Is Apple’s OS3.0 worth the upgrade for iPod Touch owners?

For iPod Touch owners, iPhone releases have, to date, been joyous occasions and whilst we knew it would never have the “phone” capability of its big brother, we could be smug in the knowledge that whatever fancy software upgrades were announced for the iPhone, would soon follow for free to the Touch.

Version 3.0 is no different – save for one crucial element, the price. It will set UK users back  £5.99 and the question on every Touch’ owner’s lips is: is it worth it?

We love our readers so naturally we forked out the £5.99 to find out; and before the angry Apple mob starts braying, this is just our opinion and it isn’t supposed to be an exhaustive list of features – believe it or not, we don’t really want to shake to shuffle all of the time.

Firstly, let’s deal with what appears to be the headline feature  for Touch users, namely, the ability to download films and TV over WiFi.

This is undoubtedly a useful feature but we can’t help but feel this is a logical evolution rather than an innovation. Also, users should bear in mind the potential size of a download file, owners of the 8gb model may not always have space to download the extended collectors edition of Dirty Dancing Die Hard when on the move, nor enough time for it to complete.

• Stereo Bluetooth – a potentially useful feature, but surely one that will only appeal to a tiny minority of users? What’s more – if you are a 1st Gen Touch owner then hard luck; this bad boy is only compatible with 2nd Generation models.

• Peer-to-Peer gaming is cool but we would like to see a larger catalogue of games that use this feature before being asked to stump up our hard-earned for it.

• The 3.0 upgrade also offers a landscape keyboard when used in Safari, Mail, Notes etc.. A small inclusion but for our money (literally) this represents the most useful addition. That said, we still feel it should have been there from the get-go!

• Cut, Copy and Paste – seriously? After this long you are going to make us pay?

Lastly, the Spotlight search. We all agree Spotlight is awesome but, how much use is the average Touch user going to get out of it? Was it really that difficult to find a song before? That said, it does make searching for an email or a particular calendar event much easier so that is going to be a benefit to some users.

As Touch owners ourselves we can’t help but feel a tiny bit bitter towards 3.0. Evidently, it does offer the average Touch user some benefit over its predecessor, but we would suggest, not staggering ones. 3.0 is clearly iPhone, and not iPod, software and, given this, should Touch owners be expected to pay?

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