iTouch Hacks

So, the new iPods are in. At first glance, I was kind of disappointed; the second time I looked, I wasn’t quite as disappointed.  Apple has been very frugal in their latest batch of new hardware. My greatest displeasure comes from the new iPod Touch. . . IT HAS NO CAMERA (not to mention the exclusion of a compass and FM radio). Although they did add a mic, voice control, a faster processor, better graphics, and better wi-fi, a camera would have been appropriate as well.

Apple did do a good job with the new iPod Nano – its got a video camera and radio.

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Although Software update 3.1 is really nice and sparkly, I would advise against the update (but don’t freak out if you have because who knows how long it will take for the dev team to release more comprehensive news concerning the iPod Touch Hack in specific). Here are a few words from the Dev Team:

If you update to Apple’s new software using the normal iTunes process, you will lose your ultrasn0w unlock.  In fact you may lose it permanently, because for most people the baseband firmware cannot be reverted to a previous version (unlike the main application CPU firmware).

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Although Apple’s latest release of the iPod Touch 3G was not quite as good as it should have been, this little bit of news cheered me up. Apple was rumored to have had manufacturing problems with iPod Touch and was therefore unable to release it with a video camera. PCW reports that a update BY CHRISTMAS may include a this highly coveted Video Camera

I’ve also heard that Apple wants to have these things in full production by Christmas and that they’ve made only a few months of camera-less models to tide the market over until the new ones are ready.
PCW also offers some more information by hypothesizing that:
The conventional wisdom is that Apple will put the camera into the higher end iPods ($299/$399 – 32GB/64GB) only and leave the $199 model to be a 2nd-gen model. The higher end iPods have the processor speed and the Open GL 2.0 capabilities to do video, the 2nd Gen does not. This is exactly the same pricing/feature structure as exists on the iPhone.
Based on this, my advice is to wait for just a few more months and see what happens.

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We all know how important the Apple Store’s décor is to the shopping experience: the glass windows, the well-lit aisles, the wood tables with the MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones carefully laid out. But customers aren’t the only ones to appreciate the design aesthetic of Apple’s retail outlets: turns out the design has a lot to like for would-be thieves, too.

For the second time in the last six months, the Apple Store, Sagemore in Marlton, New Jersey has found itself the target of burglars. They struck around 2AM on September 2, methodically working their way through the merchandise on display and making off with 23 MacBooks as well as 14 iPhones and iPod touches—all in just 31 seconds. We know the Apple Store has always prided itself on the efficiency of its checkout procedure, but it just goes to show you how much faster things go when you don’t have to trouble with niggling details like payment.

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That’s where Mactracker comes into play. The free app from Ian Page is the complete reference for every Macintosh every made.

Mactracker has been available for Mac OS and Windows for many years as a desktop application, but now you get most of the desktop functionality in a handy iPhone app. The iPhone app has information on all Macs divided into logical categories such as Classic Macintosh, iMac, and PowerBook. Select the category and locate the specific Mac within, and you have detailed information such as model number, dimensions, hardware configuration, compatible OS versions, and expansion options. You can even play the associated startup chime for each Mac.

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