iPod touch Basic questions about iPod touch before buying

[John444999]

I'm a PC user that never owned a Mac, and considering to buy an iPod touch 8gb (black)
for business and academic purposes. I'm not a gamer. I have a load of questions
but no one to ask and I can't get to an Apple store. I need your help.

1. Can I develop Apple apps on my PC?
2. How much average space do apps and other files take? (if I don't use the iCloud)
Lectures from college
Voice memos
Youtube videos
Saved emails
Saved articles
Pdf files
One movie
One episode of a tv series
Calender
10 to 20 apps
3. How many years can I get out of the device? Will the irreplaceable battery die in 3 years?
4. It offers independence for all iOS devices. Can I get software updates and activate and
set up the device with my PC? (I don't want to use wireless.)
5. Does it use a docking station for wired use? Can I get the same usage/functionality
with wired use with a docking station as with wireless use?
6. Can iOS5 play flash?
7. How compatible is it with HTML5?
8. What are repairs like - warranty, etc., what if the camera malfunctions 2 years from
now? Is it cheaper to replace it?
9. Does the voice recognition (Siri) work on the iPod touch too or do I need an Iphone for that?
10. Does the iPod touch have airplay mirroring? (Or is it only the Ipad 2?)
11. Am I expected to jailbreak it? Why? Under what circumstances? What does it give me?

 

[miles01110]

1. No
2. Varies greatly.
3. The battery can be replaced by Apple or by yourself if you have some technical skill.
4. The iPod touch doesn't require activation.
5. The iPod touch works as an independent device. Docking stations for stereos and what not can play through the dock connector, but this is not how they are usually used.
6. No.
7. Pretty compatible.
8. It's certainly easier just to replace it.
9. Siri is iPhone 4S only.
10. ??
11. You don't have to jailbreak it.

 

[John444999]

Update 1

1. This is a big downer. I was hoping to emulate and build apps on my PC. Do I need to buy a Mac for that? Why can't I use objective C in my PC SDK?
2. How much space does an average app take? (assuming there's an average app). What about voice memos?
4. Activation was mentioned on the Apple website for the iTouch. (iPod touch)
6. Will future software updates play Flash? I heard Apple and Adobe started to
improve their relationship.
10. Airplay mirroring - video mirroring. Wirelessly stream whatever's on your device to HDTV via Apple TV. I'm not sure iTouch 5g has it.

 

[waynep]

1. This is a big downer. I was hoping to emulate and build apps on my PC. Do I need to buy a Mac for that? Why can't I use objective C in my PC SDK?
2. How much space does an average app take? (assuming there's an average app). What about voice memos?
4. Activation was mentioned on the Apple website for the iTouch. (iPod touch)
6. Will future software updates play Flash? I heard Apple and Adobe started to
improve their relationship.
10. Airplay mirroring - video mirroring. Wirelessly stream whatever's on your device to HDTV via Apple TV. I'm not sure iTouch 5g has it.

1. IOS app dev in only on Macs. It's more than simply Obj C. There are other pieces to the Dev environment.
2) I have some that are 1-2 MB and one that is 300+MB. Average? Maybe 12MB. Looking through my apps that seems to be average.
4) Connect iPod to iTunes to activate. However IOS 5 has activation without iTunes or so say some ads. No sure about that though.
6) No Flash on iPod or other IOS devices. Adobe recently announced discontinuing development for Flash on mobile devices I believe.
10) OK cool.

 

[dmz]

Basic Answers

Okay, now for your "basic" questions... by the way, Apple's website has most of these answers and lots of info on capacities, etc.

1. No. But Xcode is free on a Mac.
2. I use a 16Gb Touch, and I have never pushed past 8Gb unless I put more than a couple of movies and iTunes lectures on it. 8 Gb may seem a little cramped for you?
3. The battery IS replaceable by third parties (see www.ipodjuice.com), and my two-and-a-half year old Touch is still giving up to four hours of video playback before needing a charge, games can be more demanding - YMMV.
4. Yes. You just need iTunes for PC.
5. You can use a dock, or just a cable, for sync'ing/charging.
6. No - where have you been?
7. As compatible as Safari, which is to say, very compatible with whatever HTML5 is considered to be this week...
8. AppleCare is the best warranty you can get for consumer electronics, and is good for your ipod, its battery and accessories for two years. After that, it's third-party repairs mostly - see www.ipodjuice.com for another example.
9. No. Yes.
10. Yes, it does.
11. No, you're not "expected" to jailbreak. I don't recommend it. Most people won't - it makes your device vulnerable, and Apple will not service a jailbroke phone. In my opinion, it gives you nothing in exchange for making your ipod/iphone vulnerable to malware.

Hope that helps!!!

Pining for the next-gen Touch, but still eking out a great experience on my 2nd-gen 16Gb TOUCH!

Cheers,

dmz

 

[John444999]

1. IOS app dev in only on Macs. It's more than simply Obj C. There are other pieces to the Dev environment.
2) I have some that are 1-2 MB and one that is 300+MB. Average? Maybe 12MB. Looking through my apps that seems to be average.
4) Connect iPod to iTunes to activate. However IOS 5 has activation without iTunes or so say some ads. No sure about that though.
6) No Flash on iPod or other IOS devices. Adobe recently announced discontinuing development for Flash on mobile devices I believe.
10) OK cool.

Maybe I should be looking at the Mac mini. It's starting at $599. Is it the same as buying a full fledged mac desktop? I can't afford that quite yet.
2. 8gb might be cramped, not sure. I'll delete content. The auto-updating with Itunes sounds convenient enough, so I won't be hand holding it.
4. Sounds easy.
6. I incorrectly remembered it. I wonder what this means for the future of flash for web design.
10. Sounds good, but still not sure Itouch has it. Apple website unclear. I must be missing a link.

 

[John444999]

Whoa! First up, it's an iPod Touch, or just Touch, it is NOT an iTouch.

Okay, now for your "basic" questions... by the way, Apple's website has most of these answers and lots of info on capacities, etc.

1. No. But Xcode is free on a Mac.
2. I use a 16Gb Touch, and I have never pushed past 8Gb unless I put more than a couple of movies and iTunes lectures on it. 8 Gb may seem a little cramped for you?
3. The battery IS replaceable by third parties (see www.ipodjuice.com), and my two-and-a-half year old Touch is still giving up to four hours of video playback before needing a charge, games can be more demanding - YMMV.
4. Yes. You just need iTunes for PC.
5. You can use a dock, or just a cable, for sync'ing/charging.
6. No - where have you been?
7. As compatible as Safari, which is to say, very compatible with whatever HTML5 is considered to be this week...
8. AppleCare is the best warranty you can get for consumer electronics, and is good for your ipod, its battery and accessories for two years. After that, it's third-party repairs mostly - see www.ipodjuice.com for another example.
9. No. Yes.
10. Yes, it does.
11. No, you're not "expected" to jailbreak. I don't recommend it. Most people won't - it makes your device vulnerable, and Apple will not service a jailbroke phone. In my opinion, it gives you nothing in exchange for making your ipod/iphone vulnerable to malware.

Hope that helps!!!

Pining for the next-gen Touch, but still eking out a great experience on my 2nd-gen 16Gb TOUCH!

Cheers,

dmz

Preface....I realized my mistake while I was replying. It's a touch. I'll call it ipod touch.

I checked the Apple website, but couldn't find the answers. I posted a new thread hoping to minimize wasted time.

1. I might need a mac mini. That's $599. Ouch. I could buy the Ipad 2 !
At least I can use my monitors. Is it the same as a mac desktop?
2. Not sure. It might be cramped, but I'm going to be syncing near a desktop so I can delete content or else use the auto sync, which sounds good enough. Instead of spending $299 for the 32b, I was thinking to use the $99 for apps and other accessories like peripherals.
3. 4 hours after 2 1/2 years? Do you take mastercard?
4. I like iTunes. But I need to upgrade something on my PC because I couldn't get iTunes to connect the last time I tried. Not sure why.
5. I hope that's included.
6. Where have I been? Wishful thinking Adobe and Apple would repair their bitterness? Hold on - my horse and carriage is coming.
7. I'll grin and bear it.
8. 2 years sounds reasonable. Most everything I have from Sony, etc., is 1 year.
9. Disappointment. I wanted to say, "Schedule an appointment for Friday at 2:00."
10. I won't need to jailbreak it, based on that.

You helped a lot.

 

[Thetonyk123]

For the battery replacement, if your battery goes under 50% of its working condition then apple will replace it. Free under warranty and I think $69 not under warranty.

----------

10. Sounds good, but still not sure Itouch has it. Apple website unclear. I must be missing a link.

The ipod touch does not support airplay mirroring of the screen. It does support audio and video.

 

[John444999]

For the battery replacement, if your battery goes under 50% of its working condition then apple will replace it. Free under warranty and I think $69 not under warranty.

----------


The ipod touch does not support airplay mirroring of the screen. It does support audio and video.

How do you mean? Isn't support for audio and video the same as airplay mirroring? Or - did you mean mirroring a static image? (no motion or playback)

Pretty nice warranty on the battery.

 

[Thetonyk123]

How do you mean? Isn't support for audio and video the same as airplay mirroring? Or - did you mean mirroring a static image? (no motion or playback)

Pretty nice warranty on the battery.

you can play music and video from the default apps. You can't do airplay mirroring like the ipad 2

 

[goosnarrggh]

1. I might need a mac mini. That's $599. Ouch. I could buy the Ipad 2 !
At least I can use my monitors. Is it the same as a mac desktop?

There are three classes of Mac desktop: Mac Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini. They are all "true" full-featured Macs. The Mac Mini itself comes in several configurations ranging from one that's approximately equivalent to low-end MacBook Air, to one that's intended to be a quad core server replacement.

It is possible to use the latest versions of Mac OS X and XCode to do iPod touch software development on any 64-bit Intel (Core 2 Duo or Core i5/i7) model of Mac Mini.

 

[dmz]

Airplay

10. To be clear, the iPod Touch does support Airplay™ with apps like Photos, Videos and Safari, but only with Airplay-compatible devices, like ATV2.

Airplay Mirroring, on the other hand, sends whatever video and audio your device is producing to an Airplay-compatible device, no special apps required. iPod Touch can not do this, iPad2 can.

Mirroring can be done on an iPod Touch, but only with a wired connection from the Touch to an appropriate audio/video connector.

Hope that clears that up, in case you were getting as confused as I was with that answer...

You also asked about iPad as a desktop - it's not. It's not the peripherals that are the problem – monitors, keyboards, etc. – it's because the iPad/Pod/Phones run iOS, not OS X, and you need OS X to run desktop apps. There are some apps that run on both platforms, a la Pages, Garageband, Keynote, even a rumoured version of Office, but the iOS versions are lightweight proxies compared to the desktop versions. Xcode is strictly desktop software.

Cheers!

dmz

 

[Thetonyk123]

10. To be clear, the iPod Touch does support Airplay™ with apps like Photos, Videos and Safari, but only with Airplay-compatible devices, like ATV2.

Airplay Mirroring, on the other hand, sends whatever video and audio your device is producing to an Airplay-compatible device, no special apps required. iPod Touch can not do this, iPad2 can.

Mirroring can be done on an iPod Touch, but only with a wired connection from the Touch to an appropriate audio/video connector.

Hope that clears that up, in case you were getting as confused as I was with that answer...

You also asked about iPad as a desktop - it's not. It's not the peripherals that are the problem – monitors, keyboards, etc. – it's because the iPad/Pod/Phones run iOS, not OS X, and you need OS X to run desktop apps. There are some apps that run on both platforms, a la Pages, Garageband, Keynote, even a rumoured version of Office, but the iOS versions are lightweight proxies compared to the desktop versions. Xcode is strictly desktop software.

Cheers!

dmz

Thanks for clearing it up.