iPod Touch: Miscellaneous Ramblings

When I was shopping for a new phone a while back, I had narrowed my decision down to two choices: the Blackberry Curve 8900 and the iPhone. Without going into much detail as to why, I chose the Blackberry, and am quite happy with my choice. I was still intriqued with the iPhone though, and since I already picked and excellent phone in the 8900, I decided to get the new iPod Touch.



iPod Touch Guided Tour

The iPod Touch is basically the same thing as the iPhone, without the phone function. I absolutely love it, but I still would never trade my Blackberry for an iPhone (Apple snobs are now emphatically shaking their collective head at me, but it's MY blog, so I'll express MY opinions only! Don't like it? Start your own blog then :p).

Anyway, my purpose here is not to expound on the virtues of either device. I was leading up to a connectivity problem I was having with my iPod.

As you may already know, the iPod Touch comes with WiFi as a built in function. This means that you should be able to have access to free Internet any place that a wireless connection is available. It's awesome! Or at least, so I thought, until suddenly mine was no longer capable of picking up a signal.

I tried everything. I restarted my modem and router. I tried to release and reacquire my IP settings on the device. I restarted my iPod, and I even tried reverting back to the default settings. Nothing worked.

I looked online and there were no real fixes for this. True, many people had experienced the same problem, but no good solutions were ever offered. It seemed that all the advice given online was hit-and-miss, based more or less on the things I had already tried but to no avail.

No amount of fiddling with the settings allowed me to connect, even though my iPod showed connectivity bars. I was seriously about to toss it into my collection of unused gadgets, but I decided to try one more thing:

I went to my modem and unplugged it, then I unplugged my Linksys router. After waiting a minute, I plugged the modem back in, and while it was booting up, I reset the router by holding the tiny recessed RESET button in (it's in the back, where all the wires plug in). I held this button in for 30 seconds (find a suitable tool... paper clip, etc.). When I plugged the power back into the router, I checked my iPod, and Voilla! I was good to go!

This seems to be a common problem without a solution, so before you call the Apple store with a chip on your shoulder, please try resetting your router. It worked for me!



SO, how exactly does this relate to Second Life, I hear you ask. Well, it doesn't. BUT... I did find a neat little app called Sparkle IM. It's a way to access SL from your iPhone or iPod Touch, although it doesn't allow you to actually walk around in-world. The application (which is available through the iTunes Store) is strictly an IM interface which allows you to log in to your account and communicate with those who are already logged in to SL (for those of us who just HAVE TO connect, even while at work). It's a chat-only program at this time, but maybe someday we will be able to access the full features of Second Life from our hand held devices... as if I don't already spend enough of my time on SL. *sigh*



One more thing I wanted to mention was that now you can download the software for your iPod Touch that includes the improvements for the latest iPhone, including cut-and-paste (one thing that kept me from choosing the iPhone), and a nice wider keyboard when you tilt your iPod on its side. There are other new features, but these two were the ones that told me that I just HAD TO buy the update.





Read more about it here: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/softwareupdate.html

'Til next time...

Jamie <3