generally) and I find that I spend more than a little effort keeping an eye on what Microsoft tries to update in Windows, under various guises. On the other hand if it reset your default browser without asking, then that’s pretty low, and I’m disappointed.
Something that people often forget about Macs is that they are now essentially minimalist PCs – you can comfortably install only Windows, and they’ve been found to be excellent Vista machines, probably due their consistent hardware profile. That also means you can do a direct price comparison with other manufacturers, and they compare favourably with Sony or even Dell for price/performance. Remember that while Dell make cheaper kit, they are cheaper for a reason, and it does show.