Comments on: Bend Over, We’ve Got a $20 Firmware Upgrade For You

By: AJ Reynolds

AJ Reynolds — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:24:35 +0000

I was going to buy the ipod touch but since they wanna charge people $20 for upgrades. i will now buy Samsung’s P2 MP3 Player or Microsoft’s ZUNE MP3 Player. At Least their firmware updates are FREE!

By: Ariobarzan Makoui

Ariobarzan Makoui — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:34:32 +0000

No idiot, don’t talk out of your ass, gregg is right, you DON’T have to pay to UPGRADE to 1.1.3, i did upgrade for free, it’s only the apps that you pay $20 for!

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:33:04 +0000

I’m a Mac user too, although I’m not about to enter into a classist flame war about OSs. If you game – Windows has it’s place. In your previous post, you were much too willing to act the apologist for Apple. Hense my admittedly sarcastic response.

I am aware you’re allowed your opinion. Why begrudge me mine?

The issue is not about the quality of the apps – we all know they’re good. That’s why we wanted them on iPod initially (and Apple refused). They’ve been around awhile. That’s the problem – they’re not new and they’re free to new Touch buyer’s, but $20 for 3-week ones. If we all refused to be mistreated maybe we’d get the refund you mention. It’s the ones that willingly give in, like you, that allows this BS to continue.

You are willing to allow Apple to sell you what is free to others – you essentially allow Apple to put you into a lower class of customer. Who’s the lemming?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:17:34 +0000

Hi Shaun – No I do not work for Apple, I am definitely a Mac user as opposed to Winblows. I choose Apple’s superior user interface and high quality products over the poorly designed mediocre Microsoft products favored by the proletariat lemming masses.

I am just stating my opinion, Shaun, which I have every right to do, and am expressing satisfaction with my own experience with my iPod Touch’s newly expanded functionality, well worth the money. If Apple decides to make this free in the future, I’ll get a refund.
Nobody is being forced to pay the $20, anyone can upgrade to 1.1.3 for free, only the five new widgets incur the additional cost.

By: dee

dee — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:54:58 +0000

Go ahead. You know you like it my sheep…

By: Shaun

Shaun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:23:14 +0000

Hi Jeff – how are the benefits over there at Apple? And Do they make you haunt forums on your spare time or do you get to pet Steve’s pet Llama’s at company picnics as payment?

By: Shaun

Shaun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:18:37 +0000

Um, no. It’s the flippant attitude of “it’s only $20″ that bleeds the community of the power to push back at crap like this. I have pride and I will not be treated this way. It’s not the money. Boy Genius is a good example of this – he says he broke down (morally?) and decided, “what the hay, I’ll try being buggered”. Apple counts on this divided mentality. I’m off to sign a petition – you know there’s one out there somewhere. *few minutes later* Yup, there sure is. 7800+ as I write this (petitionOnline).

By: Seabass

Seabass — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:46:03 +0000

I just registered a new Itouch was a gift and tried to update and it asked me for $19.99.
Not sure when it was purchased but the box was unopened. I hate apple!!

By: Seabass

Seabass — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:38:40 +0000

THIS BLOWS

By: Sqube

Sqube — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:52:21 +0000

I’m amused at the apologists here. The accounting rule only says that Apple has to charge a nominal fee. If they weren’t interested in cackling all the way to the bank as iFanboys bent over and asked for more like Oliver Twist, they would have charged $0.01 (or whatever the equivalent is in your country).

But they didn’t. They charged you $20. In my eyes, that means that this was just as much about getting money as it was fulfilling the requirements of an obscure rule that was created in the wake of Enron et al.

But you go ahead and keep on believing that Jesus — I’m sorry, Stevie J — only charged you because he had to, if that’ll help you get to sleep tonight.

By: RS

RS — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:14:51 +0000

Just wanted to applaud your title. Gave me a good chuckle.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:01:18 +0000

I upgraded my iPod Touch the same evening of the keynote…$19.99 (plus tax, since Apple has physical stores in my state) was really not too much to spend for the greatly increased “iPhone-like” functionaliy of the “push” Mail application! I now have five or six email accounts configured to automatically “push” emails every 15 minutes to me via WiFi at home and work, this saves me tons of time and is very convenient. The Mail App HTML-rich viewing experience is awesome. looks great on the Touch’s screen and blows away the competition.

I love the web clippings feature, plus the capability of having NINE home screens containing icon shortcuts to pretty much any website or third party app (when they become available) that I want to access! Being able to move any icon in any order onto any home screen is very cool! The Weather widget is also useful, Stocks and Notes I can take or leave. The new GPS-like location-finder function in Maps, along with the ability to get nearby Points of Interest and directions to destinations is also a valuable new feature.

Having the capability to transfer a movie rental from iTunes is all right, though I don’t think I’ll use this feature at all, since this requires having several gigs of space available on the device for just one movie. I can “rip” multiple movies onto the iPod Touch using the same disk space without the constraint of having to watch them within 24 hours. I will never ever rent a movie from iTunes, I already have way too many other options to get movies (Comcast Premium channels and On-Demand, NetFlix, Blockbuster, or DVD purchase of movies).

So basically I now have a “WiFi” version of the iPhone, WITHOUT the insanely expensive AT&T monthly costs (well over $2,400 over two years!).

Overall, the iPod Touch would be a perfect device if it was Adobe Flash-enabled (come on Apple, how HARD could that be?) and if you could save files to the internal drive. Still, to me the upgraded iPod Touch’s new functionality is well worth the $20!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:10:03 +0000

Do these apps come in the standard 1.1.3 download? I saw the upgrade was 165 megs when I downloaded it last night.

If so, and I decide not to purchase the applications for $20, then I’m carrying around “dead weight” in my iPod Touch. Memory would be dedicated to store these applications I chose not to purchase but because they would occupy memory that otherwise I could use to store music, podcasts or photos.

If that is the case, then this “upgrade” is bull. Sure hope Jobs doesn’t decide to eat up a couple of gigs offering me an “upgrade” of applications that I can’t use unless I pony up to the Apple Bar.

Cheap Steve!

By: secretasianman

secretasianman — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:36:48 +0000

Well I’m convinced… Apple IS as bad (if not worse) than Microsoft.

By: Jeff B.

Jeff B. — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:32:42 +0000

I think the $20 price tag is bull since you pay $300 or $400 in the first place. It comes with the new ones so you should get it too. It’s not like your Touch is old, they’re all the same so that’s total bull.

By: Seabass

Seabass — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:19:42 +0000

Never buy the first hot thing from Apple!!

By: Zach Epstein

Zach Epstein — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:42:53 +0000

Is that an upcoming product leak @NuShrike? iLube?

By: RON

RON — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:29:54 +0000

JOBS can kiss my ass……I spend $400 on an itouch and now he wants to rip me off for more ?….last apple product I’ll ever buy

By: NuShrike

NuShrike — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Jobs is using some special type of lube that makes many to keep coming back for more.

By: Kenneth Denson

Kenneth Denson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:45:59 +0000

Like Igor Jablokov, this is all about about accounting rules. I’m having to pay for the apps as well, but it’s not Apple’s fault. Remember the WiFi upgrade?

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39285560,00.htm

By: t-fizzy

t-fizzy — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:26:17 +0000

it is not the money that bothers me. it is the principle. if new touch owners had to pay $20 for the apps, i would be fine with paying for the apps. these apps have already been on the iphone for months, so no new resources must be exhausted to develop them and place them on the touch. as far as i can tell, the phone and touch have the same os and architecture. easy port there.
on top of this insult, apple refuses to release a phone for CDMA. arrrgggghhhh! i am in purgatory. unable to buy the iphone (i despise att), unable to upgrade the touch to integrate it further into my life, penalized for being an early adopter of the touch (obtained before release date and returned initially for the black-screen issues. totally happy with current units performance), unable to buy the new apps (my conscience won’t allow me), still carrying around phone/ipod/pda!

steve, do the right thing. this smacks of the old iphone price drop. how much money do you need. seriously. apple is an 800 pound gorilla in the tech world. it ain’t like you guys are hurtin! i just bought two friggin macbooks and ipods within the last 4 months. throw us a bone!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:34:14 +0000

The $20 feels better in my bank account than in Apple’s.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:15:39 +0000

Yeah, it sucks that pre-keynote iPod Touch buyers have to pay $20 to get more software, and the post-keynote buyers don’t. The fact remains that the “early adopters” willingly paid $300-400 for a device that didn’t have those programs. Now Apple is offering more software to make it even more iPhone-like, and those same people who shelled out up to $400 don’t want to pay another $20 to make their iPod even better. Would this be more acceptable if Apple simply dropped the iPod $20 in price and still didn’t offer these apps for the iPod? And to claim that iPhone users aren’t paying for these programs is a lie – they pay well over $20 every month to use these programs, and are stuck with AT&T for two years.

By: Dtest54

Dtest54 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:15:26 +0000

come on people its $20 get over it.

By: abbydog3

abbydog3 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:07:39 +0000

I dont understand the problem, 5 new applications for $20, sounds like a great deal!

I can’t account for all the money I have spent over the years for add-on applications for my Blackberries, Palms and Windows Mobile devices.

Its new functionality that didn’t exist when you bought the device, so I don’t understand the gripe.

By: Geniuz

Geniuz — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:07:26 +0000

It’s ONLY $20! I could see if it was $50 but come on!!! You’ll probably blow $20 at the bar this weekend anyways. lol

By: Stanley

Stanley — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:53:40 +0000

Come on guys, we all know in a month or two the apps will be available for free. It’s Apple. They see what they can get up front, and then cut the cost once they got all the fanboy money. For example, the iPhone.

By: Igor Jablokov

Igor Jablokov — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:49:20 +0000

Guys, this has to do with accounting rules…Apple TVs & iPhones are booked as subscription revenues over a 24 month period or so while iPods etc. are booked immediately; if they could have, they would have. Blame the execs at Enron et al for giving birth to these changes.

By: Dorian

Dorian — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:36:16 +0000

I loaded the “free” 1.1.3 on my Touch yesterday which contained “bug fixes” and the “ability to rent movies via iTunes”.

No apps.

By: veks

veks — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:33:46 +0000

It won’t be long before touch users can get these apps for free. Next week they will be posted on some hacker website.