Well, Apple put the Application Store for iPhone/iPod Touch live yesterday as part of the iTunes 7.7 update.

Its a heck of a strong launch for them.  Although the initial aim had been to have 200 applications available at launch, the store actually has over 500, spanning multiple categories, and with a healthy amount of free applications, as well as inexpensive ones, going for only 59p or so.

Admittedly, personally speaking, from a quick look last night, there wasn’t a lot that I think I’ll nab.  I have grabbed the Facebook app to try out, but I’m not looking to spend a lot of money on games or applications, so I was mostly interested in the free applications.   I can especially however, see the benefit of a lot of those applications to iPhone owners, with their ability to access the web via Edge or 3G networks while on the move (whereas I’m limited by whatever free wifi I happen to be around).

Hopefully the 2.0 software update will be out tonight.  That’s what I’m really looking forward to, and I’m really hoping that it addresses some of the issues I’ve mentioned here before.

I’ve been using my iPod Touch for a good few weeks now, and with the v2 software due out imminently, I thought it’d be interesting to put together a wishlist for what kind of things I’d like to see, that haven’t already been mentioned.

• Better home screen customisation.  Currently, while you can re-order items on the home screen, and add Safari links, you can’t add quick links to different types of audio, in the same way you can on the other iPods.  I tend to use Playlists, Podcasts and Audiobooks a lot, so it’d be nice to have buttons on the home screen for them, rather than navigating to them via the Music section.
• Podcast syncing.  I’ve noticed there seems to be a bug with podcast syncing, in that sometimes podcasts I’ve listened to, aren’t marked as such, and removed from the iPod on the next sync.  However its an intermittant problem.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and I have to mark the podcasts as not new in iTunes manually.  It’d be nice to see this fixed.
• Podcast descriptions.   When first released neither the iPhone nor iPod Touch supported lyrics.  Apple added that functionality with the first software update, however they didn’t extend it to include podcast descriptions.  Viewing them is a feature I miss, as when I’m listening to Linux podcasts, its handy to be able to refer to the show notes to double-check the name of any interesting software they might be talking about.   Some podcasts have started copying their description to the lyrics section, but really it’d be good if Apple could just fix this properly.
• Radio Remote compatibility.  Everytime I’ve got to pull this iPod out just to skip to the next track, I tend to be worried that I’m painting a big “mug me!” sign above my head.  It’d be good if Apple could either tweak the software to allow the existing radio remote to work, or ship a new version with iPod Touch/iPhone compatibility.

Those are probably my top 4 niggles with any otherwise brilliant device.  They’re minor things, and these kinds of things are to be expected in the first generation of a new device, but I hope Apple addresses them.

Ok, its half 1 in the morning, and I’m knackered.

I’ve now got my Windows system pretty much usable again. I had to spend all afternoon going through my iTunes library, removing dud duplicates it created when reimporting my (sadly several months old and missing stuff) backup though. And I’m still bitter about it nuking music on my iPod that it should’ve just transferred back to the PC like it was supposed to.

I’ve been in general quite happy with how smooth Ubuntu was to get back to a usable state. Granted, extra Window Managers and the like still need to be reinstalled, but that’s going to be trivial with Synaptic.

The only problem I’m having is with the LAMP server. I used the same tutorial as before, however now, whenever I create a new MySQL user, despite setting a password, they only connect to the database when the password field is blank. Plus the PHP installation doesn’t seem to like talking to MySQL at all. Its a bit of a contrast to the first time I set it up, where it went really smoothly.

However, that stuff is low priority thankfully. This isn’t a work PC, so that can always be fixed during the week.

Doctor Who was good though. Must post on that tomorrow.

Of course, in the Apple dictionary, “update” means “install”.

Now, I’m a big fan of Apple’s products (except the Macbook Air - which is pointless) since being converted by my Nano, but fortunately I maintain the ability to see through a lot of the marketting dross spouted by Apple (hey, they’re a big company trying to make lots of money, fair enough, but I’m not kidding myself about it, unlike a lot of Apple fans), but this sets off my spider-sense.

So the other day, I’m running iTunes, downloading all my podcasts, and up pops an Apple Software Update dialog. “Ah-ha” thinks I. “A new version of iTunes then”.

Nope. Infact, I checked the dialog and noticed it wanted to “update” Safari. Something I’ve never installed on my PC, as I’m quite happy with Firefox, and frankly, the initial reviews of the Windows version of Safari were far from flattering.

I wonder how many non-techie PC users just clicked “Ok” without checking it properly?

Its a dodgy tactic. I wonder if Microsoft would’ve gotten away with pushing a brand new product onto people’s PC’s as an “update”? Probably not…

Fortunately, I’m not the only one who noticed it and its kicked off some discussion on the blogosphere (link, link). I’d like to see Apple get their fingers rapped (a bit) for this, but given we live in an age where they can brick any iPhone that doesn’t use their preferred mobile network, I’m not holding my breath.

And as if by magic, last night Apple issued a new iPhone (meh), and the new 32Gb iPod Touch.

£330 though. Ouch.

Still, I reckon that’s the one I’ll be going for later in the year. While cripplingly expensive, the 32Gb should give me ample space for my mp3s, podcasts and videos. And not forgetting that I’m also looking at this serving as my PDA (I was originally thinking of getting one, before realising I needed a new mp3 player, and the touch ticked all the boxes that I was looking for in a PDA). So when looked at that way, the cost isn’t too bad.

Still. Ouch. May need to break out the balaclavas after all.

Well, I’m going to get some stick for this, but I caved the other day and bought an iPod.

Traditionally I’ve always tried to keep up a teasing air about the Apple vs PC thing. My main actual beef has always been that they get away with stuff that MS are frequently hauled over the coals for, that the iPods were hideously overpriced until the market got a lot more competative, and those “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads (some of which are genuinely funny, some of which are just smug and annoying) which just re-inflamed the bitter Mac/PC war needlessly.

But in terms of their products, there’s never been any doubt in my head that they’re good pieces of kit, just by-and-large not suited to my needs, or too expensive.

So, when my trusty Creative Zen developed a fault in its headphone jack, the best buy for me to replace it turned out to be a new iPod Nano.

As I expected its a great piece of kit. I’m unsure about how useful video playback on such a small screen is actually going to be, but the nice hires screen is great for flicking through album art and the like.

I’m also starting to appreciate the iTunes software more, whereas before I’d struggled to get to grips with it. The iStore is lethal though. Going to have to stay away from it lest I bankrupt myself in multiples of 79p.

Remember people, Apple are the nice, friendly computer company. Not like that nasty Microsoft.

So, Apple have followed through on their threat to kill any iPhones hacked to work on other networks. God forbid their customers should get a choice in their provider. If they’re willing to sacrifice functionality in order to choose their own provider, then why not let them?

Of course, the really worrying thing about this update are the stories of non-hacked iPhones being killed as well. Not to mention the stories of the update adding extra encryption to the iPhone which prevents 3rd party software.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7017660.stm

Is Jobs planning a hostile takeover of the Windows desktop? | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

I mentioned this in the comments for the article on Safari for Windows. I found this editorial pretty interesting. Certainly, with the success of boot camp, the prospect of Apple marketing dual-boot machines makes a lot of sense.

However, for myself, I’m not sure I’d see the point in rebooting into a version of Windows where all the Mac applications I was just using are the defaults. But as long as the Windows equivalents were still there and could be used, fair enough.

I think I’ll stick to XP and Ubuntu for now though. I don’t have anything particularly against Apple software. I just can’t afford it

Here’s quite a nice article looking at the new release of Safari for Windows made by Apple the other week.

First look: Safari 3 beta on Windows vs. Firefox 2 and IE7

I’ll probably be sticking to Firefox, but its the kind of thing I might download out of curiousity.

Saying that, I installed iTunes ages ago and never warmed to it.