A few questions that I need to know...

[melmation]

Hello!

Right, first off, apologies for maybe re-hashing trodden on ground here but There are a few specific things I would like to know about the iPod Touch before I buy one. Business has been good lately and I am 95% there with the decision to get one now but wanted to know...

1) Google maps update: Has anyone in the UK updated their iPod touch/bought one with the updates and tried out the location mapping in Google maps? if so, how well does it work if at all? The idea of this seems awsome to me but the logics of it seems to be that you need to be within range of at least three wifi hotspots to triangulate your location, so, on the road as a GPS might be out of the question? let me know your findings please.

2) iCal: I use iCal every day, and a few times over the Christmas holidays I got called by clients looking to book dates in January, so while they were on the phone I would have to ask them to wait while I fired up my laptop to look at iCal. I wished I could just slip the Touch out of my pocket and have it almost instantaneously. So, I get that I can synch from my laptop to the touch but if I am out and about and changing the calendar on the touch, can I back sync the changes to my laptop FROM the touch? and if so, will it only synch back the changes?

3) Mail: can I save images and so forth from an email to view in the picture viewer?

Also, I am thinking of going for the 8Gb version. With that I can easily put all my most listened to music on and still have room left for video. But when the iTunes movie rentals open up in the UK, how much room would an SD version take up? and also, if you put the movie onto the iPod Tocuh or even download it directly there, does it re-encode it for the iPod and if so, will that file size be different than the one for your laptop (I know it might be, but I was just wondering if anyoen ahs had any experience with this yet)

Thank you in advance for your replies, I am most interested in the Google Maps application.

Yours,

Mel

 

[Dimitri]

1) I can't answer specifically since I'm not in the UK. My understanding is they use cell tower and wifi hotspots that exist in their database to estimate. On the road as a GPS will probably vary on how useful the locater is. My experience has been pretty good with it so far but I haven't tested it out in the boonies yet.

2) Since the last firmware 1.1.2, you can create calendar entries on the Touch and sync those back to the computer, so you should be covered.

3) Currently, you cannot save emailed images outside of the email app. So you must keep the email if you want to be able to view it later. That's assuming you haven't saved it on your desktop to sync it that way.

Rentals: My experience so far with rentals (I've rented 2 movies so far) is that the size is basically the same as the movies for purchase were. They are the same as the SD movies are on the desktop. In fact, the file is physically moved when you choose to do so. So no re-encoding or multiple versions of the file are downloaded. I think the Ratatouille (sp?) movie I rented was around 1.2 GB, the same on the computer as it is on the iPod.

 

[hotdog182]

I'm from UK, the google maps find me function isn't to great yet, but as steven jobs said in the keynote, the company have gone all through america with the WI-Fi thing and done that and starting europe soon. So until that is done i guess it can only really be found using your own WI-Fi. Which sadly i can't try because mine is broke, So i refuse to buy another one until Time Capsule comes out.

 

[Neo]

I've read other posts saying they are so disappointed with the Google Maps...
The "current location" circle on the Touch is sized by the amount of error in the measurement. And there is a lot of error in the measurement, because it's not GPS. But that shouldn't matter. If you are in San Francisco, the circle will enclose a small part of San Francisco. Say your circle is a half-mile in diameter. That would be what? 10 city blocks? Big deal. Look at the nearest street sign and find your exact location. Then use the Drop Pin feature (IMO, a super-cool and redeeming feature) to pinpoint yourself. Then you can search for destinations and plan routes from your Drop Pin. So sweet. It won't work in the boonies (defining boonies as no cell phone coverage)!! This is a toy for the city folks.

BTW, Steve got it wrong. The angles to cell towers aren't measured, the distances are. So the location process isn't triangulation, it's trilateration. Little known fact.