It's a pretty busy interface. It might be innovative and powerful (?), but it doesn't give off the aura of simplicity, which I think is really lit a torch under iPhone sales.
While this guy was wasting weeks of his life figuring out peeks and pokes on Apple ][, modern day hackers have already released a new app on the app store.
I agree generally with your analysis, but what they did is nowhere near as bad as re-charging for ipod games for the 5G so that you can run them on the classic. That's like charging for iwork and then charging again when you upgrade your mac.
The ipod touch apps is nickel and diming. I wouldn't call it dishonest or cheating myself, I'd just say it is being cheap and beneath the dignity of apple.
The AIR *might* drop by a couple of hundred bucks over a year. But the real problem I think is storage. For a couple of extra mm, Apple could have put in the 160GB 1.8" iPod hard drive and that would make this a decent machine. Jobs's obsession with thinness is good, but taken just a bit too far and too extreme.
The best hope is either they'll make a slightly thinker air with the 160GB drive (doubtful at this point) or that they'll use the technology to make a thinner and lighter Macbook (though it won't be as thin).
The point of having 160GB at a party juke box, is when someone makes the request "I want to hear such and such", yes you DO have it there and then. Yes, 16GB can hold a lot of your favs, but you can't predict what other people's favs are.
Another thing: if you want all the podcasts for one podcast, the iTunes interface makes you take all of them for ALL podcasts. Another reason for the 160GB. And if you want to carry some movies for yourself, some movies to keep the kids occupied at the appropriate moment, all the genres of songs you like... well you can fill up a lot more that 16GB.
I'll consider a touch when it has a hard drive, and when it has some kind of physical controls. If it's a little bigger than a classic I'd probably live with that.
I think this misses the point quite a lot:
1) You want wifi synch to grab the latest podcasts (maybe 50MB at a time) not to suck down major content. Ideally you can do it out and about and have it copied back to your main computer.
2) I don't buy any claim that a Touch Classic need be fatter than a Classic. We could sacrifice a little battery time from the 160GB classic if need be.
3) We know why there are no 3rd party apps. Distributed Wi-Fi file sharing! The music companies would have a fit. Jobs is still too beholden to them.
4) Battery life compared to capacity misses the point. The point is having total freedom out and about to decide what you will listen to, instead of having to figure it out before hand. You can take a iPod classic to a party as a juke box, but the Touch, less so.
I wouldn't have a clue if they will do that, but I do think Apple felt burned before when 3rd party developers dropped Apple support. This was done by both Adobe and Microsoft both in fact and in threat at various times with various products. Steve Jobs likes to be the master of his own destiny, not beholden to threats from other companies, he's been there before.
I use right angle earphones (UE) with the iSkin Claro (and also Evo3), and you don't need an extender. Maybe they tweaked the design since the early days, or maybe the Ultimate Ears ones are just small enough.
I too have been through a number of cases. The Marware sportsuit is one of the better in protection, but it looks like crap after a couple of months use.
I think the best protection on the market right now is the iSkin Claro, due to its unique inner lining, and the iSkin Evo3, due to its unique screen attachment design. Other silicon cases don't keep dust out of the screen edge and the screen doesn't get separated from the iPod as well. I wasn't too keen on the look of the Evo3 at first, but after buying a different silicon skin, I realize why it is designed why it is. As for the Claro, it is also the only scratch resistant one and I use it with UE earphones. Only downside is the belt clip isn't removable, although it is quite low profile.
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