So it finally happened... I have bought my first Apple product. Given the amount of travel I am likely to be doing over the next few years (clocked up nearly 9000 miles in August alone, 10000 if you add in associated car journeys) I decided to get myself an MP3, and in the end I opted for the iPod Touch (2nd generation, 32GB: Now superceded by the 3rd Gen, 64GB, the gits!)
Now first impressions are good. It's shiny, for starters. The interface works quite nicely with fingers, which is new to me having come from the touchscreen world of Windows Mobile smart-phones with a stylus. The UI is clean and straightforward, and integration with iTunes works quite nicely. Sound quality is good, and I'm tempted to saying that since switching from Windows Media Player to iTunes when listening to music on the computer the audio quality from iTunes is much better. The iTunes App Store has software for almost every need you might have. So no complaints so far.
However, as you start to use the device, you start to notice more little "issues" with it. One of the common grips with the iTouch is that to do a major version upgrade the OS you have to pay, whereas on the iPhone (they use the same base OS) the upgrades are free. Minor upgrades don't cost on either device (at the moment).
But if you do decide to upgrade, be warned... When I first got my iTouch it came with version 2.x of the OS. Given some of the new bits they've unlocked with version 3 I decided to part with the 5.99GBP to upgrade. Thankfully, this all went smoothly and I got my new OS with a minimum of fuss all ready for my August leave from work. After I got back to <foreign place> I was informed there was an update from 3.0 to 3.1.1 so I decided to go ahead and get the upgrade done. Now the upgrade file is pretty big; nearly 300MB. Where I currently live/work is a Muslim country, and so we're deep into Ramadan. For some reason, the internet has suddenly started working a lot slower than normal, and I often find my connection drops out - the joys of using a 3G mobile dongle for internet. Normally, these drops would be a minor irritation. Thankfully, 9am in a morning seems to be a fairly reliable time to grab some internet, so did the upgrade first thing. Download didn't take too long, so all looked good. So plug in the iTouch and the upgrade starts.
The first thing that iTunes does is to verify the upgrade file with Apple. Wise idea on the face of it to ensure the file hasn't got corrupted in transit. However, as it does this the attached iTouch Windows drivers are updated and the device is put into upgrade mode. You may not think this would be a problem, except my internet chose this moment to drop out for a minute or 2. Sadly, this meant that iTunes was unable to verify the upgrade file. Now you would hope that in this situation you'd either get a chance to retry, or to press on anyway and hope that the download is good. Not Apple! I got an error message which only gave me an acknowledgement button. Pressing this took me back to iTunes with the iTouch still sat in upgrade mode. What do you do now? There's no obvious menu option to restart the upgrade, the iTouch is unresponsive to any button presses to try and turn it off, the Apple website and iTunes help give no answers on what to do. Oh f**k... I now have a very shiny, but very expensive, paperweight!
Eventually, some other web forums gave the hint of disconnecting the iTouch and holding in the power and home buttons to force the device to power off. Turning it back on leaves you at the first screen you ever see on the iTouch: the one where it asks you to connect it to a computer with iTunes. Doing this thankfully launches a recovery mode which restores the iTouch to the default settings, thankfully installing the new OS in the process. I was then able to recover the settings from the backups that iTunes does when it Syncs the device, followed by a lengthy process of reinstalling all your apps and then copying all your music, videos, etc from the computer back onto the iTouch.
So thanks to some very poor error handling from Apple, what should have been a 10 minute process probably took closer to 2 hours. Surely it can't be that hard to add a routine that allows the user to try and re-verify the download, or at least hold off from doing the Windows driver update and putting the iTouch into upgrade mode until the download has been verified??? If you are going to do an upgrade of the OS on one of these devices, it may be worth giving the Download Only option a try and work out how to do the actual upgrade later when your internet is being more reliable!
The other major issue I have with Apple is what seems to be a "we know best"/nanny-state attitude. When shipped, the 2nd generation iTouch came with a bluetooth chip inside, but under version 2 of the OS this chip was unavailable. One of the upgrades in version 3 is the activation of the bluetooth chip.
However, it seems Apple have decided to make this available only for pairing with bluetooth headsets. From what I hear, Apple's opinion is that bluetooth is insecure and dangerous. To be honest, I don't really care. I rarely have bluetooth turned on anyway. And if you think it's that dangerous, surely a better option would be to make the user aware of this when they attempt to enable it so it's their decision, and their own fault if they do something stupid. (I could rant here about how we're too nice to idiots these days and how we should be encouraging Darwinism, not holding it back with laws and legal decisions supporting a lack of common sense, but I'll save that for another day!) But what this means is that I am unable to do things that would be useful like copy my contacts and calendar from my Windows Mobile smart-phone, or pair up my bluetooth GPS receiver for the location service (this would have been really useful when I was trying to find a friend's house in the UK and managed to get confused by the street doing a loop from the main road!) I can only hope that Apple see the light, or crumble to user pressure (I'm not the only one harbouring these grudges); but can anyone think of a time that Apple have done either of these things?
Well, we can live in hope. After all, the iTouch itself is a great little device; it would just be nice if Apple would start putting a little usability before "Oooh, pretty!" and the prevention of the natural process of Darwinism.
Yay! I seem to have upset a
Yay! I seem to have upset a fanboi!
Right, let's take each of your paragraphs in turn...
"Idiot user...": What makes you think I'm an idiot user? If you knew me you would actually realize I have a number of years experience in IT support and systems admin along with a BSc (Hons) from a top British university. I have been using computers for the past 25 years (i.e. since I was 3!) I hardly think I can be classed as an idiot user.
"How is this news": Who said this was meant to be news? This is a blog - the blog of a bitter, twisted and angry man. I also thought that the posting was quite clearly marked as being a rant.
As for the contacts; I am quite aware that I could sync my Windows SmartPhone with Outlook, and in turn sync that with the iTouch. But why should I be forced to do 2 steps when the technologies are there for me to do it in 1 step? (Incidentally, I don't sync my SmartPhone with Outlook due to issues with the USB lead not working reliably, but I do backup the important data to a memory card!)
If you can provide a useful way of finding said restores on the Apple site, please let the rest of the world know. I spent a good half an hour searching around and found the site to be of no help whatsoever. And in any case, given that the computer no longer wants to recognize the iTouch, how would downloading a restore (which would probably end up being another 250Mb) be of any use? Plus, I have an iTouch, not a "phone".
"I'm sorry that as...": This argument is what gives those who think they know it all about technology such a bad name. Why should technology advancing increase the chance of a user "messing up"? Surely it is the job of the developers to ensure that the user shouldn't be able to mess up. What I experienced was not a case of user stupidity. Had I have tried to upgrade by using my own homemade wire and connected the pins up incorrectly, that's something I wouldn't expect to be solvable. However, I was trying to upgrade my iTouch in correct manner using official channels and equipment. This was not a user mess up, but a shining example of badly written software that can't handle errors/exceptions in a sane manner.
"Comparing it to a...": Why is that hilarious? At the end of the day both are glorified miniature computers. Personally, I can't say I experienced the issues you did with the call/slashdot conflict and complex html. (Incidentally, the company who provide your email address really need a lesson in web usability... A site that is all flash???)
"Basically, from what...": No... I am mad at Apple because they think they know best when it comes to what users should and shouldn't be allowed to do. I'm mad at Apple because their software fails to handle basic errors/exceptions.
Crap internet is not something that should be seen as an excuse. Yes it is annoying, but at the end of the day it is something I have to work with and a small price to pay for having seen my career take me overseas and being very well paid. It should also not be seen as a get-out clause for Apple. It is dangerous to assume that everyone has perfect super-fast internet. It is a fact that many of us have to cope with periods of slowness and instability. Apple should be writing software that can handle this. Would it really be that difficult to have added a routine that would allow iTunes to attempt to try and verify the download a 2nd time? Would it really be so bad to do the download verification before putting the iTouch into upgrade mode? I think the answer is a very simple "No". Apple just couldn't be bothered.
Apple really do have some interesting supporters out there. I don't think I've come across any other brand where the supporters will come to their defense as quickly as Apple. But the thing is that they are so blinded by Apples "oooh... shiny" toys that they can't actually see the flaws in what they produce and so will try anything to make it the user who is at fault rather than their precious Apple.
idiot user has trouble updating firmware.
how is this news? Your unable to copy contacts only because you don't know how, not because it's impossible. (you would need to user your computer /sigh) Last time i messed with my iphone you could also download restores from the apple site, you could also upgrade your phone that way.
I'm sorry that as technology advances, the chances of your real basic user messing up increases, but that's how it is.
Comparing it to a winmobile phone is hilarious though, as someone who's used 3 or 4 winmobile phone, (last was a vx6700 with tom tom on it)
I could crash that phone by going to slashdot and waiting for a call to come in, any complex html would kill that device.
Basically, from what i'm reading your mad at apple because YOUR not getting the most out of your device and YOU have crap internet.
beg my pardon, but user error and QQ.