I updated my iPod to the latest iOS the other day, resulting in what is essentially a factory reset on the device. I had been putting off the update for some time because of that, and while I assume there is probably a decent explanation for why they had to wipe all of the data with the update, it still annoyed me a bit because this is the third time I will have to fill the device from scratch. It is at times like this when I start to regret that I bucked up extra for the 64GB model.

My annoyance was tempered a bit by the fact that the upgrade is definitely an improvement, and a number of the songs on the device were corrupt anyway. I had been making a growing list of songs that needed to be replaced.

Aaaand here we get back to the part where I am annoyed again. The reason the songs were corrupt (I hope) was because I copied them to the device across the network (the songs reside on the file server in the basement, and I was copying them to the iPod connected to my computer upstairs). It seems that iTunes does not work well with things pulled across a network, and I had a disturbing number of songs that picked up bleeps, pops and stutters during the transfer process. With many of the songs, the iPod would simply skip to the next song halfway through. In those cases I don't know if iTunes only copied half the song, or the iPod determined the song was too corrupt to continue playing and skipped to the next.

In any event, I know the source songs are good because I double-checked them in WinAmp, so the taint was introduced either in iTunes (my guess), or on the iPod itself.

This time around, I used Sneakernet to bring the songs from the server downstairs up to my laptop on an external HD so that I don't have to cross the network to refill the iPod. I am hoping this will improve my listening experience once I have it filled up again. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I had mentioned here before that atara and I are looking to change carriers, and upgrade our phones. Our current contracts do not run out until the latter part of November, and though we have considered buying out the contract and switching to the latest Samsung phones, a part of me would like to hold off and see what the iPhone 5 has to offer. The Android makers have really raised the bar quite a bit, but Apple has shown that they can work pretty well under pressure when they need to.

I am not a fan of Apple on many levels, but I am fairly pragmatic when it comes to biting the bullet and going with what seems like the best product (assuming the iPhone 5 is the better product when it comes out). The biggest impediment to me going with an iPhone though is iTunes. The thought of owning another device that is tied to, dependent on, and waiting to be accidentally bricked by that foetid, stinking, festering mound of bloatware fail does not appeal to me.

I've had this iPod Touch for a couple of years now, and overall my rating of it would be: It's good, but...

Well, this isn't a post to rant about iTunes. I'll do that another day.

The iPod can be a bit bit, er, quirky at times (I would say flaky or buggy, but I don't want to set off any apologists). One of its tricks is to occasionally mix up the album art when it plays a song.

Sometimes with amusing results.

I'm not sure what's going on behind the black bar , but maybe some things are better left to the imagination.

You girls just carry on.

The Volume and Sleep buttons on my iPod keep cutting out. The problem seems to be pretty random, and usually happens at the most annoying times (like when I want to mute the volume in Angry Birds when I hear somebody enter the bathroom stall next to me). I did some forum hopping, and it sounds like I am not the only one who is having this problem. It appears to only be affecting the Touch 4G, but the fact that atara is not having any problems leads me to wonder if it is limited even more to just the 64GB version.

One of the posters in the Apple support site mentioned that when he took his new iPod back to the Apple store, they seemed unsurprised by the problem, and simply replaced the iPod without question. Three days later the replacement iPod started doing the same thing.

I strongly suspect the problem is software rather than hardware, so I am hoping that a future iOS upgrade will resolve it. We'll see.

Fortunately the Home button is not affected by this glitch, so the device is still usable during these glitches (though I can't suspend it or shut it off at those times).

I usually use the Home button to wake it up from sleep, but I began to wonder this morning if that might be what's triggering the glitch. The buttons were not working again first thing this morning, but when I went to grab it as we were heading out the door, they were suddenly working again.

The first time I grabbed it, I used the Home button to bring it out of sleep mode.
The second time I specifically used the Sleep button to bring it out of sleep mode.

I tried some tests after I got to work, alternately using the Home and Sleep buttons to bring it out of sleep, but so far I have not been able to trigger the glitch manually. Maybe it's time to head off to my second office and fire up Angry Birds again. That usually does it.