Apple confirms: iPod touch cannot add calendar appointments
By Ryan Block 
posted September 10th 2007 5:07PM
posted September 10th 2007 5:07PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted September 10th 2007 5:07PM
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I don't care about this feature I have ipod video 80GB I will keep it on my car and i'll buy the touch to keep it with me and enjoy the wifi till they release the iphone here in my country somewhere next year.
As someone said, you can send your feedback to Apple from here. This is the only way to bring back those iPhone features (Mail, Maps, Notes, Widgets, Calender...) .
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html
https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/RadarWeb.woa
Or send emails to Steve Jobs directly.
steve@apple.com
What iPhone has and iPod touch doesn't:
Hardware
-Camera
-Speaker
-Microphone
-Bluetooth
Software
-Mail
-Maps
-Notes
-Weather
-Stocks
(and Calender has limited functions)
So let's compare the price:
iPhone
$399
iPod touch
$399
Seriously, WHO BUYS THE IPOD TOUCH????
Um, there is the issue of the ongoing cost:
iPhone
$399 + $60/month (minimum) = $1,119 in first year
iPod touch
$399 + $0/month
$60/month extra is pretty hefty if one already has a phone, which isn't to say I'm not feeling suckered by Apple for getting a crippled device. I like technology companies that ADD features.
@Chris
> iPhone
> $399 + $60/month (minimum) = $1,119 in first year
Use prepaid one. Then cancel your contract within a few days. It should be much cheeper.
Boo
It's irritating when people begin their rebuttals with "Um," - as if they attended Condescending Valley Girl Rhetorical School. A good demur is still good even when you don't treat the other person like they're stupid.
At any rate, I agree with the comparison of features post - obviously, the storage capacities are different but this disparity will diminish tremendously as the flash market gets flooded with larger and larger drives over coming months. Then this comparison will be even more relevant.
It's not about the specific feature. It's the principle of the thing. Sad.
iPod outch!
Don't you just hate it when the marketing department is doing the engineering.
But all this said and done .... Amazon.co.uk still says we can add calander events..
http://amazon.co.uk/dp/B000VBEDTW/ref=s9_asin_image_1-1966_g1/203-6902488-7917541?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0ZQGESGJ5XFFF8VPHVE5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139294091&pf_rd_i=468294
"And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, entering calendar events, or adding new contacts."
John, nice observation! I fear that might be amazon's writing, but it is labeled "Manufacturer's Description". So either Amazon get's sued or apple makes some serious changes!
We should make an online petition for this!
Just wanted to add an international perspective. This news really sucks. At the moment the iPhone isn't even slated for release in Australia until sometime in 2008. Given that Apple seems to be having trouble locking in overseas telcos, lord only knows when we will see it! The iPod Touch looked as though it might be a really great alternative until the iPhone arrives. My plan was; Buy an iPod Touch now, use it as a great iPod and PDA until iPhone is available in Australia with a decent contract. Seeing that notes wasn't on the device was disappointing... but I thought, no problem... I'll just add a calendar entry as a note until I'm in front of my computer. Now that feature is crippled as well??? This is just plain crazy.
Having some PDA functionality was absolutely vital for me. I'm unlikely to buy an iPhone as soon as they are released, as I think it always pays to wait until the price/features settle in (what happened to early adopters in the USA this week only confirms this for me), this means that for me it may well be 2009 before I'll be able to get an iPhone. The iPod Touch offered me a really good interim technology, but the crippling of these features has totally killed off this option. Come on Apple! Give the WHOLE world a chance to start using this technology... really using it!
I hope Apple rethinks this. I want a ipod thats everything a iPhone is w/o the phone.
I'm not sure whether I would want to change calender entries or not but all this crippling software stuff when the hardwear is the same is starting to make me loose favour with Apple.
The whole thing of not allowing the iPod Touch (or the iPhone) to have some facility to add memory via SD or MicroSD, really makes my blood boil. It’s so easy to do and takes little to no physical room. Apple is treating us like total bloody fools.
I don’t have a lot of money to throw around but now and again (usually Christmas) when people ask what I’d like I ask for people to put a little towards a nice new gadget. This year it was going to be the Touch. Day by day I am going off the idea when I know that Steve (Whiter than White) Jobs is offering me a device that has physical and software features missing that his company just don’t want me to have unless I pay even more money for. This whole thing reeks of MS tactics.
Like the way iTunes does that thing with the music you just bought where you can’t play it on another device, unless you pay even more. Now we’ve got that sodin ringtone thing where you pay to make a ringtone from the music you already own, holy crap, are we mad putting up with this.
Listen Mr (Boom) Steve Jobs, we know you make money from music but when you build a music player (media device) like the Touch, just build the best device you can. Yes, there may be features that your customers may use to get something for nothing, like, look away, look away, transferring music via bluetooth to a friends device, (sssshhhh for free). Or adding more memory to the device with a 16gig MicroSD later in the year, look away, look away, without buying a whole new device from Apple. Or using ‘Voice Over The Internet’ through Safari and the build in, tiny, tiny mic to contact a friend, look away, look away for free (that means no charge networks, no wonder you crap yourselves when you think of free WiFi). I can’t say it, can I, no, I can’t. What about putting everything in one device, one price, and calling it the Apple Touch, you can buy it as the ultimate iPod and then if you want pop a sim card in and use it as a phone.
Apple you money grabbing gits, stop trying to keep things back so you can make a few more million out of us, we don’t have enough money as it is.
The idea of having one device, that can either be a Skype PDA or drop a SIM card in it and you have an iPhone is the best idea I've heard yet. This is the real future. Like owning a tower, you add PCI cards for extra functions. With miniature slots you can add different speed EVDO or EDGE depending on price.
Ant you're amazing. Though you've just given someone a free idea. HP blackbird for PDA/WiFi/3G... that is something the user can upgrade or whatever as they see fit. Add to that a cell carrier plan that allows you to buy a month say of EVDO Rev A and you have a winner.
Glad you like the idea of 'One' device, thanks. I dream about having, as you say, the equivalent of a PC tower but in a micro small device. Just the thought of all the little tiny trays you would have to slot your new hardware into the device makes me drool. Be great wouldn't it. All the physical characteristics of devices like the Touch will become standardized and super efficient (basically a real nice multi touch screen), it's the software that gives it style and face.
Do what dell do and have an easy open enclosure with everything inside plug-and-play pods, pop out your ram pod upgrade for better. Pop out your micro graphics accelerator pod, upgrade for better. Pop out your memory pod, upgrade. etc, etc.
All the component pods could still be made by Apple it just means you only need, as Steve would like to say ‘micro payments’ to update your gear. At the end of the day I think Apple would make more money this way as their would be more ‘micro choices’ so people could make ‘micro payments’ all year round. It’s amazing how £20 here and £50 there mounts up if you actually add it all together, the funny thing is you don’t notice as much a one £269 payment.
Can someone please tell me why Apple just didn't do something like;
1, Release iPod Touch with Music, Video, iTunes app and Safari/wifi for lets say $249. This pleases all who simply want wifi iPod with iPhone type interface.
2, Release notes, calendar, mail, youtube etc as separate applications available on the iTunes store for say $20 each.
This way Apple pleases those who just want a cool touch screen iPod AND all those who want a phone-less iPhone/PDA.
Seems to make good sense? Surely this is better than releasing an iCrippled??
im all for it, your numbers are a bit steep i'd say, you know 20 bucks for a simple calculator is a bit of a strech.
But hell as long as apple is gonna be playing the archos game, throw in 20 dollar FLAC and APE and OGG and XVID and DIVX etc support and he might even get some of the apple hating market share.
I'm all for it. Your numbers are a bit steep i'd say; you know, 20 bucks for a simple calculator is a bit of a strech.
But hell, as long as apple is gonna be playing the archos game, throw in 20 dollar FLAC and APE and OGG and XVID and DIVX etc support and he might even get some of the apple hating market share.
As an apple fanboy, can I be the first to say BASTARDS WHY HAVE A CALENDAR THAT DOESNT WORK? WE WANT STICKY NOTES TOO
Steve Jobs once said that Apple makes the products they want to use
themselves too. Well, sorry: they create the products which brings them
the highest profits and market control. In many countries the Iphone
is not there yet for years to come - due to complicated financial deals with 3rd
parties (again a profit and power orientated choice: which stands far
from a social idea of bringing the people what they need contentwise.
Whydoes Apple stop technology short (such as ical input) from a good
product like the Ipone Touch I find really disgusting. Again market
issues rule over giving people good working products instead.
Too much economically correct behavior of Jobs. Steve Jobs is just a turbo capitalist dressed up like a socialist. Watch out dear consumer!
I don't have a lot to add to the discussion as far as new ideas, however in case Apple is reading this I just want to add that I am disgusted. Apple took and watered-down an originally AWESOME product into a product that I now have no desire to own. I was going to drive immediately to the Apple store on the 29th to buy this product but seeing as how I can't add calendar events OR notes, I won't even bother. For those of us who can't buy an iPhone for whatever we reason, this should have been the groundbreaker. Now I can't get this functionality with Apple apparently since they removed it here. Therefore. even through I'm a HUGE apple fan, I'm going to have to give my money to another company and pick up a crappy pda when all they had to do was leave the calendar and/or notes functionality and they would EASILY grab my $400/$300. This is upsetting and it makes me wonder if Apple really cares about their customers or if they just want to sell more iPhones.
Your right, Apple cares about your money first and then what you really want later. This crippling applications and to a degree hardware (bluetooth and upgradeable memory) stinks to high heaven. I love the Apple thing and your right by saying it’s upsetting, I feel as thought a friend just really let me down, and has been talking about me behind my back trying to do me out of money. You are better keeping your money in an account titled ‘When Apple Get It Right Fund’, I think when Apple dose get it right and Steve comes off them corporate pills they’ve been feeding him we might start having fun again.
I see a lot of speculating that features are being crippled on the touch, so as to not undercut the iPhone. While I can't see any other reason, this seems to be poor reasoning.
Consider how many more touch units will be sold compared to phones. The touch is worldwide, as opposed to the iPhone. Many people, myself included, won't consider buying an ipod that ties it to a service contract. No way, never gonna happen.
Therefore, the potential profit from the touch is incredibly higher than the phone. So it's like saying, "I'm going to weaken my potential 1 billion dollar product, so I don't hurt sales of my potential 40 million dollar product. (Yes, I know, those numbers are probably far from actual profits, but you get my point)
Where's the sense of that?
Guess what?
This is so digusting im only buying a touch if its easily hackable, i mean: when there is a way to have a decent calendar, a notes app and everything else that could make it richer but apple decided to take out just because they are...hmm ok let your imagination flow here.
I talked to an Apple support person today and he said 'yes, you can add events directly into the Touch calendar. It's just like iCal." In iCal, you go to the 'file' menu and hit 'new event', enter the info and it automatically saves as a new event. Apparently they removed the 'add' button, which just makes it more inconvenient, but not impossible. There is no 'add' button in iCal either.
You are the first I've heard that talked to a rep and they said you still could add an event. When I talked to them on the 10th they had no idea what I was talking about. They thought it did the calendar and then after my pushing for certainty she called her supervisor and they came on and said you used to be able to, but he can't find the function now. They didn't say it definitely couldn't, but it sure wasn't reassuring. I cancelled my order.
It continues to amaze me, the extent that people will go to improve a product for a company that neither wants nor thanks them for their help.
On the other hand, we have much more rewarding projects that actually /encourage/ contribution and experimentation, whose maintainers are thrilled to see people contribute.
Why is it that so many talented people devote so much time to the former?
I've been thinking the same thing actually. You know, I think it's two fold. Firstly a lot of people with great ideas are shy, strange but true on the whole, forums like this allow them to drop ideas and run. Secondly I really don’t think people know who or how to communicate with companies that appreciate their ideas, it all seems very scary and long winded to be told 9 times out of 10 that they thank you for your ideas and will pass on your thoughts (i,e, ‘another idea, just send em the standard reply and I’ll mark that one down as my own’).
You might have guessed I’m one of the shy, dyslexic ( I check my post with Word before pasting them in) inventors who watches hundreds of my ideas end up funding somebody else’s life style, because they ‘know someone in the businesses’.
I was in, now I'm out. I'll buy an 'iPod' or whatever Apple wants to call it, only when I can add my iCal appointments to it in the field. Up to this point, I've been a Mac user for 6 years but I am iPod-less for this reason alone.
everyone please leave you feed back so when can change this here is the link it will only take a couple of minutes http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html
Maybe there is a hope, maybe...
http://www.incenseprayer.com/blog/2007/09/ipod-touch-calendar.html
I agree with the complaints and wish that the Touch would replace my Palm Tx. But complain where it will do some good. Per Apple, go to:
apple.com/feedback
Since there's no icon for the Touch, use one of the iPod icons
I'm not sure whether to be angry at Apple or feel sorry for them. Reading through these comments, it's obvious they've missed a strong customer niche: those who want the iPhone's (non-phone) functionality, but can't get the iPhone because they are either stuck in a contract or happy with their phone provider.
How many of these people, upon discovering this useless Touch calendar, will buy the iPhone to use as a PDA instead? None! Because you can't use the iPhone at all without activating it with a provider - hacks aside. So again - what exactly was the point of going through the effort to disable this feature?
In other news, if Apple had shipped the iPhone on Sprint and Verizon, as well as AT&T, they'd likely be up to at least 2 million in sales by now, not just 1 million. (AT&T has roughly 1/3 of the market, and despite rosy predictions, people aren't flocking to AT&T to get this thing.) That would mean at least two times as many people shopping in the mobile iTunes store. Suck on that bitter lemon, Apple. You've earned it!
i know this is off topic but if we all bought the ipod touch and they later came with an addition with more memory can we send it to apple to put that flash based drive in our 16g touch by giving them money or do we have to spend another 400$.And if we have to spend another 400$ why should we buy this when we can only use the wi-fi home but why would we want to use the internet home when we have our computers hooked home? im just saying they have to give us more but i really do want this but right now im real effy!
1
Why they let us add a contact and not an event is totally rediculous. I bump in to an old friend she gives me her number (:)) and I have a choice of entering it on my phone or ipod - it is going to be phone isn't it. Anyway lets say Ipod, so I do this and arrange to meet up (this example is getting better by the minute) I check my ical and get a date that is free.... I think have to write down the date or keep it in my head until I get home to sync.
They way to keep the touch like the old ipod ? why ?
Why no bluetooth in Ipod Touch? It would be so great to have an Ipod Touch with bluetooth to have the option to have bluetooth headphones (the lovely ones Apple made for the Iphone). What you see is that Apple is spreading out its features over model over time to maximize profit in the longer run. Yes, I know that is capitalism. With the Iphone they have to much competition. So they have to put as much as possible in the iphone to make it a super deal outcompeting others. With the Ipod touch they give us now the touch beauties and a later model will come with bleutooth, perhaps email, etc. So they keep us buying because they distribute better stuffer over a longer trajectory: meaning making more money over a longer period and ripping us customers off brilliantly.
Well, that was a fast burnout. Turns out the iPod Touch has alot more limitations than I'm comfortable with. Here's some of the disappointing letdowns:
1. There's no integrated speaker (you have to either use wired headphones or connect it to external speakers).
2. The Touch also does not utilize Bluetooth.
3. The Touch's homescreen is similar to the iPhone except: No Stocks, Maps, Notes, or Weather.
4. There's no Mail application at all,
5. A restricted Calendar app, and
6. There's no camera.
I/we had previously assumed ALL the capabilities of the iPhone would be there absent the cellphone functionality. As it turns out there's ALOT more missing and dumbed-down than just that. The biggest showstopper is no Bluetooth, especially since I just got a new-tech set of stereo Bluetooth headsets which would've been supreme when paired with the Touch, but it's not meant to be apparently ... so close, yet so far, why Apple, why ?
I hate to post a 'me too' comment, but yes, not being able to add a calendar event on the iPod touch is a deal breaker, just as iPhone's merge-everything-into-one -calendar 'feature' is.
Apple makes some great products, but when they make the wrong design decisions, things go bad very fast.
Then again as we've seen with OS X and the changes it has gone through since its earlier incarnations, they may still come around. They do seem to listen, at least occasionally.
I think this is a ploy by apple to get people talking about the ipod touch before it actually launches. I just called apple and asked about it and they said that you still can add calendar events into the ipod touch. We will have to see during the launch what is really going on.
I hope Apple is reading this: As a direct result of Apple's confirming that the iPod Touch cannot input a new or edit a existing Calendar and or ToDo event, I have gone over to view at Best Buy the only other comparable PDA to the iPod Touch, the Palm TX and Its very very nice!
Apple, its about time that you dust off the Newton Pattents that you have been sitting on for years and put the thing into gear if you really want to rock the world with the most killer PDA ever invented!
Screen, processor and memory technologies have advanced greatly in the past 10 years since the Newton was put on the shelf.
Compared to the Newton, in some ways, the iPod Touch is junior at best yet obviously superior.
So what gives Steve J.? When is Apple going to let loose and really build the ultimate PDA running OSX instead of these baby versions?
And an FM tuner. PLEEEEAAAASE! I listen to the radio fairly often, and it's pretty much the only reason I havent ditched my iRiver for an iPod. Such a simple little thing to do....but I guess they dont need to since folks are rushing to buy...oh well. Maybe next gen...
that's fricken stupid! i cannot believe this! i already bought the dang thing, expecting to be able to enter homework assignments and stuff! holy krap. apple made a bad move.
Cancel your order. If it has already shipped, call and ask for a return authorization. That's what I did. I'm really disappointed but I'm not paying $400 to be able to find out what Starbucks is playing. The Apple website advertised full calendar features. I ordered it because of their false advertising. If all I can do is view the calendar, I'd be better off carrying around a paper printout. At least I can write on that.
I canceled my order for the Touch. It would have been a great Palm replacement, but I'm not going to write appointments on scraps of paper and wait until I get home to enter them into my computer then sync them to my handheld. OUTRAGEOUSLY STUPID, APPLE!
i had heard that they had disabled the "create event" feature on the ipod touch - but then i just went on amazon.com and was looking at their descriptions and they still have the old description that includes "entering calendar events" on it. i can imagine a lot of people will be upset when they order their ipods under the impression that the calendar is somewhat useful, only to receive it and be completely useless.
I can edit contacts on my touch. Add a new contact, push the add field button, add a note, and type away. Name your new contact Notebook to remember where your note is.
Apple has a product feedback section on their webpage. We should flood their iCal section with complaints over compatibility with the iTouch. This is one big load of crap. Shame on you, Apple...