MobileViews Blog

Tag: ipod touch

  • iPod touch Froze: Forced a Reboot

    Although I was one of the people critical of Apple’s decision not to allow 3rd party apps at the launch of the iPhone last year, I understand and appreciate their decision now. My iPod touch has been much more unstable after the 2.0 upgrade (and presumably adding a bunch of 3rd party apps) that it was prior to the upgrade. It seems to spontaneously reboot at least once a day. And, today, it completely froze while browsing a web page. Pressing the power button didn’t do anything. And, the touch just stay on fully lit. So, I decided to force a reboot by pressing the selection button and the power button together for about 10 seconds. The screen blanked out and after about 30 seconds, it started to reboot.

    Normally, this would be a cause to moan and groan and grumble about how bad Apple’s touch software is. However, because it was so stable prior to the 2.0 upgrade, I am willing to put up with it until Apple can issue a firmware upgrade. So, yep, it was smart of Apple to release a stable product with no 3rd party apps to create an initial happy user base and then let the instabilities start later with the iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2.0 releases.

  • Why is Windows Mobile WiFi so Sucky?

    I’ve been using my iPod touch (upgraded to the 2.0 firmware) at a number of hotspots during the past week. I’ve also been carrying a variety of Windows Mobile WiFi enabled devices. One of the things that has become very clear to me is that the iPod touch acquires access points much much faster than any WiMo device I’ve tried. I’d say that that the iPod touch is generally ready to roll in under 10 seconds. WiMo devices seem to take 30 to 60 seconds just to acquire an access point and then be ready to use (browse, email, etc.). That, of course, is when a WiMo device acquires any signal at all. I’ve run into several public access points where the WiMo Pocket PC (Professional Edition) could not even lock into the WAP. The iPod touch, on the other hand, was working within seconds.

    Since the Safari web-browser on the iPod touch is so much better than Internet Explorer on the Pocket PC or Smartphone, it is a no-brainer decision to use the iPod touch when wandering about hot spot areas.

  • iPod touch 2.0 Upgrade Available (But, I’m Not Biting Yet)

    According to various blog posts, the iPod touch 2.0 upgrade is finally available for purchase (US$9.95) and download. But, I learned my lesson from the first iPod touch 1st day download fiasco when the site balked, charged me twice, and didn’t actually update anything for a while. I’m going to sit and wait for a little while before updating my touch this time.

  • iPhone/iPod touch: Tap Top Tip

    I’ve had my iPod touch since, hmm, last October. But, I only learned about this iPhone/iPod touch browser tip a week ago. One web page design convention for iPhones is to put a tabbed row at the top of a web page for navigation. This tab set disappears if you are reading a long page that scrolls down. If you tap the top of the screen, you are flung back to the top of the page and, therefore, back to the nav row. I really should read product documentation more 🙂