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BusinessWeek's Cliff Edwards recently reviewed the iPod Touch. While he gave it four-and-a-half out of five stars, he also made the same mistake that's plaguing many technophiles with regard to this device: Forgetting it's an iPod.
It's an easy mistake to make. The iPod Touch is handicapped by its resemblance to the iPhone and the fact that it was released during the iPhone media blitz. As a result, people expect it to operate just like its twin. When it doesn't, they're disappointed. For example, Mr. Edwards writes:
"The Touch...lacks the iPhone's e-mail application, as well as its microphone, camera, and Bluetooth connection...widgets for gathering stock quotes, weather forecasts, and other information."
That's not an oversight, it's an example of Apple keeping the iPod true to its primary function as a digital music player. It's tempting - but unfair - to compare the iPod Touch to the iPhone. When the iPod Touch is compared point-by-point to its older siblings, it's clear what an advancement it is. Imagine the iPod Touch in a world without iPhones. People would be tripping over themselves to buy one.
"But the iPod Touch has Safari and YouTube," you say. I'd argue that Safari was only added as a concession to public Wi-Fi hotspots that require a login, and YouTube followed as a "Why not?" feature.
Later in the article, Mr. Edwards laments the Touch's lack of a "...slower cellular data connection" as a fall back for data transfer, as well as the fact that it can't download videos from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. The latter isn't unique to the iPod Touch, and the former goes back to my original point: It's an iPod, not a phone.
Finally, he says that the Touch "...will appeal to a smaller audience than the Classic or Nano because of its limitations and inflated price tag."
That's true, the nano has typically been the best-selling model. While the Touch is the priciest iPod, it's hardly limited.
Reader Jake B. (who apparently has been covered on Fox News) had a broken iPhone, one without an active AT&T contract as it happens, and judging by Apple's one-year limited hardware warranty he figured he could just walk it into the store and get it fixed. Well, there, not so fast...
Even though the hardware warranty should apply, and regardless of whether the phone was ever registered with Apple (note that Apple's reg page says " Your warranty is the same whether or not you register"), none of that seemed to help; in the video above, at about the 5:55 mark, the hapless retail Apple employee tells Jake that "without an active AT&T contract, or an active phone, there's no way to tell that this [problem] wasn't caused by some sort of third-party software, or an unlock." Oops. The suggestion was that Jake call AppleCare and see if they could work out a warranty repair or get the phone registered.
Anyone else run into this kind of end-zone defense when trying to get an unactivated phone repaired at an Apple store?
Update: By and large, our commenters "see this guy with the video camera as insincere (at best)," and downright devious/dishonest at worst. Granting the point that someone who does actually hack or unlock their iPhone should have no realistic expectation of warranty service, I think the other issue here is whether the retail rep should be making that call for a phone that won't turn on. What if the iPhone was a gift, given more than 14 days after purchase, with no AT&T service on it yet -- shouldn't someone in that scenario be able to get warranty service on a DOA handset, without the presumption that the device has been modified? I don't deny that the Apple employee was in a tough spot -- maybe policy says you can't give out a loaner phone to someone with no AT&T service, or maybe this store has seen a flood of hacked phones. Without evidence of the phone being modified, however, I don't know that this was the correct response.
Over at ModMyiPhone, forum user ReVan has posted instructions for revirginizing 1.0.2 iPhones. He write that this method fixes seczones and NVRAMs, presumably restoring the iPhone to its original, locked, and upgradable state.
The method he shows is pretty complicated and based on the work of the iPhone DevTeam, including gray, ipsf, and geohot. Although there's no simple GUI yet, should this method pan out, you can bet someone will soon package it up and make it easy to use.
Update 2: "DogGunn" aka Josh H. writes: "Watch out! This just replaces the corrupt seczone with empty data. So next update, you may be really [messed up]. Using these methods may be irreparable as there is no data to repair." He suggests you wait for a Dev or Elite release.
Update 3: "Qapf" adds that running this process may expose your iPhone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) to others and cautions against it for privacy and security reasons.
So I finally had a chance to watch that Leopard guided tour that everybody has seen already this week, and one thing struck me like a bricked iPhone thrown directly at my head: boy, Apple really does love iTunes, don't they? It's everywhere in Leopard, from the unified toolbars to the Finder with its CoverFlow interface and drop-down sidebars. Leopard might as well be called the iTunes OS.
But in the future, a few months from now, we can only hope that some of Leopard functionality comes back around, and beefs up our iPhones and iPod touches. Until then, we've got this awesome hack-- someone has put Leopard's stack functionality onto the iPhone's little dock. Very cool-- if you made all four of the icons on the dock into four little stacks, you could have all of the application access, and none of the clutter.
Especially when the SDK comes out (and already, those with jailbroken iPhones are feeling the icon squeeze), we're going to need expansion slots like this. Apple clearly borrowed lots of ideas from iTunes and the iPhone in their new OS, and with this idea, it's time to start borrowing them back.
Mac | Life wasn't content to just read about Madden 08 on the Mac-- they tried to actually run it. And for all of us Mac gamers out there, I'm sorry to say the experience didn't go well.
Now, we already knew that neither Madden nor Tiger Woods would run on any Mac with the GMA950 graphics processors in it, so the Mac mini and the MacBook were already out of the question. The screenshot above came from an iMac, though. Clearly the text is bungled up beyond readability. The same problem appeared in the menus for the game, and even during play-- the scoreboard had overlapping graphics problems as well. Unbelievable. Did they (or Transgaming, whose Cider technology was supposed to be how EA ported these games) have their QA team play this thing even once on a Mac? This is what Apple was showing off at WWDC?
For their part, EA blames Apple's drivers, and says a driver update is coming "later this month" (M|L wisely suggests that means Leopard). Poor form, EA. Not that we expected much (EA games are often plagued with release problems, on any platform), but this is not how you bring gaming back to the Mac.
For the past few months, we've seen some turbulent waters here at TUAW. I don't think I need to mention the furor that's popped up in the comments multiple times over a number of Apple's past actions. All the iPhone unlocking has stirred emotions we didn't even know you guys had. The ringtones issue made a lot of us question just what kind of company Apple was. And Apple's own developers were pretty shocked when they found out that to develop for the iPhone, they'd need to brush up on HTML and AJAX, not Cocoa. The Apple we've seen the past few months has been making plenty money, but not so much winning our hearts.
But as Macworld points out, change may finally be back in the air, and all in the past week. Apple brought DRM free music back down to normal prices, which is exactly what Jobs wanted to do when he wrote that open letter we all cheered so long ago. Apple has unlocked the iPhone-- albeit in France, and only because they had to, and they'll probably charge a lot more for it, but still, it's progress. High sales of the unlocks there will be more ammunition for getting an unlock everywhere else. And of course, we got the announcement, finally, of a coming SDK for the iPhone.
Apple isn't even close to back in the clear yet-- we may have cheaper DRM-free music, but no one but France has an unlocked iPhone, and all we have is the promise of an SDK with zero details on what that means. It's been a rough road these past few months, however, and we can only hope that Apple is listening to what their fans want, and willing to get back on track
Scott Stevenson has posted a very short but sweet preview of Delicious Library 2, due out sometime after Leopard hits next week (according to Wil Shipley, it may be as late as February). The already beautiful program (that coined a generation) looks better than ever, and it's made better, we're told, by all the great stuff going into Leopard, from Core Animation to the new Quicklook (you'll be able to drag books and DVDs out of the library to make little files of their own, which will then be viewable in Quicklook itself). And there's other touches, too-- selected items glow, when you delete a book it "shatters," and details don't just appear, they "pop into view" like on the iPhone.
And there are updates behind the graphics, too-- a faster barcode scanner, some super seekrit features (that is "worth the purchase price" for parents-- ??), and sharing features, which means finally, this program has a real purpose other than just staring at the stuff you own. You'll be able to share your collection with friends and even strangers-- can't wait to see how that works.
Sounds like fun. Stevenson says he wants Delicious Library 2 to set the benchmark for the first generation of Leopard apps, so we can definitely expect big, shiny stuff from these folks. Please, Delicious, show us how it's done.
Gruber's got a good post up on the topic du jour for most Mac blogs-- the iPhone's newly announced SDK and how its release will affect already created (and to-be-created, for that matter) web apps. I'm not sure I agree with him that web development for devices like the iPhone will be bigger than native app development after February (assuming Steve gives us a full SDK, and not a widget maker), but I do agree that web apps for the iPhone need more-- either Flash, Silverlight (shudder), or some other quality runtime.
However, I think the most interesting part of Gruber's article is in the note at the end. When we say iPhone (as I've done throughout this post), we really mean "iPhone and iPod touch." While lots of people have picked up touches, I tend to still consider the iPhone the vanguard of this situation. And so, while the SDK will also be able to create applications for the iPod touch (even Steve himself relegated it to a PS in his big announcement), the iPhone tends to get all the press.
But I'd like to know what you think, readers. Is it OK for us to say "iPhone" and mean both devices? Should we spend the extra time typing to point out that everything that runs on iPhone runs on the iPod touch? Or should we use them interchangeably-- make "iPod touch" mean both the iPhone and the iPod/iPhone Frankenstein monster that is the touch? What do you think? It's a small issue, sure, but little things can mean a lot.
The Leopard countdown begins What is feline, spotted with rosettes, and black. (Technically, the answer actually is "Panther": but you know what we mean.) October 26th, Baby!
Like everyone else, we here at TUAW are excited and champing at the bit to get at Leopard. Unfortunately, we have about another week to go; however, that gives everyone time to get ready. In that spirit we present this TUAW Guide to Getting Ready for Leopard.
Keep in mind that I don't actually have access to Leopard, so all of the following advice is based on past OS X upgrade experience rather than the actual upgrade to 10.5. Nonetheless, I'm reasonably sure these steps should ease the transition from Tiger. As always, reader comments and suggestions are welcome.
Eagle-eyed readers have noticed that TUAW's look has changed a little as of late. We've 'Leoparded up' the site just a bit, taking some design cues from Apple's soon to be released OS.
As with any redesign the comments have run the gamut from "It is horrible!" to "Where can I download that Desktop?" We'll be refining the design over the coming months, so keep the comments coming. That being said, for those of you who want to decorate your Mac with a TUAW desktop head on over here and download it for yourself. It isn't the highest resolution, but it still looks good on my 24 inch iMac.
With a few months yet to go before the official, blessed, sanctified Apple SDK for iPhone makes an appearance, all TUAW readers know there's already a thriving community of iPhone developers coding away with glee and gusto. Getting into iPhone programming has been complicated, though, not only by the lack of a vendor-sanctioned toolchain, but also by the limited and scattered documentation of the headers for the iPhone's version of OS X, crucial information for anyone trying to write code for the device. If only someone would work up some header docs!
It's not entirely clear how she found the time or energy to accomplish the feat, but our own Erica Sadun has posted a complete set of iPhone header documentation, running down every Objective-C class and file to give present and future iPhone/iPod touch developers the tools they need now, and a killer head start on the February release of Apple's SDK. If you've got a hankering to write the first great iPhone app, go check it out.
Update: iPhoneDevDocs.com just let us know they're about to upgrade their docs to 1.1.1 soon.
Apple has released another "guided tour" video, this time for Leopard. It's narrated by "John," a retail store employee who is evidently soporific enough to don The Black Mock Turtleneck and deliver a flawless demonstration. Seriously, Apple. The "uniform" thing is getting creepy. Even John's colleague Nicole was wearing one (though hers was a nice V-neck affair).
Anyway, I jotted down some thoughts as I watched the video.
One of the most visible new features in Leopard is Apple's integrated backup tool, Time Machine. Taking backups -- a chore that few people do and even fewer do correctly -- and making them one-click simple is bound to improve the lives of millions of Mac users who, despite being practically perfect in every way, sometimes delete files they don't mean to delete. (I know, painful but true.)
There is a lot of excitement about Time Machine, but also some confusion; reader Matteo wrote in from Switzerland to ask that we cover some basics for setting up Time Machine. Your wish; our command. Most of our answers are gleaned from Apple's feature page for TM, a worthwhile read.
Yesterday, Scott forwarded me along a question from TUAW reader John Stuart. He wrote in asking about his cell signal. When put on sleep/hold, the signal fades out and he can't receive calls. His phone is unlocked and in the UK, and this signal loss appears to be a common fault.
As a temporary measure, John started playing back music on repeat, with the volume cut off. As you might imagine, this runs down the battery and prevents him from actually using the iPod features without having to do extra work.
BusinessWeek's Cliff Edwards recently reviewed the iPod Touch. While he gave it four-and-a-half out of five stars, he also made the same mistake that's plaguing many technophiles with regard to this device: Forgetting it's an iPod.
For the past few months, we've seen some turbulent waters here at TUAW. I don't think I need to mention the furor that's popped up in the comments multiple times over a number of Apple's past actions. All the iPhone unlocking has stirred emotions we didn't even know you guys had. The ringtones issue 
Gruber's 
Like everyone else, we here at TUAW are excited and champing at the bit to get at Leopard. Unfortunately, we have about another week to go; however, that gives everyone time to get ready. In that spirit we present this TUAW Guide to Getting Ready for Leopard. 
Eagle-eyed readers have noticed that TUAW's look has changed a little as of late. We've 'Leoparded up' the site just a bit, taking some design cues from Apple's soon to be released OS.
With a few months yet to go before the official, blessed, sanctified Apple SDK for 
Apple has released another 
Yesterday, Scott forwarded me along a question from TUAW reader John Stuart. He wrote in asking about his cell signal. When put on sleep/hold, the signal fades out and he can't receive calls. His phone is unlocked and in the UK, and this signal loss appears to be a 
