Last Saturday I went to the Apple Store for a One to One tutorial and with the intention of buying a new iPod touch. I signed up for a One to One session to learn more about iPods and iTunes. One of the things that I like about the One to One trainers is that they answer all your questions, not just the ones that are on the lesson "script". After the hour was over I decided to put off my iPod touch purchase. It wasn't the trainers fault but it was because of my own needs and personality. In fact, I was more convinced to buy an iPad than an iPod in the future so Apple doesn't have to worry about losing a sale.
Comic-Con is a comic book convention that happens every year here in San Diego. I have been going for the last fourteen years with the exception of two years. Last year I bought a small camera but I was kind of envying the people with their smart phones who were taking pictures. They could take a few pictures or a short video and just put the camera in their pocket without having to lug around a camera. I was hoping to buy an iPod touch that now has a camera to replace my old iPod touch without having to buy a smart phone with an expensive data plan. I also was looking forward to adding some newer apps to a new iPod touch, like the iPod version of Apple's word processor Pages, that my old iPod touch could not use. Well, I found out that the new iPod touch doesn't have as good of a camera as the new iPhone. Not only did the Apple staff tell me that but while playing with both I could see the difference in picture quality. As a camera I would be better off buying a small video camera than an iPod touch. I was also convinced that I would be better off using an iPad for those new apps also.
Apple will be putting out a new ios 5 for the iPod family of devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch soon. I might as well wait until we all see what the new ios 5 brings. Right now all the iPod family of devices rely on iTunes and cables to update and do all the maintenance things a digital device does. The new ios 5 is supposed to "cut the cord" according to the trainer in the store. Instead of syncing your iPod to your iTunes on your computer with a USB cable it will instead be done wireless. Will you be able to sync your iPod family device to the new iCloud coming? Who knows. But I am willing to wait since I am not so happy with the USB cables and iTunes.
When I got home I tried to start syncing my iPod to my MacBook. I was greeted with the warning that an iPod can only sync to one computer. My idea of backing up my iTunes on two computers and sharing my iPod between those two devices was dashed. I had to reload iTunes on my MacBook and download all my app purchases it to it. iTunes is really easy to download any music or apps you bought on the iTunes store but you have to manually reinstall non iTunes store music. All it took was downloading form a USB flash drive with a copy of all my non iTunes store music on it but it was still a hassle. Will iCloud and the new ios 5 take away these hassles? Will iCloud and ios 5 make me even more locked into the Apple world? I'll need to do some more research and wait with everyone else to find answers to these questions. Right now I will need to back up my music to a PC using a different music file format than iTunes in music manager software other than iTunes. What is the best file format and music manager software? I'll have to do some research for that too. I'll let you know what I find on my next computer adventure, "The Quest for Music Freedom." Well, it looks like I have some more homework now.
