My Thoughts on the iPad Announcement Party

Well there it is. The iPad is born and while I’m impressed with the product, it’s still just what I thought it would be, a big iPod Touch. I was really disappointed in that they didn’t really go over anything that I wanted in terms of the iTunes update, AT&T exclusivity, 4.0 update.

They have made a great new product that will be really useful in schools I feel. But I have a hard time thinking that most people with an iPhone or iPod Touch will find it necessary to get an iPad. Seems like one extra thing to carry around and it won’t even fit in a pocket.

I absolutely loved the MLB app as well as the Need for Speed game demo. They both looked solid. The video quality on the MLB app seems like a must have for any baseball fan.

I also liked the iBook app. While I’m not that much of a book reader, I can see that this is Apple’s answer to the Kindle and will probably cause Amazon to make some changes. The book store is really nice.

But I still can’t get over the disappointment of really nothing else coming out. I don’t have iWork so I’m a bit biased there as I don’t care about that. But I guess most of the rumors other than the iPad were just that. Cool stuff but nothing materialized.

Today’s Apple Announcement Including My Rumors

So today is the big Apple announcement of the super, over-hyped Tablet, iSlate, iPad, iHypeMachine… I’m actually less concerned over that as I already have an iPhone and an iPod Touch. What is super interesting to me is the iPhone exclusivity coming to an end. As a iPhone jailbreaker with T-Mobile, I would love to hear that I can’t unjailbreak my iPhone and not have to worry about it bricking anymore.

I am also curious as to the rumors of the iPhone 4.0 software being announced. I’m hoping that it includes the ability for apps to run in the background. That is something huge and I’m okay with taking a hit to the battery if that’s what it takes. I have a charger that I use everyday.

There’s also the tablet. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not really all that interested in it but I am curious as to what it will be other than a huge iPod Touch.

So as to my rumors about the event:

• The tablet of course will be announced. It will essentially be a huge iPod Touch with at data plan and GPS. I agree with the other rumors that it will need a contract with Verizon for 3G connectivity. I don’t think AT&T will be a provider for this.
• Apple will move away from AT&T and open its iPhone to multiple carriers but only announce a partnership with Verizon today for the iPhone and the tablet.
• Announcement of iPhone/iPod 4.0 firmware update. This will include background apps and better memory usage.
• Twitter will go down about 28 minutes into the announcement. Facebook will soon follow.
• New Macbook Pros will be announced using the new Intel i5 and i7 chips. Usual upgrade of features while staying at current prices.
• Updated iTunes.
• Updated Apple TV firmware update.

Those are a few of my ideas/wishes. I guess I’ll find out if I’m right or wrong in an hour or so. What do you think?

Thanks Apple for Upgrading my iPod Touch to Bricked

Well yesterday Steve Jobs walked out with his black turtleneck and jeans and announced semi-big changes in the iPod line. He announced that iTunes was upgraded to version 8. A lot of new features and some bells and whistles. Along with that, he announced the upgrade of the iPod Touch firmware to version 2.1.

So me being me, I had to have both right then and there. So I open up iTunes and click the Check for Upgrade link and begin the upgrade process. It runs through its usual process and then it got to some section with Quicktime and it stalled. I gave it about 20 more minutes before I shut it down. The Cancel button didn’t work so I had to shut it down via the Task Manager.

Since it had hung so long, I decided to check to see what version of iTunes I actually had at that point. I opened it up and checked: 7.7. But right after doing that, iTunes asked if I wanted to update my iPod’s firmware. Since that was part of my master plan, I said yes. It got mostly through then I got an error message saying that the upgrade could not be completed. I clicked okay and then was told that my iPod Touch was in Restore Mode and was asked if I wanted to restore it. I declined and unplugged my iPod Touch from the computer. I couldn’t go anything with it. It was stuck in restore mode.

I began thinking that I did update it with iTunes 7 instead of 8. So I decided to retry my update to iTunes 8 and this time I was successful. I tried to restore my iPod once again and was told that an unknown error occured. Not good. I now had a $400 paper weight. I tried the restore a couple of more times and was shut down each time. I read some of the support docs that Apple had and tried some things. The last thing I read was to try to restore using a different computer. So I did. And it worked.

Then I went to my regular computer and restored from the backup that was done prior to the bricking my iPod Touch. That took FOREVER but worked. Then I tried the update once again and once again, I bricked it. Thanks Apple.

Today I finally got it all working and upgraded to 2.1 but had to use 2 computers to do it and that just isn’t feasible. I don’t know if I created a weird situation with my upgrade freeze but if you run into this situation, just know that you need to restore to factory settings on a different computer, restore from backup on your computer, and then use that different computer to do the update.

Too much work for an upgrade. So if Apple sees this at all, I might have found a bug in the system that you missed.

iPhone 2.0 Thoughts

So it’s been about a week since the newest iPhone was announced and I’ve had time to think about the good and bad now. In previous posts, I’ve mentioned possibly getting an iPhone in place of my T-Mobile Dash. Well I decided a couple of weeks ago to get a Blackberry Curve and I love it. And now, looking back, I’m glad that was the decision that I made.

When I first heard about the iPhone possibly being $299 for a 16gb model, I thought that this might just work. But then reading up on the fact that you had to sign up with AT&T for 2 years made this not that attractive for me.

I really love the idea of the GPS included in the newest version. I like it more that the addition of the 3G network. To me, if the 3G is only 2 times faster, it’s not worth the extra hassle. But I am very interested in the GPS.

I also think that the quality of apps will greatly increase due to the iPhone SDK that’s been out for a while now. I’m also a fan of the Application Store. Gives the developers a chance to see some return on countless hours spent developing apps. It also gives them a wide user base to potentially sell their apps to. I think Apple did well with this.

But the one stopping point for me is the fact that you have to get the iPhone activated in an AT&T store, thus removing any reason to jailbreak it. That is unless you don’t mind sending AT&T a check every month for services you might not use if you switch to a different network. That makes it really hard for people like me who might be locked into contracts with other carriers.

Overall, I really like the changes made to the new iPhone 2.0 but I think that the lock downs make it more unattractive to me as before. What do you think?

Is Jailbreaking an iPhone a Good Idea?

I’ve written a couple of times about iPhones and my desire to have one. I’ve actually been doing a lot of research about them lately as I would like to replace my Dash with one. Thing is, I am currently with T-Mobile and I really don’t want to have to make a switch to AT&T right now. What I would like to do get an iPhone and then jailbreak it and hook it up with my T-Mobile sim card.

I have no worries about jailbreaking the iPhone as I’ve done it with my iPod Touch several times. What I want to know is how it works afterwards. I’ve seen a dozen videos that all end with someone calling their newly jailbroken iPhone. That’s all good and nice but how does it hold up? Is it as easy to send and receive text messages? Does voicemail work as it should? I just want to make sure that if I do jailbreak an iPhone that it works for me like it should. I haven’t really seen anything about those things out there. If there is something, please let me know. I’m definitely interesting to getting one after Apple releases the second generation iPhone in June.

So if you have jailbroken an iPhone or know someone who has, let me know how the experience is. I appreciate any comments.