iPod Touch 2.1 Firmware Features and Availability

[Gunn003]

oops

last night was my mom's birthday so i completely forgot after school and going out for dinner. I'm installing it now, and the backup it did before updating took FOREVER.

 

[Aciddan]

Nike+ and iPhone...

I'm a bit perplexed as to why nike+ can't work with the iPhone - *especially* since we current Nike+ users have the external hardware transceiver (the hardware requirement) already. Why can't they just make the nike+ applications work with the external connector if the internal transceiver is not present?

the Nike+ is the only thing *missing* from my iPhone experience: It also means that nike (or another vendor) misses out on my having to buy an armband too...

*perplexed* :S

-- Dan =(

 

[stone315]

Any second now, someone will demand Copy/Paste. Fair enough, but I haven't had a need for that one yet. I may use the phone differently.

What I would like to see is:
- Stop moving my apps around when one gets an update
- In fact, a way from iTunes to group them on iPhone's screen.
- A "clickwheel" function in the iPod.app so I can track through long songs and podcasts, like I used to be able to do
- A working MobileMe, which syncs.
- Syncing of mail messages, as well as just my mail account passwords, or whatever it's syncing now. I don't like reading mail twice on my pop accounts.
- The ability to turn off the apple default applications I'll never use like 'Stocks'

But, yes, not to sound like a complete complainer, I love the third party apps. All I could have hoped for (well, open distribution would be nice). I don't think I'll own another cellphone besides the iPhone for a decade. I'm excited to be part of the early time.

Copy and paste would be nice, there have been some times when I wanted to email someone a long web address (usually a product of some form or another). Definitely would like the iPhone to not move apps around after an update, that's probably the most annoying part of the phone. However, I don't really see the need for a clickwheel since you can just touch the displayed progress of the song and slide it to whatever time in the song/podcast you would like. I've had no problems with syncing mail, but then again I only use IMAP accounts. And on the topic of removing default apps, I just wish there was a way to remove that useless Contacts app.

 

[Pigumon]

oops

Make sure we unthaw John Mayer from the archives in time for this one. This will be a Big Deal!

Unthaw is the opposite of Thaw. 😛


I hope the mic thing works, Skype on the Touch would rock. We are supposed to be rocking after all.

 

[M. Poirot]

okay so far

So 2.1 seems to be ok on the original iPod touch....so far.
Like the ability to turn sound notifications for various things like new mail, calendar, alarms and keyboard taps on/off.
Wifi is a lot faster to switch on and connect to a hub. It also switches off a lot faster too.
Mail now gives you a sound through the transducer when you send email
Apps load faster and have so far not crashed.
Contacts loads a lot faster and can be scrolled through immediately
Calendar is the same

I would have liked the ability to force Mail, Contacts and Calendar to rx any updates without manually opening each app and waiting for it to update. I know MobileMe should push any updates automatically, but we all know this doesn't always happen in a timely manner 😀

Battery life does seem to be better. Watching videos doesn't drain the unit as fast as if did before.

Like others have posted 'Safari seems snappier'😛

 

[Phil A.]

The 2.1 upgrade is sounding good.

It won't be complete until the keyboard / contacts lag is addressed and responsiveness is returned to its former glory.

No SMS on the Touch (that app being a very clear indicator of the lag), but are any of the other indicators that this is fixed?

The contact lag is still there on my iPod touch. Did a side-by-side test and the delay is about half as long as on my iPhone with 2.0.2 (same set of contacts) and the iPod touch became responsive in about 1/2 the time my iPhone did. Still a couple of seconds delay though...

 

[Robert Denby]

I have about two thousand songs on my Touch, and regardless of the song I choose, I get this message:

"This song does not have enough related songs to create a Genius Playlist."

Seems like it should try to throw something together...

 

[mooty]

Like the ability to turn sound notifications for various things like new mail, calendar, alarms and keyboard taps on/off.

I can do that now on 2.0 can't I? What's different?

Settings -> Sounds

Mute Mail, Sent Mail, Calendar Alerts, Keyboard clicks...

Is this new for Ipod Touch?

 

[rosh325]

I have about two thousand songs on my Touch, and regardless of the song I choose, I get this message:

"This song does not have enough related songs to create a Genius Playlist."

Seems like it should try to throw something together...

Did genius finish contacting apple's servers etc before you synced your touch? I got the same message and turns out it was because I had synced before Genius was done completely setting up on my computer (took ~2-5 minutes). After I let it finish and synced it worked just fine.

 

[pizzacake]

2.1 firmware is a fantastic update. I saw the keynote and was fairly unimpressed as there seemed to be nothing that had the wow factor. However, after using iTunes 8 and 2.1 firmware for the iPod Touch the differences in performance are incredible. Backing up could take over an hour now takes 20 seconds! Installing apps takes seconds not ten minutes as before. I've had no applications crash. It just makes for a much better experience. I know Snow Leopard was knocked for not having any fancy new features but if the core functionality is improved like this I'm all for it.

Finally, the small iTunes UI improvements do make navigating my library a lot easier. I like that they've added Google contacts sync.

 

[tosui]

album cover bug in 2.1

I've noticed that album art isn't coming through consistently between cover flow, album listing, and playing an ablum view. For instance, notice the difference from photo to photo after the Pet Shop Boys (it will be Portishead, then UNKLE, in that order). Portishead is there and then gone, as is UNKLE (the black and white drawing). There one moment, gone the next! 😕

 

[Robert Denby]

Did genius finish contacting apple's servers etc before you synced your touch? I got the same message and turns out it was because I had synced before Genius was done completely setting up on my computer (took ~2-5 minutes). After I let it finish and synced it worked just fine.

Maybe that's it. I honestly don't remember if iTunes was done syncing or not. Thanks.

 

[FightTheFuture]

the Nike+ is the only thing *missing* from my iPhone experience: It also means that nike (or another vendor) misses out on my having to buy an armband too...

i agree. although it's great to run with a nano, i think most people would rather run with their phone in case of an emergency. phone & key, that's all you'll need.

 

[stewy]

Yes, the new firmware!

While upgrading itunes 8 threw a visual basic runtime error at me... which caused my ipod to go into recovery mode. Luckily it had backed up, I restored the backup and found that it did not backup any music at all, at least... it didn't load any back on.... Now I have to load 10 gigs back onto my touch.... yay!

 

[nanoakron]

On my wishlist

Any second now, someone will demand Copy/Paste. Fair enough, but I haven't had a need for that one yet. I may use the phone differently.

What I would like to see is:
- Stop moving my apps around when one gets an update
- In fact, a way from iTunes to group them on iPhone's screen.
- A "clickwheel" function in the iPod.app so I can track through long songs and podcasts, like I used to be able to do
- A working MobileMe, which syncs.
- Syncing of mail messages, as well as just my mail account passwords, or whatever it's syncing now. I don't like reading mail twice on my pop accounts.
- The ability to turn off the apple default applications I'll never use like 'Stocks'

But, yes, not to sound like a complete complainer, I love the third party apps. All I could have hoped for (well, open distribution would be nice). I don't think I'll own another cellphone besides the iPhone for a decade. I'm excited to be part of the early time.

Agree with every point on your wishlist.

Mine has only one addition for now - the ability to store ALL of my emails on my iPhone, not just the most recent 100.

If apple wants it to be a corporate crackberry beater, and if you've ever had to search for an old email away from a desktop, this is ESSENTIAL.

 

[FalsetoDerka]

oh man, I wish I had enough money to buy this.. even after selling an old iPod at Venjuvo I still don't have enough... but sure looks tite.