In January, Apple Inc. released an update for the iPhone and ipod touch. Although slightly different between the iPhone and the iPod touch, the core update it the same;
For the iPhone, the maps, home screen customization (still limited at this time to adding bookmarks and re-arranging icons), sending a text to multiple recipients, and a selection of what is largely eye-candy and interface improvements.This update cost users nothing.
For the iPod touch: The 1.1.3 update for the iPod touch added five new applications, mail, maps, stocks, weather and notes, along with lyrics and an edit allowing the home screen to be customised. This these five apps cost £13, or $20 (Note that, once again, Apple favours the United States over Europe)
But is the update worth it?
I updated my iPod Touch 8GB a couple of days ago, and largely, I've been pleased. That's not to say that £13 isn't more than enough to pay for just five new apps, but the apps themselves are more useful than they first sound - ok, the idea of having stocks on an iPod is more than faintly ridiculous - what self-respecting stock broker is going to go around with an iPod to look at shares, and I can't imagine that too many other people are so interested in their stocks that they need constant up-to-the-minute information on their stocks and shares, however, I understand that this would have its uses on an iPhone, which is more of a choice for stockbrokers, and big oil company CEO's.
Notwithstanding, the mail function is very useful, and is easy to set up, certainly if you have a GoogleMail, Aol, Mac or Yahoo account, although any kind of mail server can be catered for, with enough patience and technical knowledge. It's much the same as setting up an e-mail client on a static computer or laptop.
The notes function on the iPod touch again, whilst it might have some limited use, seems to me to be largely a gimmick to flesh out the number of applications provided with this update, and to justify the price of the update.
In an urban area, where an public Wi-Fi zone is almost always availible, the Maps function has a clear role to play, and is obviously useful for getting to A to B within a town, there are obvious problems with using it either as a sat-nav, or outside town, because here Wi-Fi is either more sparce, or you are moving between to many networks to make the map's updates effective, or reliable. Obviously, with the iPhone, EDGE itnternet access allows Googlemaps to be functional so long as Mobile reception is availible. Apple has come under criticism for using Googlemaps, rather than actually incorporating an actual GPS chip into the phone, and that Apple was merely cost-cutting on what was meant to be a premium product.
Apple has come under a lot of fire from the iPod Touch users quarter, angry at having just bought iPod Touches in the Christmas rush, that they were going to have to fork out for further updates. Apple responded saying that it was due to an accouting regulation under Sarbanes-Oxley.
Many people have been quick to point out that $20 for five apps = $4 per app, but I think that the overall cost will best slighly more when released in June, with the next big update.
So, was Apple right to charge £13/$20 for its 1.1.3 update for the iPod Touch, but not for the iPhone? well, I think that, considering that iPhone users pay an ongoing fee of £35 a month, their update is included in the price, but with iPod Touch, because the cost is up-front, and for the iPod itself, Apple is justified in placing a charge for the update. I feel, however, that the actual cost of the update could have been less, as the file downloaded is only a 12kb activation file, and you are paying for what is already hidden on the iPod Touch, perhaps $15/£8 would have been a more reasonable price to ask for the update.
Regardless, all new iPod Touches ship with the update, at <£200 for the 8Gb Version, - the price that was charged before, although a petition was launched to try to get Steve Jobs to make the update free to existing users, this has been defunked, if you haven't got it already, I suggest either get it now, and be done with it, or wait until June, when the iPod apps store comes out, and you might be able to pick better applications cheaper.
