Reilly2040's Blog

Hmmm, ranty blog post time.

So Apple have finally got around to sorting out the features (copy-and-paste/MMS) that other phones have had for years.   Looking forward to adverts and fanboys proclaiming this as the 3rd coming of the iPhone and acting like they invented these features.

Yes I’m bitter.  Why?  Because the iPod Touch users are getting charged for this update, while the iPhone users aren’t.  Granted, most of the update doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but there’s a couple of provisos:

1. Calendaring updates.   I’d quite like the ability to sync my iPod Touch’s calendar with my Google calendar.   As I’ve said here before, part of the reason I went with a Blackberry was because I didn’t like the iPhone’s reliance on Outlook to do anything in Windows.
2. Updated App Store APIs.   Wonder how long it’ll take before I can’t really buy much from the app store without having the 3.x software?
3. Security fixes.  Nothing confirmed on this one, but something I thought was really dodgy about the 2.x update was the way it included security fixes.   Now, as far as I know, once 2.x hit iTunes, there weren’t any 1.x updates anymore.    So does this mean that if I want the latest Safari etc security patches I’ll need to pay Apple $10?   Or do I risk having an out-of-date OS and browser on my network?

As it stands, I can see me skipping this update and probably having iTunes moan at me forever more.   There’s just not enough in it to justify the money for me at the moment.

If I had an iPhone though I’d be grabbing it in a heartbeat as Copy-and-Paste really is incredibly handy (as I’ve appreciated ever since getting my BB), and MMS is a necessity for me (not having it was a huge mark against the iPhone for me, and it still boggles my mind how it wasn’t there from day 1).  Top marks to Apple for finally getting these implemented, but you still have to wonder why they weren’t in the iPhone 3G.

Not that that seems to have stopped it selling mind, so what do I know?

I downloaded the WordPress app for my iPod Touch a while ago, but I’ve never gotten around to testing it out.

So here we are. A bit of a pointless post, granted. But this app does seem like a nice way of blogging on the move. I especially imagine it’d be useful at conferences and conventions.

Since getting my iPod Touch, I’ve been enjoying using the calendar application to try and be a bit more organised (I’m great at double and triple-booking myself).

However, the issue I’ve been having problems with is regarding syncing. While I like the iPod’s calendar, it’ll only sync with Outlook. And I don’t have MS Office.

I ended up downloading the 60 day trial of MS Office to see what it was like, and I’ve been investigating the various different licenses and purchasing options etc. What surprised me, is that I actually really like the new Outlook. I like the “To-do” pane beside your email with upcoming calendar events, and I like silly little touches, like the pictures in your contacts being displayed in the email you’re reading.

However, it also costs a lot of money, and up until this, I’d been using Thunderbird and Open Office happily.

So I decided to look into Calendaring in Thunderbird. I installed the Lightning plug in, and was very impressed. The To-do panel I liked so much from Outlook was present and correct, and it all seemed pretty polished and nice (apparently its going to be built in as of Thunderbird 3 I was reading).

Last night, I decided to check out my other options, so imported my details from Outlook (I must be getting close to the end of the 60 days I think) into a Google calendar. And it was also pretty painless to get this Google calendar syncing with Thunderbird (via another easily installed plugin).

I’m planning on getting a Blackberry at the end of my current mobile contract, for my home email etc, and it turns out that Google also provide a Sync application for Blackberries.

While I do like the new Outlook, I just can’t justify the expense for an email client, when Thunderbird and Lightning do the same job for nothing. And while I also really like the iPod Touch’s calendar, the fact that its currently locked to only syncing with Outlook is a huge issue for me as a home Windows user.

At the moment I’m really happy with Thunderbird and Lightning alongside a Google calendar, and with the Blackberry syncing as an option, I can really see it as the way forward for me. By keeping the calendar online, it means I can easily access it on my laptop as well, when I’m gaming on my main PC, or view it from my Linux installation with a minimum of fuss.

The moral of the story? I suppose that prohibitive costs and locking things down scores another victory for free software. My hope is that Apple opens up the calendaring options in a future update to allow it to sync with a Google calendar (or directly with Thunderbird), or that Google provides a sync application similar to the Blackberry one (if that’s possible). Outlook I can leave or take, but it would be really nice to keep using my iPod calendar. However, as things stand, I just don’t think its going to happen.

I guess the other moral of this fairly pointless tale, is that people should try out the lightning plugin for Thunderbird. Its ace

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.

Well its been a good couple of days for gadgets. I’m now the proud owner of both an EeePC and an iPod Touch.

The EeePC (which I’m typing this on) is a great little gadget, but it suffers from the problems with my wifi that I’ve had with Linux on my other laptop. Linux and WPA really don’t seem to get on at all. I know from reading posts online that people have gotten it working, but it seems to come with a fair amount of grief. At the moment I’ve dropped my home wifi down to WEP encryption, but that’s not really a proper solution.

However, with my router switched to WEP the EeePC connected no bother and its been great to use tonight. I’ve been chatting to friends with Pidgin and surfing the web happily. I’m looking forward to parking myself in a coffee shop for lunch with it

The iPod Touch is also a cracking gizmo. It’ll make for a great PDA-lite for me, as well as giving me more music and audiobooks on the go. While I love my iPod Nano, I have found the 4Gb a bit restricting at times. Especially as I like my audiobooks.

The great thing is that WPA works flawlessly, so I had it connected to my wifi network in no time. There’s probably not much more I can say about it, but its been great fun, checking my email on-the-fly via the mail application.

One thing I’m really looking forward to is the app store launching. I think the release of user-written applications will really open the device up. It’ll be interesting to see what’s included in the first batch. Among other things, I’m hoping to see an IM application, as I think that could be really handy.

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.

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.

I’m a self-confessed gadget-lover, and every day at the moment I find my list of “stuff to buy when I have money” is growing.

Aside from the ever-present desire to get a nice TFT monitor to replace my aging (but going strong) 17″ CRT Samsung, I’ve got my resolute vow that this year I’m getting an iPod Touch.

The iPhone is something I’m just not interested in, but for me the iPod Touch is way more enticing. Since my Creative Zen died last year, I’ve been very impressed with my 4Gb Nano. However, being used to more space, I’m finding the 4Gb a bit constricting at times (especially now that I can use podcasts), so the 16Gb iPod Touch is very tempting. And with the builtin wifi for web surfing, I’m thinking it could be quite a natty gadget for wasting away a lunch hour in a coffee shop.

However, increasingly the Asus EeePC is on my radar. It got an excellent write-up in Linux Format, and people seem to be going crazy for them. Its a great idea to use the solid state drive, and it seems to be incredibly flexible for its size. The price point is proving a winner as well. And, of course, the fact it runs Linux really appeals to me.

All I need now is some cash burning a hole in my pocket

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.