Un-Jailbroken iPod Touch
My wife wanted a small portable computer for Christmas. She didn’t want something as big as a laptop. We looked at the netbooks, but none were small enough to fit in her purse. I thought the iPod Touch would be the perfect gift.
There was only one problem. My iPod Touch was hacked a year ago. Since then, the App Store came online and thousands of cool programs are available for everyone without the nerdiness required to jailbreak the device. After I played around with the new Touch, I decided to reset mine and purchase the $9.95 upgrade to get all the new stuff. What could I miss from the outdated jailbreak version I was using?
For the most part, it was a great choice. I have scores of apps that were not available before and I have only downloaded the freebies. Truth be told, most of the apps I have downloaded are games that I played a couple of times. There are some nice productivity tools. I have Evernote so I can type myself a message that updates a document on the web. I have Facebook, Tritter, Google Apps (read only mode), a Bible with dozens of translations, VNC, wireless network file sharing and more.
I did lose a few things and two of them I really miss. First and foremost (and almost a deal breaker) is Nemus Sync. This app sync’ed my Google Calendar with the iPod Calendar. It is bi-directional and there is nothing (not even a pay app) like it in the Apps Store. The second app is the full version of Wikipedia. You can buy a version for $8.00 but some of the reviews say the two gigabyte download doesn’t play well with iTunes or the synchronization process.
I also lost my Apache web server and wireless SSH server. Those had a certain coolness factor, but were handy at times. I also can’t get into the OS like I could before. I can’t find a screen capture utility which is why I had to use a picture from Flickr in this post.
Overall I’m glad I have the apps store. I really miss my Google Calendar sync, but maybe Nemus will add it to the Apps Store. They have other applications in there. I would certainly pay a few bucks for it.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:52 am
“I can’t find a screen capture utility which is why I had to use a picture from Flickr in this post.”
Maybe you already know about this little trick… If you press both the home button and the on/off switch at the same time you get a screen capture that is added to your photos…. Just a thought.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I did not know this trick. THANKS! It works perfectly.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am
My iPod Touch is the best technology purchase I’ve ever made. It truly is an amazing little device. I wish they would just add a microphone and camera to it though.
BTW, there is also a WordPress app for it, and for your wordpress blog you can use http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/ to give iPhone/iPod Touch users an optimized view of your site.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I already have the WordPress app for editing my blog from the Touch. I will grab WPTouch too.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Cool!
BTW, for the calendar problem I sync my Google calendars (one way, Google to iPod) with my computer, and to add events I text them to Google from my cellphone. Pretty much a kludge, and new events won’t show up on the iPod until I sync, but it does work.
(I do cheat a little, with my Mobile Me account changes to my Google calendar should be pushed over wifi to my iPod.)
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 am
Great post!! I just have to copy it
January 24th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Hhahaha that is an awesome background! long live the jeailbreak!
June 5th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I know personally I couldn’t live without my ipod. Thanks for the post!