iTouch help thread

[Canuck]

Hi guys, I finally turned to the dark side and got an iTouch and as I slowly get used to it I'm finding that i have more and more questions so I thought I would just make a general thread and keep asking the questions in here and hopefully you iTouch experts will keep checking and answering for me.

First of all does,  does the iTouch use IMAP?  Because I sent an email using my Touch but when I checked my computer email account, it's not showing up in my "Sent" folder.  Usually when I sent an email using Thunderbird on one of my two laptops, the other laptop will always download the message to it's "Sent" message folder.  So does the iTouch not use "true" IMAP? Or am I doing it wrong?

Secondly, I have a question about the weather app that comes with the iTouch.  So I check the weather last night and get a nice 7-day report.  Today on the train I thought I'd double-check the weather but when I open up the app, I just get an error message telling me that it couldn't update.  WTF?  Well of course it can't update because I'm on the train and there's no wifi but for frack sakes at least show me the last downloaded update which is only about 15 hours old at the time! I looked for an option to change this but I couldn't find one.  Should I be searching the app store for a better app which will at least remember the last update? 

More questions to come.

[Canuck]

Also how does the email work exactly?  Do I have to open up the email program to see if I have an email or will it pop up with a notice saying that I've got an email?  Because I sent myself an email from my computer 10 minutes ago and so far I've got nada.

[Blackjack]

I assume you mean "iPod Touch," and you haven't got some hip new Apple device called iTouch cause I'm not hip enough to know about stuff like that. 

This post by Chris Pirillo (who did the Lockergnome email newsletter among other things) might help in setting up privately hosted e-mail on the Touch - as opposed to logging into Gmail or something via Wi-Fi:

How To Set Up Email On iPod Touch or iPhone
http://chris.pirillo.com/how-to-set-up-email-on-ipod-touch-or-iphone/

And at Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1385

I didn't see anything about notifications though. I mean, most e-mail clients have something in the menus (sometimes nested so far it's a pain to find) about automatically checking for e-mail, but you may need a third party utility as far as having something that notifies you that new e-mail arrived when you don't have the e-mail client open on your Touch.

I don't have one, but I've read a lot about them. I'm waiting to see how the Palm Pre shakes out before I consider getting anything along those lines.

[gellar]

My first piece of help:  It's an iPod Touch.  Not an iTouch.

gellar

[Zarkon]

When I think about you, iTouch myself...

[mikeg]

I am SERIOUSLY thinking about one of these, but am really struggling on which size to get.  Of course, it goes without saying you should get as much memory as possible, but man oh man, $400 for the 32g.  Jeez.  That is hard to swallow.  Throw in tax, a case to carry it in, better headphones, and an extended warranty and you are at $500 easily.  My oh my.  I think I would use the snot out of it, but still.  In this economy that is a big stack of coin for that little sucker. 


I look, read about, listen to video reviews, talk to people, etc almost daily about these and just can't pull the trigger. 

My reason for wanting one is to mainly

1.  Read books with new Kindle app
2.  Youtube channel
3.  quick internet browsing
4.  Occasional movie
5.  and games.


Just not sure all of that is worth the money only to see something better come out in less than a year.  At $199 it would be a whole lot easier to swallow.

[Purge]

Movies (Flickster) is a brilliant app.

[Blackjack]

I've begun to dig this iPhone Life magazine/site/blog:
http://www.iphonelife.com/

This morning I tinkered with a free "icon category" organizing system for the iPhone/iPod Touch home screens after reading about it on their blog:
http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/5/free-appbutler-helps-you-organize-your-apps

The iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly site you'd visit would be:
iPhone App Butler
http://iphone.appbutler.com/
Basically, they've created all these category icons (several types/colors available, and you can make/submit your own icons too), for example:

Then you can save them to the Home Screen (as you might save a web site link), and just drag the Category icon where you want them. They also have "blank" black icons that you can use as separators or to help better delineate categories.' (in the example above, the space below the Music category icon is presumably a "blank" black icon).

My only caveat so far is my Touch insists that I type something in (at least, say, a period) for the icon description, so all my icons have a tiny little dot below them (which I don't see on their sample screens). Maybe someone can tell me how you can add an icon without typing anything in the description (the "done" button doesn't become usable until I type at least one character).

For games, they have several different category icons available if you have a lot of game genres to organize.

Supposedly they are awaiting approval on a $2.99 app that would presumably make it a little neater to work with, but I like it as is.  

I don't use the categories much on my first page of icons (which is such a smorgasbord of programs of different types), but I've found it very handy for organizing the pages after that. You do end up sacrificing a few "program icon slots" but I think it's worth it to more easily pick out what you want to use.

Wolfgang's Vault (streams via Wi-Fi on Touch works well), live concerts from about every performer you can think of, dating back into the '60s, is awesome btw, just stumbled into it recently:
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/sc/concert-vault-iphone-app.html

[Darkstar One]

Can you jailbreak the new Touch 64GB yet?  I've looked online and haven't found a definitive answer.

[Blackjack]

From the couple references I've seen, the new models are just a little too new at this point for the Jailbreakerz types to have dug into them just yet.

fwiw, some reviews of the new models (with the iPhone's latest CPU, and the larger 64GB capacity) are showing up here and there:

Macworld review
http://www.macworld.com/article/142847/2009/09/ipod_touch_late_2009_review.html?lsrc=top_1

Trusted Reviews (a European news site, I think)
http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2009/09/18/Apple-iPod-touch-3rd-Gen-64GB/p1

I get tired of all the sniping in comments threads for every single gizmo reviewed. Life is short, don't waste it in flame wars over media players/pocket computers. I guess if I was still in my 20s or 30s, I'd engage in that nonsense too. Fortunately, we didn't have comments threads when I was that age. 

[Jumangi]

I am SERIOUSLY thinking about one of these, but am really struggling on which size to get.  Of course, it goes without saying you should get as much memory as possible, but man oh man, $400 for the 32g.  Jeez.  That is hard to swallow.  Throw in tax, a case to carry it in, better headphones, and an extended warranty and you are at $500 easily.  My oh my.  I think I would use the snot out of it, but still.  In this economy that is a big stack of coin for that little sucker. 


I look, read about, listen to video reviews, talk to people, etc almost daily about these and just can't pull the trigger. 

My reason for wanting one is to mainly

1.  Read books with new Kindle app
2.  Youtube channel
3.  quick internet browsing
4.  Occasional movie
5.  and games.


Just not sure all of that is worth the money only to see something better come out in less than a year.  At $199 it would be a whole lot easier to swallow.

Ahh you can get it at $199. its the now "old" 2G version of the touch so it doesn't have the faster cpu and of course as much memmory, but for what you say your reasons are that version would work fine. I have had one for about 6 months and love it. its truely a modern pocket computer. Music, Video, internet, and all the apps/games are cool. Its been well worth the price IMO.

[Blackjack]

Well, the bummer is they removed the 16GB option. That's what I got earlier this year, and it's been perfect for me. I really don't need a 32GB or 64GB one, you'd have to be a sheer multimedia glutton to ever use all that, imho. Videos are really the the space-hawgs, and unless you just pile up everything in sight, it isn't too much of an issue.

I have tons of music, photos, programs and games on mine, and I think I've used just around 9-10GB or so.

Keep in mind that *only* the 32GB and 64GB models today get to enjoy the iPhone's faster, more powerful processor. I'm happy with my "old" one but I could see the faster processor being useful for certain things.

What I use mine for is:
1) Wi-Fi (I use it constantly at home, and sometimes at Panera, and check news, weather, frequently)
2) Music (although to be honest, there are things that my chintzy Sansa flash-player handles far more gracefully and flexibly as a music player)
3) Games (you'd be surprised how many terrific games are coming out for this, although I don't really find the "on-screen touch-controller pads" nearly as usable as regular handheld's gamepads)
4) Photo viewing (I think the sync system is a klutz at times)
5) PDA type stuff (grocery list, encrypted password manager, scheduler, contacts etc.)

I'm pretty inseparable from my Touch now and unlike my Palm Zire 71, the Touch is slim enough to fit comfortably in a front pocket without bulk. I do miss having a camera, and I'm one of those people who might've upgraded if they'd added even a crude camera to it.

I had a heart attack moment the other day at my mom's house. I was playing this bowling game that has a Wii-like control option (using the built-in accelerometer). But when I "threw" the ball, I let my Touch slip, and it went flying in the air and banged on the hardwood floor twice. Thankfully, my silicon iSkin Duo case protected it and it was fine. Whew.   Yeesh that was scary...