Ipod 3.0 software update

The iPod3.0 touch software update doesn't look that compelling for the iPod touch first generation. Here's what they advertise as new:

• cut and paste - want
  
• landscape keyboard - kind of want
  
• spotlight search - meh
  
• buy media on your ipod touch from itunes - do not want
  
• stereo bluetooth - could not use (2nd generation only)
  
• head to head games - could not use (2nd generation only)
  
• shake to shuffle - do not want
  
• parental controls - do not want
  
• new languages - do not want
  
• automatic wifi hotspot login - do not want
  
• push notifications - probably won't use
  
• itunes store account creations - do not want

My question is whether I will have to pay the $9.95 just to keep
up-to-date with security updates and bug fixes for the older
version of the iPod touch operating system.

Location Does Not Compute

I just got an iPod Touch about a month ago. iPhones and iPod Touches have a cool "locate-me" feature which allows you to press a button and find where you located on the map, anywhere in the country. The Ipod does this over Wi-Fi only by finding known wireless access points, based on a drive-by scan done by SkyHook Wireless.

A few days ago this feature started going haywire and putting me in Boulder, Colorado. No matter what I did, I ended up there.



Now I know why. My next door neighbor moved to Boulder a few months ago and must have brought his wireless access point along! Crap! This is a case where a very cool technology, the ability locate yourself anywhere in the country by interrogating the wireless environment, has gone wrong. The problem is that SkyHook has made a simplifying assumption that the environment does not change between the times that they do their surveys. In reality, people move and bring the wireless gear with them. I don't doubt that the iPod software sends all wireless access points it finds, so SkyHook can dynamically expand its database when new access points pop up, but that doesn't handle the case when an access point is physically moved. The result is a frustration for me.