How the iPod Touch Works 208
starexplorer2001 writes "The iPod Touch isn't in stores yet, but HowStuffWorks has a nice summary of how the 'touch' part of the iPod Touch works. Very similar to how the iPhone works, without those pesky rebates! From the article: 'The iPod touch also has a few other features that iPod enthusiasts had hoped to see on standard iPod models. Some users hoped for a wirelessly enabled iPod so they could synch their music or share files with friends over a Bluetooth or WiFi connection. The iPod touch is the first iPod to have wireless capability, although it doesn't use it to synch with a computer or friends' iPods. Instead, you can use it to browse the Web, watch YouTube videos or download music from a WiFi-specific iTunes Music Store. With its widescreen display and WiFi capability, the iPod touch might sound like a big step up from older iPod models. But the iPod touch isn't for everyone.'"
CmdrTaco's dream come true! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:CmdrTaco's dream come true! (Score:5, Funny)
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iTunes now runs under windows.
iPods now only work with USB. (I once made the mistake of using a Firewire iPod cable with a 5G iPod. The iPod itself will display an error message. It simply doesn't support Firewire any more.)
It was only AFTER Apple supported Windows and the iPod gained USB support that the iPod took off. Before then it was only a curiosity enjoyed by Apple fanbois.
Re:CmdrTaco's dream come true! (Score:5, Informative)
The first time I heard this, I was shocked and dismayed. Every time I've heard it since, I've been angry.
Via USB, my iPod takes 15 to 20 minutes to transfer my 18 GB of music.
Via Firewire, the same operation takes 8 minutes.
Why am I forced to put up with inferior mechanisms when I replace it? New iPods suck ass because of stupid people that don't know that Firewire is better. This isn't just simple anger, this is pure hate. I hate idiots and the stupidity they cause.
4G iPod forever! (Or at least until Apple puts Firewire support back in.)
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Every time a new G comes out I think "Hey, maybe now is the time to upgrade" and then I remember that a new, better model will be out in about a year, so i m
Re:CmdrTaco's dream come true! (Score:5, Informative)
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Number of videos I've purchased from iTunes: about 5 or 6
Number of videos I've purchased from iTunes because I wanted a video: 1 (the rest were included with albums that I bought for the music)
Number of videos I keep sync'ed to my iPod: 0
Number of videos I would keep sync'ed to my iPod if my iPod could play videos: 0
I want Firewire back, dammit.
Re:CmdrTaco's dream come true! (Score:5, Informative)
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Actually, to transfer files you need USB. To charge a 5/5.5G iPod, FireWire works great. (I use the old Firewire adapter that came with my 3G iPod to charge). Don't know if it charges any faster, though, but it certainly means I don't need my PC to charge it, or buy another adapter.
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Plus, it has paradox-absorbing crumple zones.
But does it have Bluetooth or not? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stereo bluetoth headphone support is long overdue for ipods. If hte hardware is there software coudl be round the corner?
Re:But does it have Bluetooth or not? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's so important about BT headphones? I'm sorry but that is one thing that I don't see a big deal about. That's just extra power that my iPod will be wasting and another thing to charge/replace batteries in (the headphones). There are a few circumstances I can see (jogging, maybe). But I don't think it is a big necessary thing for most people.
That said, if the BT hardware is in there (like it is in the iPhone), I see no excuse for not including support for it (because all the hardware is there and I can see people using). I just don't see it as important enough to put the hardware in.
Now wireless syncing, I would be big on.
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BlueTooth vs. iPod Tangle (Score:2)
Never mind the many times some part nearly got ripped/broken off because the wire got caught on something.
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Yes it is (Score:2, Informative)
How the iPod Touch Works? (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, most of the Slashdot is very well aware that they themselves "work by touching it" but for use of their own devices outside of that realm, they need to have a little more in-depth manual and this is exactly that!
Re: How the iPod Touch Works? (Score:4, Funny)
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But what if it's in my pocket? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:But what if it's in my pocket? (Score:5, Interesting)
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How about using one side for a volume "slide pad" ? With the multi-touch technology, it should be no problem to tell apart the holding hand and the adjusting finger.
Not a PDA replacement... (Score:5, Interesting)
The part of this article that I found most interesting is that you need to use your skin for the touch screen to work - that kinda rules out any sort of future handwriting recognition.
I guess I just really want Apple to give me a real PDA - an iNewton - instead of an iPod that looks kinda like a PDA.
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If it included support for using a stylus and had InkWell handwriting recognition, I would finally be able to replace my Newton MessagePad --- instead, I guess I'll just get another Fujitsu Stylistic, which will preclude my getting a MacBook (or Axion ModBook), which is a shame since I prefer Mac OS X.
Hopefully when Leopard comes out it'll be feasible to run it on a Tablet PC.
William
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The part of this article that I found most interesting is that you need to use your skin for the touch screen to work - that kinda rules out any sort of future handwriting recognition.
Not necessarily. I wouldn't expect to see handwriting recognition, but you have to use your skin because touchpads detect the electrical difference caused by your finger. Non-conductors won't work for a touchpad. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be a special pen that can be used to write on it (like PDAs have)
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That's okay; PDA screens are physically too small for decent handwriting recognition anyway (let alone the fact that they also really need a higher-resolution (i.e., subpixel) digitizer). Now, a Tablet PC ca
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That's why I want to know if you can use Google Calendar in Safari. If so, well, problem solved.
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Re:Not a PDA replacement... (Score:4, Interesting)
I read somewhere that Apple was approached by a team wanting them to create a tablet for medical use - and they said that touch-screen technology wasn't up to where it needed to be for such a device to be as good as they'd want to make it. They didn't say that they would never consider such a device, or that people wouldn't want it - just that it wasn't currently feasible.
By PDA, I just mean I want something that I can enter scheduling and to do info into on the go, rather than at my computer. It doesn't seem like it would be hard to make the iPod touch do this, and probably a third party will do it soon.
Now, a true tablet Mac, that's really my dream-come-true, and I think it will happen eventually. No, not everyone wants or needs one, but I think there's enough of a niche market for it that if Apple could do it really well, they'd do it. But as the anecdote above shows, they won't do it until they know they can do it better than anyone else.
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Aaaaand he also said publicly many times that Apple wasn't making a phone. I don't trust anything he denies in public.
That's right. While he denied Apple was making a phone, he said that Apple wouldn't make a phone because he didn't think they would do well in cell phone market -- something that seems to be proving itself out since Apple slashed iPhone prices and introduced the iTouch because iPod users said they wanted an iPhone for the media player. Something changed his mind about that, and maybe his original thoughts were correct, maybe not, only time will tell.
However, his reasons for not doing a PDA were well-just
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Buy a Nintendo DS [nintendo.com], get a Games-n-Music card [datel.co.uk], and install some PDA software [google.com].
Storage is the biggest limitation (Score:4, Insightful)
I like to watch video on these portable players (I have a Cowon A2 myself), so there's also seasons of anime or whatever to take up 4-8 gigs each.
In a year or so, when these things will hold 64 Gigs of flash memory, they will be great purchases for someone like myself. Until then, they're not even an option. And that's the single biggest "improvement" I'm looking forward to in future iPods. (Though I'll probably just grab a Q5 when it's available.)
But hey gotta start somewhere.
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$400 for 16 gigabytes of storage is simply not good enough for a lot of people with large music libraries who like to have 30-40 albums to listen to on command.
Right now, I get by on my 30GB iPod, and if I had half the space I'd just delete a lot of the junk I never listen to and some of the video podcasts that are kind of large, and I really don't ever watch unless I'm connected to my TV.
Average file size for a decent bitrate of song is around 3-5MB, right? So, you're talking about roughly 4000 songs. Now granted, that's not the whole library of someone who has ripped an extensive collection of CDs, but it's quite enough to carry around.
I'm also very happy with
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Either you use a low bitrate, or listen to short track (or both). My music collection is just over 2000 tracks at the moment, and is just under 16GB. It will probably go over 16GB by the time I get a new iPod; I've been waiting for a 24GB iPod Nano.
I took a random sampling of my mp3s which includes one 44MB concert, 2 x 26ish MB symphonies, and a plethora of other files. They average 5569258 bytes or about 3000 songs per 16GB.
If you're using an aggressively large bitrate, then perhaps you are seeing only 2/3rds of the song capacity that I am. That's not outside the bounds of probability at all. I've ripped mine with a mix of tools over the years, and it looks like I'm averaging about 144 Kbits/s, with most being 128 or 192 Kb/s.
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Even though I know you won't ever agree, i'm sure in that 100GB of music there are plenty of son
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As for saying 1000 gigs of music is impossible to have without piracy or whatever, I encourage you to check out something like ocremix.org or vgmix or whatever. Lots of free-to-download music out there if you like that kind of stuff and know where
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OCRemix has released a 4-disc Final Fantasy VII album recently... I ought to check it out.
Ya, I think sometimes people forget.. (Score:2)
So I tend to agree. And ya, i
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It's not an ego thing at all... I listen to a lot of music. And yes I have the entire discography of a number of bands, but I really do like them a lot and ha
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In fact, some people I know have so much music it is entirely non feasible to listen to, as the duration of the music is longer than the amount of time they have had the music!
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According to iTunes, my 5.5G iPod (80GB) has 45GB used. Of that, my entire MP3 collection is only 12.7GB. Oh. Wait. The bar next to it says "Video 11.1GB". I have a lot of music, and I carry my entire collection with me, because my music tastes are definitely not mainstream, and my mood can have me picking song I've not played in years. My "working set" of music for the past couple of months is under 4GB, but ther
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Re:Storage is the biggest limitation (Score:5, Insightful)
The "I MUST have every single song in my collection at all times!!" demand is such a red herring.
Well, these days it's somewhat reasonable to expect a device to exist that will hold the music collections of everyone who isn't a professional DJ. That said, such a device exists: the full-size regular iPod. What's not reasonable is to expect every music player on the market to hold all the music you could possibly own.
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The less I have to constantly figure out what to delete to make room for music I *now* feel like listening to, the better. Convenience through technology
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Even at 320kbps, you're looking at less than 10GB.
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Performance goes up, price goes down (relatively). The usual. But that doesn't mean people can't in the meantime comment on the iPhone's/iPod Touch's small storage, or the PS3's price, or the price of standalone HD players or 1080p TVs, or whatever.
Anyway I did say "gotta start somewhere" in my OP so it's not like I'm saying it was a mistake to release...
Deliciously hackable (Score:2, Insightful)
I expect there to be multiple hacks for sharing music wirelessly with friends within a month after it hits stores. And to be honest I'm starting to expect this kind of wink-wink nudge-nudge release from Apple. They can't release a product the way consumers want it so they get the recording ind
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With regards to non-OS products, I have no clue what kind of "hacking" the Zune has attracted (from personal experience though it's a total POS and no amount of "hacking" will make it not suck donkey dong but that's an as
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If that were the case, Apple would have released a real SDK.
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Now, I KNOW what my account name is but you HAVE to admit that Apple's use of the greater software community pwns Microsoft who regularly attracts NEGATIVE hacking.
Well, the primary difference is that Microsoft doesn't enforce jack-booted control over their devices, so you don't *have* to hack them to do positive things.
I recently bought an iPhone (I really need to do a journal entry about this), and it's so good that it actually makes me hate Apple even more than I have in the past. The idiots over t
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Literally, it is QUITE the opposite:
Your links aren't working, but I'm assuming you're talking about the XBox. If Apple had a gaming platform, we could compare them, but they don't. I was specifically thinking of Windows Mobile, which is very open and easy to develop for.
Wait a week... (Score:2)
THEN it'll be the product we've all been waiting for!
I hear Apple has a prototype that does just that, but in true Apple fashion, it's wire-wrapped by hand, weighs 47lbs, and for some reason there's a Sony rep hidden in the closet...
really (Score:2)
But what do I know, I use a Rio Karma...
Re:really (Score:5, Interesting)
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and it does have wireless syncing.
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But... (Score:2, Funny)
Wireless Sync (Score:2)
Wireless sync is all I care about. That would make my life much easier. I've got a 40GB 3rd gen and I really like it, but I don't have a lot of reason to move up. I probably buy the either the 16GB touch or the 80GB classic. Not sue which. But I would have bought one of those two very fast.
As it is, the only compelling reason for me to upgrade is the video ability. The surfing on the Touch seems neat, but it isn't enough for me. I am not using the video now. TiVo announced that they will bring TiVoToGo to
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I'm waiting a bit (Score:5, Insightful)
As a long time Apple fanboy, I'll invoke the don't buy the rev a rule on the iPod Touch. To an extent, the Touch is what I wanted when I saw the iPhone. Unfortunately, the storage space isn't big enough for my music collection. I'd like to have at least 32GB of storage available before I think about buying one.
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Probably in a year or two. Of course, by then your music collection will be 64 GB.
You do know (Score:2)
It doesn't help if you are out of any wi-fi connections, but for most people this will be fine.
Basically you can say, I don't want these songs, replace it with these.
This should be a short article (Score:4, Insightful)
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This Slashvertisment rates a 4.7 out of 5 (Score:5, Insightful)
Excellent opening statement. It stimulates Desire, which we all know is the precursor to in the marketing "AIDA" scheme. (And when you release the product, just submit another article.)
Great introduction of the features, especially the "big step up" part. And you've even given your target audience a reason to click into the submitted link too. (You've suggested there are people this product may not be perfect for, not that anyone reading this on Slashdot would fall into that "un-hip" category.)
Fellow Slashvertisers take note - this format can be applied to your next submission too!
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But that could always backfire, since the Slashdot crowd has strong anti-marketing leanings you have to be pretty careful. The thing that impressed me about the iPhone Slashvertisement barrage was that a good many of the 'submissions' came off as amateur, which I think you'd pretty much have to do if you are buying two front page stories a day, every day, for a month.
But it was refreshing to read this one and i
Pesky Rebate? (Score:3, Informative)
That's a very pesky "rebate" which I received within 5 minutes of clicking the link.
Not 6-8 weeks if I'm lucky.
Give Up on The Wireless Hacking (Score:4, Interesting)
1. We're talking about a low-power device with very limited programming capacity. That's different from the storage capacity.
2. How, in technical terms will files be shared?
Let's say a hacker can use the wireless+dhcp client. Then what? A bonjour client perhaps? Maybe, but bonjour just advertises services. So, put an ftp server behind that maybe? Great! The hacker will need, Bonjour libraries and all the underlying dependencies, an ftp server and an ftp client and enough cpu/memory to run it all. It reminds me of a line from the remade Oceans 11, "Let's say you rob Terry Benedict's casino. You're still in the middle of the f*cking desert!"
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I run a nice little OSS item by the name of 'MyTunesRSS [codewave.de]'. MTRSS scans your iTunes library, fires up a little Bonjour webserver & bam.
Any device that runs a web client can login and browse by different schemes. You can click and listen to existing playlists or create new ones... or click and download via RSS. MTRSS will even zip up files you queue for download and send that one file along asap.
Trivial, actually, especially since Apple did such a bro
Funny idea of "limited". (Score:2)
We're talking about a device with (based on the iPhone's specs) 128MB RAM, UNIX, 8-16 gigabytes of mass storage, and a 600 MHz ARM processor. It may be a little less than that, but not much... one of the most CPU intensive apps on the iPhone is Safari, and that's on the iPod Touch as well.
I've run a popular web server with three 1000 member mailing lists, one of which was high volume for the time, plus two MUDs... all on a 486/50
eBook? (Score:2, Interesting)
or at least store html-pages on it?
Re:eBook? (Score:4, Informative)
iPod Touch == Crippled iPhone (Score:5, Interesting)
They disabled appointment entry for the calendar widget. [engadget.com] That's really too bad, since I was hoping that this device could be the convergence of my Palm T|X and my iPod. Does anyone know if they crippled any other features of the iPhone? I would have bought one if it truly was an iPhone minus the phone. (I refuse to give AT&T $1500 on top of the not-even-subsidized cost of the iPhone [business2.com].)
I guess the other thing I'm waiting for is an API for programmers. I like to store my passwords and PINs using encryption on my device. (1) Storing them on someone's server using their Safari-based web app won't work, and (2) Hacks people are using to write native apps aren't sanctioned and may stop working in the future. Sigh... C'mon Apple, open it up!
Misnamed (Score:2)
STOP SHITTY CLICHÉS! (Score:2)
NO FUCKING SHIT. Nothing is for everyone. This is such a lame, overused statement. It's just the reviewer trying to sound insightful. There is no system on Earth that is better in every way than whatever it's replacing. I have an iPhone and it's pretty neat but there are many times I miss having physical buttons. Hell, you've got to be looking at it while you slide your finger on it just to answer a damn call. It would be cool if, in addition to the ability to press t
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