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slug420

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 14, 2007
140
0
I really havent kept current with ipods and whatnot. I got my first (and only) ipod years ago from one of those those pyramid scheme websites...it is a mini that says 2004 on the back of it and I have been really really happy with it since I got it. The battery died about a year ago and so I bought some 20 dollar Nyko battery pack for it, but now it seems the my mini's days are numbered and the connector on the bottom of it seems to be touch and go...

at any rate...this has me looking at a new ipod and I saw the new ipod touch which looks awesome and I cannot believe the capacity on the new normal sized ipod (my mini is like 3gb i think and has been sufficient for a few years) and the nano...so I am trying to decide which one to go with. I have read a bunch of reviews on the ipt and read through some threads here on the forums but still have a few questions about it before I decide if I should go with it or the nano/classic.


Like I said I havent kept up with ipods since I got mine....100% of my music is "backed up" from my CD collection....any problems using this music on any of the new ipods, or specifically the ipt as opposed to music bought from itunes? I doubt it but figured I would ask.

How limited would you say the functionality of the ipt is if I do not want to "hack" it and dont want to buy any apps for it...only want to download apps that work without hacking it?

I looked at a lot of peoples' "springboard" pictures and there are a lot of cool apps I see. Some of the most useful are the weather/stock/news/rss type apps that (i would hope) would update automatically when they were able to connect to wifi. Do any of these come with the ipt? Are some of them iphone apps? Are iphone apps available for use with the ipt right out of the box or do they require "hacking"?

Help me understand what is involved in "hacking" the ipt... As I understand it there is something called jailbreak which is either a process or an app that you use to basically unlock hidden potential of your ipt. What exactly does this let you do that you cannot do otherwise?

The risk associated with "hacking" your ipt as I understand it is that if apple comes out with a firmware update...which they will...it could potentially "brick" your ipt. What does this mean? Does this mean your ipt becomes totally useless and unrecoverable? Or does it crash your ipod and force you to reset it to its defaults losing all your music and special apps and all the time you spent hacking it?

How does the ipt compare with the classic ipod in terms of listening to music? I dont care about the ability to browse through albums based on their covers since I dont have album art for most of my music...could I control my ipt without looking at it? With my mini I can reach into my pocket or bag or whatever and change the volume or the track or enable the hold feature because I can feel them all. How easy/diffiucult is it to accomplish these tasks on the ipt which as I understand it has no buttons? What if I have it in front of me and am looking at it...how much more inconvenient/time consuming to control the ipt than a normal ipod?

I am not asking "how" to do it here but if I have a lot of tv shows on my mac in avi(divx/xvid), mpg, wmv etc....is it easy to convert them to whatever format the ipt is compatible with for video playback? Is there some app that I can just run the videos through the convert them? How is compression in this ipt format...can I expect a movie in this format to be the same size as if it was a divx/mpg/wmv file?

Thanks for your advice!
 

slug420

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 14, 2007
140
0
also, where is the headphone jack? I dont see it in the pics on the apple website...or does it have a black rubber thing that covers it when not in use like the jacks on some cell phones?

And what is the "button" looking thing I see at the bottom of the ipt (below the screen when looking at it from the front)?
 

MagicWok

macrumors 6502a
Mar 2, 2006
820
82
London
Here's my slant on things:

- You have to buy the iPod Touch, being satisfied in the first place with what it can and can't do right now. If not, then wait (in this case isn't what you're after), or go after another product that best suits you. Being able to hack the Touch to do extra things is cool, but it's a lot of money and the best advice is that you only really buy if you will be happy regardless if the iPod is hacked or not :) That way you will know if you will feel limited by the Touch or not. And bear in mind, it's fairly likely (I'm not promising) that Apple will eventually sell apps through iTunes. Money to be made there, so I don't see Apple passing up the opportunity for such a potential lucrative adventure.

- Jailbreak is the process by which the software on the Touch is hacked to enable 3rd party apps to be installed on there. The process was fairly hands on, but the development rate and attention is so high, that now the process is getting much easier and is now almost fully auto-magic.

- Risk is low, as it always possible to restore your iPod to the factory state. The firmware itself isn't harmed.

- The only 'apps' that come with the Touch are: YouTube / Calendar (non-editable unles hacked) / Clock / Calculator / Contacts and Safari. Again, you have to be satisfied with what's there in the first place. :)

- Best bet is also to go into an Apple Store and test one yourself.

- Converting videos to work with the iPod touch is very simple (and most cases free), lots of threads on here which you can search for.

- The Classic has a much bigger capacity and you can use a remote with it. At present, there is no remote for the touch - but that will change soon no doubt.

- Headphone jack is at the bottom. The round button, is one of only two physical buttons on there. It returns you to the 'home' screen whenever you press it. The other is the on/off /sleep button.

Hope this helps.
 

jeph

macrumors newbie
Oct 12, 2007
11
0
Guess i'll answer a few of your questions..

On controlling while in your pocket.. well you can to a degree, you can hit the home button twice to have the small music menu pop up, and in my pocket i can hit it and know where the prev, and next buttons. Now there is no tactile feel.. so you just have to know where they are.

Headphone jack is in the bottom.

and the button at the bottom of the screen is the home button
 

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Jul 3, 2005
2,136
472
UK/US
My knowledge is limited, but basically, the iPod touch was restricted in order to avoid cannibalising iPhone sales (as the two are similar). Thus, Apple did silly things, like not including a mail application (you can use the internet-based mail, but it's not as convenient), and not letting you edit your iCal on the iPod (lame, as the iPod Touch has an on-screen keyboard). Any hacking is considered justifiable when put into contrast with the unfair treatment of the iPod by Apple. It is already at an odd price point (the classic is much better value, unless you really want a bigger screen, touch and wifi), and it's unfair to consumers to restrict the iPod intentionally. As far as I know, adding iPhone apps requires hacking.

Bricking means that your iPod won't work, until you either downgrade the firmware, or remove the hacking effect. Basically, you can keep hacking as long as you don't update the firmware. Apple says they're not going out of their way to intentionally stop the hacking by "bricking" iPods/iPhones... but they are.

As far as I know, the damage isn't permanent.

I have heard that the iPod Classic sounds better, but only to an audiophile - i.e. someone who is obsessed with the quality of sound.

You can barely control the iPod touch without looking at it. It has no hardware volume buttons (you have to tap the home button twice and then adjust the on-screen slider), so you lose the comfort of not having to take your iPod out to change something.

The iPod touch is easy to use. I found that the software is much better than that of any other iPod, and the home button is good enough for me. That's the physical button at the bottom of the iPod, it takes you back to the main menu, regardless of where you are.


I used Handbrake, it's free and really effective in converting. Not tried it for the iPod touch yet, but it worked great for my iPod Video.

And the jack is on the bottom.
 

Ubuntu

macrumors 68020
Jul 3, 2005
2,136
472
UK/US
This image will give you an idea of how restricted the iPod Touch is, originally. It's essentially meant to be an iPhone, but without the phone/camera. It's a bit less than that, to be honest.

ipodtouch.jpg
 
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