Chances are you’ve seen the news about the iPhone 3.0 Software Update that Apple recently released. For iPhone users, it’s a free upgrade so it isn’t really a question of whether it would be worth it — free is free!
For iPod touch users though, due to the way Apple does their books on the iPod touchs, it’s a $9.95US upgrade. Which begs the question — is it worth it to upgrade your iPod touch to iPhone 3.0?
Unless you just bought your ipod touch you probably don’t already have the iPhone 3.0 installed but it might worth it to double check. To find out which version you have:
- Tap the settings icon
- Tap General
- Tap About to see the version number
Apple lists the major new features for iPod touch users as:
- Buy Movies, TV Shows, and Audiobooks via Wi-Fi
- Stereo Bluetooth (only for 2nd generation iPod touch — to tell if you have a 2nd gen or not, you can easily tell by whether your iPod touch has a speaker built in or not. If you can’t hear anything from your iPod without headphones plugged in, you’ve got a 1st gen iPod touch)
- Peer to Peer Gaming (also only for 2nd gen iPod touch)
- Landscape Keyboard
- Spotlight Search
- Cut, Copy & Paste
There’s a few other upgrades worth mentioning as well including parental controls, automatic wi-fi login, iTunes store account creation, new languages, push notifications, third party accessories, Safari improvements, sync notes and shake to shuffle.
After initially installing the update on my 1st gen iPod touch I wasn’t that impressed with everything to think it was actually worth it. Cut/copy/paste is nice, but not a feature I’d use a lot. Same thing with the landscape keyboard. The push notifications and third party accessories will be nice, once software/hardware developers start supporting them but as of now there isn’t a lot that are — though that’s sure to change in the coming months.
The Safari improvements are nice and it’s definitely a quicker browser, but it’s not wouldn’t be enough for me to warrant an upgrade either. I knew I’d like the fact that the Notes app would finally sync to Mail.app but it also wasn’t a deal maker/breaker for me.
So my initial impression was that I wouldn’t really recommend it to folks at this point. If $10 could be better spent elsewhere, then do so.
After having used it for a couple weeks though, I think I’ve changed my thoughts. The Notes syncing has become something I’m using much more (though to be honest, it should have been there from the beginning). Same goes for the landscape keyboard — it’s nice to have but not something that should have taken until version 3 to arrive, in my opinion. Spotlight search is also a very handy tool to find information/apps on your iPod touch — I just need to remember to use it more often instead of manually trying to find it.
At this point I can say that I’d recommend upgrading. Besides the few major features, the behind the scenes improvements/optimizations are well worth the $10 price. If you think of the money you’d spend on a Mac OS or, heaven forbid, a Windows OS upgrade it’s a pretty cheap OS upgrade. Once more apps start making use of push notifications and the peer-to-peer connectivity (connecting to another 2nd gen iPod touch or iPhone), it will be well worth it.
Click here to visit Apple’s iPod touch software update page for more information.
What do you think? Will you (or did you) upgrade your iPod touch?
Ya i think it all sounds so great. but the only thing that i am wondering about is the shake to shuffle. What if you are jogging with your ipod and it shakes? Or if your on a bumpy road in your car? Can you turn the sake to shuffle off?
@Brad — I haven’t found it to ever shuffle when I didn’t want it to, but then I haven’t been jogging lately.
But driving in the car and going over bumps/etc. hasn’t set it off that I’ve noticed.
If it’s like some other apps (i.e. Facebook’s) you have to be pretty deliberate in your “shaking” to get it to shuffle.
Great write up. The iPhone is truly amazing and I don’t like being without it. This time last year I had jumped in a pool with my iPhone and it was dead. I had to wait 10 days before I was able to get a new one. The phone I had was a cheap go phone. I really love all the apps that can be downloaded to the iPhone. The best part about the iPhone to me is the ability to check emails on the go. Thanks for the information.