Stability of the Apple iPod touch

One of the apps on my iPod touch that I consult often is iStat which provides a variety of statistics on the operation of your iPod/iPhone. It is an iPod touch/iPhone version of the iStat application that is available for the iMac and Macbook. There is one statistic that currently impresses me and that is, uptime. My iPod touch has been up for 81 days. I am really impressed with the stability, robustness and reliability of the iPod touch operating system.

In running news last week's Wednesday workout was 4x1,000 meters on 30 second rest (ouch). [4.05/4.12/4.17/4.13] The good news is that my times are going down and starting to close in on the kilometer times I ran last year.

Wordabble

I thought I would blog about a new game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch which has me excited. The folks at Fusion Bay recently developed a game called Wordabble. Using the touch interface of the iPhone/iPod, you locate words hidden in a 5x5 block of letters. What I like about the application is it is easy to use, intuitive, fun and addictive. You can play the game in three modes, a timed game, a marathon session or you can download the game of the day and challenge your friends and family. At any time you can submit your scores to see how fair with other players. I like the way the application cleanly and smoothly presents the challenge of finding the words. I say check-it out!

iPhone 2.0 Software Update

I like the iPhone 2.0 software update as it offers many new features and builds on the things offered in version 1.1.4. The ability to delete multiple messages at once, the “push” feature, improved map support; the scientific calculator and the AppStore make the negligible cost I paid worthwhile. Over the weekend, I downloaded four applications, Things (a productivity app), WeatherBug, Units, and Remote (controlling iTunes on your computer from your iPhone/iPod touch). A news release from Apple today said over the weekend 10 million applications were downloaded from the AppStore.

Getting the iPhone software was a bit of a challenge. It took me a while and a bit of frustration to learn the trick. I had assumed that once I had bought the software it would download automatically. This was not the case. Every time I tried to download the software the orange download icon would spin for three seconds and then disappear. A 225 megabyte download should take longer than three seconds. It could be that the servers were busy so I attempted the download a couple of times an hour without success. I checked the Apple discussions area and was pleased to learn that I wasn’t the only experiencing this problem. There is an expression that trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity. On a whim, I tried something different and that was to plug the iPod touch into my computer at which point iTunes asked if I wanted to download the update. This was the trick. Sweet! The orange download icon spun for 15 minutes and the download was done. From this point on the upgrade was routine and I was finally happy and relieved to experience the new powers of my Touch.

Genius Bar -- I like Apple!

Earlier this year, I bought an Apple iPod touch and am still amazed with what I can do with it. The five iPod touch applications Apple released in January made the toy more powerful. On Saturday, the home button stopped working. I would select the Safari icon and do some surfing and hit the home button expecting it to return to the home screen but nothing happened. It would stubbornly stay on the safari screen. The only way to return to the home screen was to turn it off and then on. I checked the discussion groups on the Apple site and didn’t find any hints as what to do. I had two choice drive to Montreal (2 hours) or head down to Toronto (5 hours). I signed up for a 3:00 pm appointment at the Genius bar on Monday in Laval, Quebec. The web interface for the Genius bar is fun to use. I headed to Montreal on Monday morning and took the subway north and tried to follow the directions on the Apple retail store web page but made an attempt to speak in broken French to the subway conductor who said to keep heading north. I jumped on the subway again and headed underneath the St. Lawrence River and took the subway/metro to the last stop on the line known as Montmorency. I was now in a different city with a different bus system and rules. There were a couple of buses that would take you to La Carrefour shopping center. I caught the first bus apparently destined for the mall and ended in north Laval miles from anywhere. After talking to the driver in broken French he suggested an express bus and I headed back to the bus hub. The second bus took me to the shopping center.

The Apple store was a hive of activity with a lot of people receiving 1-on-1 Apple training. I spoke to one of the “blue” shirts girls would confirmed that my appointment was still good. In the meantime, I explored the fun on display and imagined what it would be like to use a Macbook. It was sort of like being in a toy store for adult with all this neat gear. A little while later I met with the genius “black” shirt and we tried to do an iPod restore which didn’t work. The iPod was sicker than we thought. Apple replaced the iPod touch as it was still on warranty (Thanks Apple). It was a fun experience and my first visit to an Apple store and hopefully not my last as it was a fun place.