The new iPod Touch 2.0 OS came out yesterday — bringing with it a new App Store where people (including those wimps who feared jailbreaking) can expand the functionality of their iPod. As someone who spent hours faffing around jailbreaking, I was initially reluctant to upgrade. It would mean losing all of my favourite apps — or at least having to pay for their replacements. However, I am condemned to embrace the new and so put my reservations aside and erased the old.
To be honest, most of the the apps I lost weren’t used all that often: Chess, Sketches, Text Edit, Finder and WeDict were all great programs but I didn’t use them very often. The ones that I’ll really miss are Nemus Sync (which gives the ability to sync goocal with ical over wifi) and Pocket Touch (where you can tap an almost blank screen to pause tracks, which is essential for my Spanish lessons). Hopefully these will be updated soon.
The new applications that I have installed include: Remote (a remote control for iTunes), Facebook, Checkword (a scrabble dictionary, which unfortunately for cheaters doesn’t include anagrams of words corresponding to your letters), Exposure (a great flickr browser), Light (turns the touch into a light), NetNewsWire (allows offline reading of rss feeds), Twitterific, Spanish phrase book and FileMagnet (allowing you to upload and browse all manner of files). The longer you spend faffing around, the more futile it all appears. Sure, File Magnet will give me access to important documents — but when would I ever need important documents to be with me all the time. I start to think that I should even change my lifestyle to get into the position where I would actually use bleeding edge technology. And if that was the case, then surely I would have an always connected iPhone rather than rarely connected iPod Touch.
The most popular applications are those that provide distraction: Super Monkey Ball, Texas Hold ‘em, Bejeweled, Enigmo being the current top games. This is all very well — and, having just read Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson, I can understand the appeal — but it’s not for me.
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