Let me preface by saying that I knew that Apple would not cater to my needs forever. As counterintuitive as it sounds, it isn’t business savvy. But I didn’t expect my little iPode Touch to find itself getting shuffled to the kids table quite this quickly.
I have a second gen model and the latest iOS4 firmware update was the first where my little device was given something of a brush off. Not a complete brush off. Much of the firmware update’s new features are available to me, but not others such as the multitasking and simple cosmetic upgrades like the changeable background.
I am sure this is my warning light, spinning redly, that the next firmware upgrade of any consequence will leave me out in the cold.
Hey, at least you got it, and at least it was free. iPod Touch owners have long been given the “Oh yeah, you guys are still there?” treatment. This started when the first major firmware release came out that added a few stupid little Apple applications that should have been on the phone and iPod from the very start. iPhone users got it for free—but iPod users had to pay money to get a “Notes” app that couldn’t even handle anything other than that horrific Marker Felt font. At the time, their excuse was royalty payments on the WiFi locator service, but by the time the next major update rolled around (again, iPod users had to pay), they’d given up on making up excuses.
Given that, the current situation is actually a bit of an improvement. Is multitasking available to anything other than the iPhone 4, though? I thought the only reason they were allowing that is because the new iPhone uses the A4 chip just like the iPad. I don’t think any iPod or old iPhone is realistically capable of handling anything other than basic multitasking (music playing in the background is a benefit of hardware). I could be totally off on all of that though. I haven’t paid much attention to this update yet because I just have an iPod gen 1, so it is irrelevant to me until the iPad gets it.
“Apple — iPod Touch — Get amazing new features.” Google Apple headline
“Not all features are compatible with all devices. For example, multitasking, custom wallpaper, and Bluetooth keyboard support are available only with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the third-generation iPod touch (32GB and 64GB models from late 2009).” Apple footnote
Imagine my disgust when I found out that I could not run OSX 10.6 Leopard on my MAC SE. I mean a 20MB HD and 4MB of RAM should work with everything.
I was further disgusted to find out I had to pay for Leopard. I mean all future upgrades should be free after all new computer buyers didn’t have to pay for the upgrade.
In reality if you want the latest and greatest you need to buy the latest and greatest. Technology advances are the perfect excuse to keep a hardware upgrade cycle of 3-5 years.
I am still angry my Atari 2600 doesn’t have the ability to hook up a blue ray drive and play playstation 3 games. Oh well.
