iPod Hacks - Hacks, iPod downloads, Cracks, Mods, Utilities

Since the introduction and jailbreak of the iPhone many apps have been created to extend the functionality of it. And with the iPod touch jailbreak we received all of the apps. Here are the top 5 apps for your touch-screen media player from Apple.

1)App Tapp (A.K.A Installer.app)

Yes very obvious why this is number one, but they also do a very good job with it. App Tapp allows you to add applications from various sources to your iPod touch/iPhone with just a tap of the install button. Version 3 looks great and with the update for it still functions very well.

2)SummerBoard

Once again this is almost required to run applications (at least on the touch). You can customize icons, background, dock backgrounds, and the status bar through themes downloaded from App tapp. Some themes aren’t great, but for the most part it gives you some good customization. Its rival, Customize, doesn’t function properly on the touch so I can’t say much about it.

3)NES

We all love a good break from all the hard work of school or work. NES (or iNES) is just as the name says. It’s a NES emulator that works very well. The controls are ok, but can be annoying if you miss the key. It performs well and covers about all the basic features of an emulator.

4)Apollo IM

A fantastic IM client. There are a couple others available, but this one seemed very finished and worked well on my touch. It supports multiple accounts at once (which I never used, but seemed very straight to setup and use). A great alternative to the web apps available.

5)Lights Off

A very simple game that is addictive and hard. The game I like and the interface is very nice and suites my touch. There are many levels and a great way to pass some time.

Honorable Mentions

Five Dice: A Yatzee game

Tap Tap Revolution: A fun game modeled after DDR

I’m sure we will see a surge of 3rd Party apps with the SDK. Personally I would like a good RSS (the one available is annoying and needs work). A mobile word processor would be nice and a handy tool. I’m sure wireless syncing will come soon and can’t wait for it! Yes, I understand Installer and Summerboard are kind of essential, but they are 3rd party and function extremely well.

Cheers,
Tommy

P.S. Have any favorites of your own? Leave a comment!

What’s the coolest, latest, multi-touch-OS X running device from Apple? The iPod touch of course! It’s currently the first in it’s own new line of iPods. It’s very similar to the iPhone and is just about as good (minus the phone part). So if you’ve used an iPhone, you have basically used an iPod touch. I’ve been using it for the past couple days and here are is what I have found.

Music:
The most important part of any iPod is obviously the music. iPods have had a fantastic interface and music playing capabilities since the first ones. This interface is a revolutionary leep between the last iPod Video’s interface to this. You have basically two ways to browse your music, flick through your artists, songs, ablums, etc and coverflow. Both I must say are awesome. The new Now Playing screen displays huge album art and the new set of play controls. Coverflow is simple to get at, just rotate it 90 degrees. The one thing with coverflow is that it doesn’t seem as “high quality” as the one in iTunes. It still plays all your favorite, Apple-approved, file types. One difference between the music on the iPhone and the iPod touch is that the movies and music have complete different sections. Not a big deal.

Movies
Movies look beautiful on this device. Truly a great movie playing device. It has a five-hour play which is a little short, but will do for most trips. Controls are easy to use and for the most part very nice. The only problem i have with the movies is the playhead isn’t quite accurate enough and can get annoying when your trying to find just the right part of the movie. Other wise movies are very enjoyable and very high-quality.

Photos
The viewing experience is great. The screen makes pictures look great and is good way to show of your photos from your last vacation. The iPod touch lets you view your pictures in landscape or vertical and adjusts from how you are holding it. Photo browsing is fast and fun, but there are a couple things that could have been done better. I would like the see a quick rotate tool, photos that aren’t properly rotated are a pain in the butt to deal with. I would have also liked to have seen the built-in camera feature that the iPhone has (with some of the features the iPhone forgot).

Internet
We all love Safari, admit it. It rocks and on the iPod rocks even more. It will make you wish that every mobile device had it! It gives you the same experience that the iPhone gives you. You can easily navigate the internet and watch youTube content with the youTube module. You can view web-pages in both vertical and landscape views. The web-apps of the iPhone also work with your iPod touch giving you instant messaging, e-mail, and games. They have even included the iTunes store. I lets you browse, preview, and buy music from iTunes. The internet is fun and very functional. There are the downsides though. It only connects through wi-fi so you can only use it were wireless networks are. The internet and youTube really use the battery. I have found that you get about four or five hours of constant internet usage. Safari isn’t quite stable enough, it does crash every once in a while and can’t handle a large web-page and music. Overall though an A- on the internet.

Other Things
The design of the device is very close the the iPhone’s. The front has the same glass, multi-touch screen as the iPhone which is great because it doesn’t get any scratches. The back unfortunately has the very scrathable and shiny back-plate. Mine is already scratched up on the back! If you don’t mind scratches on the back, I’ve found that you don’t really need a case for it. The device is slimmer than the iPhone and fits very well into your hand. The storage was very disappointing, only 8GB and 16GB. So if you have a large music library that you HAVE to always have and a movie theater on your computer, this may not be the best iPod for you. The battery life is great and if you do the constant sleep technique it will last for a while. I do suggest though if you aren’t using wi-fi to turn it off.

Overall
Overall this is a fantastic device. The music, videos, and photos look beautiful on the screen. If you don’t mind the lack of storage and is in your budget I highly recommend it. It gives you the same interface and ease of use as the iPhone and is very enjoyable.

Music:5/5
Movies:4.5/5
Photos:5/5
Internet:4.5/5

Overall:4.5/5

Well it’s almost 6 days till the iPod Touch is “released” and almost ten for the web orders to arrive. I think it would be a good time before it’s in your hand to tell you some of the not so great parts.

1.Negative Screen Issue:

This has effected a good amount of the earlier ones. Comparing their screen to an iPhone’s screen you can see that some of the color is “washed out” or even inverted. Now, Apple has come out and said that this was only in some of the first ones, but it’s still something that could effect yours.

2.Not the Claimed Battery Life:

Battery life is something that some iPod owners have had good experiences with and some not so great. In Walt Mossberg’s review, he reports that the battery life falls short of Apple’s 22 hours of music and actually gets 17 hours of music . All little disappointing considering the rest of them got their claimed battery life.

3.A Slow Jailbreak

If you were like me and expecting a rapid jailbreak like the iPhone, hold your horses. From what hackers have said, the jailbreaking of the iPod touch is going to be a slow process. It will happen, but just don’t expect to do it the night it’s released. Hopefully once Apple “releases” it more hackers can get their hands on it and help the process.

Hopefully Apple will fix their screen issue and we won’t have that. We just have to live with the other two.

PCmag.com is running a nice review of the iPod Touch:

“When the iPhone came out in June, many people (including me) loved it, but wanted it without the phone—and that pesky two-year contract with AT&T Wireless. I’m no Luddite, but I don’t want my personal media player to ring in the middle of a song. That said, the multitouch glass display was beautiful, Cover Flow was a great way to navigate tracks, and the Web browser was better than any other portable player’s before it. Apple could have delivered a player with just these features and nothing more and I would have been thrilled. But it didn’t. Instead, the company, in the new iPod touch, has added a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes Music Store so you can buy songs on the go—now, if you have Wi-Fi access, you can download tracks anywhere. Apple has also announced a partnership with Starbucks that enables iPhone and touch owners to purchase songs they hear in Starbucks stores via Wi-Fi. Okay, maybe I’m not in love with that last feature (I’m not a Starbucks addict). It would also be nice if the Wi-Fi store offered video purchases, too—it’s currently music only. And, yes, the earbuds still suck. But those are my only complaints, and they are minor. The relatively hefty $300 and $400 price tags for 8GB and 16GB, respectively, don’t bug me either. Why? This is probably the best portable media player ever made. “