Why I Ditched My iPod Touch

Last year, I inherited a mostly-new iPod Touch from my then-roommate, Mark. He had only had it for a month, but he bought it to cheer himself up on a sad day. It didn't take him long to realize that he basically only listened to three songs, and he could put those on his phone instead of lugging around a second piece of electronics. So, he gave the iPod to me.

I already had two iPods -- an aging iPod Shuffle and an iPod Video (30GB) which I had brought with me to China a year and a half earlier. Since the iPhone and the iPod Touch are very sexy devices, I was really happy to get one for free. Wifi web browsing anywhere I can get a signal, beautiful video, podcasts, mobile e-mail, etc. It seemed like a perfect upgrade for a perfect price (zero dollars).

The problem is, the iPod Touch and iPhone are not friendly to anything except Apple software. I always knew this, but the Touch/iPhone are extremely unfriendly. They're encrypted, and highly unstable if you bypass the bullshit security that keeps you from doing simple things like... Oh, adding music. Unless I used iTunes, I couldn't even put music on the damn thing. I couldn't use iTunes anymore, because that requires Windows XP -- and I hate XP with a passion. I refuse to use it.

So I did the most logical thing: I jailbroke the iPod. I unlocked it and put free software on it so I could download podcasts, and copy music to it from Linux. But this turned into a game of Russian roulette. Frequently, the iPod Touch would get corrupted beyond repair. No apps would work, no music, no video, no data. I'd have to go to XP and completely erase the iPod Touch, and jailbreak it again. I'd lose all my stuff, and lose an hour or two of my life setting things up each time.

I'm done. This week, I put the iPod Touch away after it had F!#%ED UP yet again, even without my adding any music to it. I dug out my trusty iPod Video, and within minutes I had it loaded up with all my favorite music and podcasts. It works like a dream with Linux, and it is 100% reliable.

From what I hear, the new iPods are becoming even worse. Take the iPod Shuffle that just came out -- it has no controls. You have to use headphones with controls embedded in the cable. But of course Apple has a special chip in the Shuffle so that third parties cannot make those headphones without paying a special license fee first. And of course this fee will be passed on to you, the customer.

Though Apple products tend to be superior for interface and overall experience, in the case of recent iPods, it seems things are getting worse each year. I thought I would always be a treadmill iPod upgrader, but I've decided to jump off the treadmill. When/if my iPods die or need to be replaced, I sure won't be doing so with an Apple product. I'll do my homework like I do with every other device I buy, and choose the most open and widely supported, rather than the coolest. It's not like I take advantage of the special features of iPods anymore, anyway. I just play MP3s and podcasts, all of which work on any music device these days.

Side note: The regular iPods have a far superior interface compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch, for things like music playback. I can ride my bike and have my iPod Video strapped to my hip, and I can adjust it without looking at it. I can change songs, adjust the volume, scan forward/back, etc. all by touch. Ironically, the iPod Touch is the one iPod you cannot use by touch only. And on-screen controls are inferior compared to the smooth, physical, and fine-grained control you get with the clickwheel on the other iPods. Another good reason to switch.

Adios, walled garden, and adios iPod Touch. It was a fun fling, but it's time to go back to hardware I can have a more mature relationship with.