Finally, some new hardware.
Once again, I had a post on the go but it wasn’t very interesting, but now I definitely have a reason to blather.
Through a complicated series of transactions, I find myself with a new ipod touch. This was pretty high on the list of things I wanted, because I love computing on a small scale, and this lets me do a lot more then with my old iPod 5G (Classic, if you accept the retrograded title).
First I wanted to see what the official store had to offer, but I didn’t want to pay the $10 for the iPhone 2.0 firmware update. Who wants to pay for firmware? Luckily, it is very easy to I actually didn’t end up looking at much of the apps there, so I moved towards jailbreaking it. Unfortunately, I felt the repercussions of that misdeed quite quickly.
I had every intention of syncing music to the touch with Amarok, but with the 2.0 firmware, Apple changed the hash algorithm used to sync music with iTunes. So I am stuck waiting for the algorithm to be broken again, unless I go and reinstall a Windows partition and run it by VM.
Another problem I have is with having to use iTunes to do podcasts, even though the thing is web enabled. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I’ve always wanted a DAP with Wi-Fi that could download them directly. But as I found out (and expected), the touch doesn’t work that way. The file system on the touch (which can be viewed from the MobileTerminal app from Cydia or Installer) is only half there, the music and movies locked into the iTunes proprietary filesystem. Safari’s downloading capability is limited to saving photos.
The only respite from that particular issue is a webapp, the , which can manage subscriptions and stream them. Originally, I didn’t really think it was useful because I had to be in a hotspot, and it’s hard to find those on the subway. However, I’ve grown fond of it, being able to listen to podcasts at home. It is a little buggy, but its in beta, so that’s expected. It also doesn’t remember where you last paused it, which is great for long podcasts that you can’t listen to in one sitting.
By this point, I should be pretty annoyed at the whole process, but I find myself becoming less fanatic about things. It’s really all my fault for buying the thing in the first place. I jumped on an opportunity (thanks, sis!) and then working to make it useful to me. And I’ve had a lot of fun in the process. I’m playing with applications and enjoying how much better the Cydia and Installer applications are then the App Store ones. I can read books on it, I can use it as a flashlight (with maximum brightness, something you won’t get from the App Store)… who needs music?
In life news, I moved, started 4th year of university, and am helping to take care of a lovely Golden Retriever named Ollie. More on that later.