This is a blog post from James Savage, one of our admins. His blog is currently down, and so he has asked me to post this for him on our site. Enjoy!
With all the negative publicity the iPhone has gotten for being, well, a phone (specifically a phone on AT&T) you would think Apple would be pushing the iPod Touch as a great alternative for those who want an iPhone, without the phone. But in reality they have been doing little good work. The iPod Touch is really a sub-standard iPhone. It not only lacks phone capabliites but also many apps and a microphone/speaker.
Focusing on the lack of apps... You may have noticed that Apple actually did start including these forgoten apps. But what about all the iPod Touches sold before this update. Did they get free apps from Apple. Of course not! But for another $20.00 US Apple will be glad to help you out. But the real question is, why not include them in the first place. The iPod Touch is WiFi, so these apps will work. In some ways this makes the iPod Touch seem less of an intened product, and more of an afterthought or sideproject.
Comparison of the iPhone (first) and iPod Touch (second). Notice how different the home screens look.
And why can't I have a microphone in my iPod Touch? Is it to stop me from doing voice recordings? No. More likely it is to stop me from getting a free phone via VoIP services like skype. Thanks for the care Apple, I would hate to have to crack all my devices to make them uniquie! This is my one major gripe with Apple. You buy no only that computer or that OS X, you buy their look. No seperate orders. Now, not that OS X or iPhone look bad. But I like to customize things. And what do I get, changeable background image. No Apple never saves themselves here. But luckily many others do.
iTouch/Phone with sumerboard
sumerboard along with many other great apps help make iPhone iPod Touch gap a lot smaller. With everything from a BSD subsystem (think UNIX shell) to random games like tic-tac-toe it is once again 3rd parties who make either device useable. Now with the soon to be open iPhone/Touch and SDK, I can only hope Apple doesn't keep anything back from iPod Touch anymore. I don't have one (though I have used one, so these statements don't come out of thin air) I really want one. So Apple, remember the iPhone's little brother next time.
*** No I am not an Apple hater, quite the opposite actually.
Comments
I better intervene to prevent a flame war over a blog post.
Firstly, I would like to remind you all that the iPhone is actually considered as an iPod. The iPod Touch is like the iPod Nano in that it's the younger brother. The Touch is intended to be an iPod with iPhone like capabilities... Not an iPhone alternative.
Yes, I would like to see voip, ssh, irc and iChat on the iPod Touch, but if apple say no, it's either jailbreak or bust. Apple unlike the FLOSS world take their ideas internally, instead of externally. If one guy says that apple should omit the speaker and mic in the touch, then that stands. Plus, having voip in the touch could see the iPhone sales figures drop, and would also see the AT&T faces going red. Take for example the 3 SkypePhone (not available in the US AFAIK). You can make skype to skype calls, but there is no skype in or out. This is to protect the telco. I understand that no one likes AT&T, but if Apple can't keep their partners happy, then we wouldn't have an iPhone whatsoever.
I would like to see Apple provide an SDK kit for third party apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Not providing one is like fighting a hopeless war, and bricking the products every time an update comes around doesn't help your image all that much. Web Apps can only go to a certain extent, and the iPhone and iPod Touch is capable of doing a lot (which is what the jailbreaks show)... This can plug the holes where the iPhone/iPod Touch software leaves; for example IM and IRC. Why isn't it there? Other phones can do that, but why not the iPhone?
I guess we are all optimists here; we see the potential of these devices and we point out how Apple isn't using the hardware to it's full extent. Apple probably won't listen, they are a company and as long as they are turning a profit, they will not care.
That is all that I have to say on this issue.
Steve Jobs already announced an SDK for the iPhone/iTouch, although we don't know how freely available it will be once it is released.
Oh please, this post is complete crap. First of all, the iPod Touch is just that: an iPod. If people wanted Email, More Apps, etc, they should shell out the extra money for a real phone. No iPod before this has had even Safari, nor a "microphone". My advice to you? Buy an iPhone already
Ok, some people don't have the money for an iPhone and some don't want a phone or AT&T. The iPod Touch should not be such a big difference. I have a Palm TX with WiFi and I manage email, web, irc, AIM, ssh and many other web tech quite easily. So I see no reason why it should not work with the iPod Touch. I see Penguincentral's point on why they don't include microphone/speaker but that doesn't make it right. This is going to go off topic but.. capitalism controls way to much of the economy. If a company doesn't know how to make money off a tech they bury it rather than letting it progress. Companies should look out for the customers. not only their own backs.
And if you need more proof, just look at how successful jailbreak is. My friend's iPod Touch is jailbroken and works great. It does so much more than just an iPod or even a default iPhone.
Whoops... guess I glanced over that one. You win :)
I made the point. Look in the second paragraph. But think, the new iPod Touches don't cost more. So Apple is charging people $20 extra dollars that new iPod Touch customers don't have to pay.
To poke a little hole in your argument, the iPhone apps are only $20 for existing iPod touches. All new ones have those apps included.
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