The best iPod Touch of all for the UK user? Just £150, plus a lot of effort....

[Jackonicko]

I'm just back from the US, where I acquired a 4 GB iPhone from the Apple US
online AppleStore refurb section.

It cost $299. (£150).

I obviously needed a friend with a US credit card and address to order it.

I activated it with AT&T (again I needed a friend with a US credit card and
address to do so).

I put in my US social security number as 999-99-9999, thereby auto-failing the
credit check, and had to take out a 'pay in advance' GoPhone contract - $19 activation,
$29 for the first month in order to get it active. I used the phone and EDGE during my
stay in the States then cancelled the contract. If you don't use it, and instead cancel within three days you get your money back from AT&T and are left with an iPhone and no AT&T contract.

Until the 9th of November it's a £150.00 iPod touch, connecting well via WiFi.

But unlike the iPod Touch it has a full e-mail client (I can see my incoming Virgin and Orange e-mails via WiFi), as well as a functioning Google Maps, YouTube, Stocks, Weather, and Notes. It has a camera built in and a speaker, and Bluetooth. It's better built than the Touch, seems more robust, and has a better screen.

Come November 9th, I hope that a full restore will wipe everything, restoring
the iPod to 'fresh out of the box' standard, which I can then activate as a UK O2 iPhone.

If not, it's still better than an iPod Touch, with more and better features, and it cost a pittance.

And after using it in the UK for a few days, I'm convinced that most UK users will need an iPhone, as free WiFi is still pitifully rare, here, and is often inadequate for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

My local cafe has free wireless internet access and I couldn't get on. I can get on my Airport based network in my office, but not my WEP protected Orange Livebox network at home.

Unless you live in NY, or the Islington free WiFi area, or the Apple Store, then EDGE seems essential.

[owen-b]

Most Uk users will need an iPhone? Most UK users of what? An iPod touch? What a load of rubbish. We don't NEED an iPhone at all. I have a blackberry that does just fine thanks. I want an iPod touch to play my music, some TV shows, and occasionally if I'm bored and there's a WiFi spot around, surf the net.

Why would I 'need' an iPhone?

[JazzyMac]

He was a bit off, Jacko, but correct nonetheless. Can you explain further what you mean? Are you saying the iPhone is better than the iTouch in relation to price, or that having a touch in the UK is pretty much useless because of the lack of free wifi? tia.

[owen-b]

Sorry, I just wanted to counter his cheerfully shortsighted cries of "HA HA MY iPHONE IS BETTER THAN YOUR TOUCH" with something of opposite 'mood'. I'm actually a lovely chap.

:D

[Jackonicko]

You have two types of user for the iPod Touch.

Those who want a Touch to use the features it has that the Nano does not, and those who want it because it's shiny and new.

If you want a Touch for its features, then you want it for WiFi and the big screen.

The refurb iPhone is a cheaper way of getting both, and of getting a better screen, and expanded capabilities - even if you never use it as a phone, never pay to use it as a phone, and don't have a contract.

Even operating purely as a 'Touch' the iPhone is a better iPod than the Touch is.

Point 2 is that in the UK, outside of particular environments (Campus WiFi, Brighton Beach, Bristol, Islington) the WiFi experience is patchy and frustrating, and the ability to use EDGE is going to be priceless.

And harping on about Crackberries just tells me that you haven't experienced exactly what the iPhone can do. Even without the phone element, the iPhone is a superb business tool if you can guarantee WiFi access.

[JazzyMac]

You have two types of user for the iPod Touch.

Those who want a Touch to use the features it has that the Nano does not, and those who want it because it's shiny and new.

Mmmmm....shiny. :)

[JazzyMac]

I see your point about the Touch being an overpriced shortfall of the phone, but I have to disagree. But it depends on the size of your hands and what you want as "shiny". I would only get the iPhone if I truly wanted the phone because the touch is much slimmer than the iphone. Also, the 16gb are throwing some folks to the touch (versus the nano or the unactivated phone).

Either way, seems as if you are enjoying your new toy!

[Jackonicko]

When something is already as thin as the iPhone, 'thinner' doesn't matter much to me, personally.

A better, brighter screen, proper e-mail capabilities, etc. are genuinely nice to have, though.

The 4 GB phone is a plaything, for the time being. The only advantage of the touch is the higher capacity, but I'll go 8 GB phone before I go 16 GB Touch, unless I move to New York.

[Jackonicko]

The key point is that without hacking (and thereby risking bricking) and without a locked in contract, an iPhone is a better iPod than the Touch is.

That's counter-intuitive, and I didn't expect it.

[Bob]

With O2 only having 30% EDGE UK coverage don't expect miracles - why Apple went with the one provider with the lowest EDGE coverage in the UK makes me wonder what they are thinking.
Even in the wilds of Cambridge EDGE is near non existent (and that is from a phone store employee).
The best you can hope for is GPRS.

Free wi-fi for the masses is a long way off - The Cloud announcing the other day a £4 a month iPod touch contract ( with no minimum period) actually doesn't sound too bad.
Cambridge is 'lucky' as it has 54 wifi hotspots provided by The Cloud many of which are clustered around the city centre. One or two cafes/restaurants have free wifi so the possibility of having wifi somewhere on an iPod touch seems workable.

I'm convinced that most UK users will need an iPhone....
I don't want to be tied into yet another wallet sapping 18 month contract with anyone and my current phone allows me to access the internet. If the iPod touch allows webmail access (which theoretically it should) then I think it might do the job for me.

And as I pointed out the O2 EDGE cover is far from being good.....

[Spinstorm]

I have an unlocked iphone and I am "lucky" that I live in the 30% EDGE area but its so slow its like pulling your teeth out - EDGE is useless if you ask me!

As for Wi-FI and orange I connected both my iphone and old ipod touch to the livebox at work without a hitch - in actual fact it connected quicker than my PC!
However I did change it to WPA2 instead of the option to have either... and don't forget the capitals when typing the security in as if you don't keep pressing shift it will not work!

[Bob]

And have you factored in the cost of your trip for the £150 it cost? Or were you on expenses?

[haveyoumetmark]

iPhone screen = iPod touch screen
4 GB < 16 GB

That's enough for me. In addition, I would like to keep my iPod and phone separate. It's nice having a Blackberry and iPod touch.

[Jackonicko]

Bob,

The trip cost me nothing, and the iPhone came out of the brown envelope of company supplied beer/cab/food dollars....

The point is that even if you never sign up for a full 18 month contract and take the sim out, using it ONLY on wifi, an iPhone is better than the Touch.

Way better e-mail, a camera, a bigger, brighter, better screen, Notes, Google Maps, Notes, Weather, Stocks, and an anodised scratch resistant back.

Before I came home, I was determined that I'd only use my iPhone as a WiFi iPod Touch, but now I'm home, the promise of e-mail and internet anywhere means that I'm seriously considering tieing myself in for 18 months. But even if I didn't, it's clear to me that the iPhone is a better iPod than the touch, with more useful NON PHONE capabilities.

In the UK you'll pay £70 more for an 8 GB Phone than for an 8 GB Touch. I'll bet my a$$ that there'll be an easy way of getting on a pay-in-advance monthly plan by failing the credit check, which will then be simple to cancel, if that's all you want. Or you could unlock by "hacktivation".

You might be able to access e-mail by Mail2Web, but having your e-mail accounts downloading straight to a Mail-like app on the device is preferable, surely? While notes, the ability to add to the calendar, etc. are also compelling.

[Bob]

You will obviously find the iPhone's advantages over the iPod touch more to your tastes for email etc - if I go on a trip I usually have my iBook with me so checking email is done with that.

I'm going to be in SF in January so I may pick up an iPhone then - but my current phone (Samsung D900) has a 3 MP camera on it. I have 2 compact digital cameras, a Nikon D70 a Sony Digital camcorder so the lure of a rather poor camera on the iPhone is not that great for me.

Google maps? Err the iPod touch has a web browser - http://maps.google.co.uk - or if I really have the need to find somewhere TomTom....

I just spent £5.99 on a AA Road Atlas too....

Weather? Look out the window....

Notes? Back of the hand!....

Stocks? Don't have the money to play stocks....

I'm not saying I won't get one - just that I won't get one on ANY contract.

[Jackonicko]

I have no contract. NO contract.

And it's sitting here working like magic, doing things that no Touch could.

That's the point, really.

[Bob]

I mean when you eventually decide you want the full functionality of the iPhone - that's when.

Until the 9th of November it's a £150.00 iPod touch, connecting well via WiFi.

Unless you have already hacked the phone to work on an existing SIM?

doing things that no Touch could.


Until Nov 9th it is just an iPod touch.... ;)

[Jackonicko]

Even before 9 November (and after if I choose not to activate on O2) it's an iPod Touch with functioning e-mail, functioning Google Maps and Google Earth, in which I can create calendar events and can create notes. And it's an iPod Touch with a bigger, better screen.

Even without being activated or hacktivated as a phone it does more than the iPod Touch. It does things the iPod Touch can't do.

And it feels nicer in the hand, too, and better built.