So I picked up an iPod Touch (henceforth referred to as an IPT) for my father, and have been spending some time trying to get it set up for him. He is willfully ignorant of computer related things, but is pretty excited about the idea of carrying around a single item that can fit in his pocket instead of 50 pounds of CDs, DVDs, books, and an actual television.
He'll also be able to use the wifi at truck stops to send and receive e-mail via an account that I set up for him. All looks good on paper, but there is o ability to read e-books on an IPT with the default software.
Luckily, it's possible to "Jailbreak" them so that you can install your own software. EBook readers exist, and you can get libraries of legal classics from Project Gutenberg.
Anyhow, the bottom line is that I jailbroke the IPT, and had it working for a little while. At some point, though, it went into a mode where it just started rebooting itself constantly and I was worried that I had bricked it. I was pretty pissed off at Apple until I figured out how to force recovery mode and was able to get back to normal.
Actually, I'm pretty pissed off at them anyhow - I buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of their software and hardware, and feel that I should be able to do what I want with it.
At any rate, a jailbroken IPT should be a pretty solid tool for any working trucker that would like something to read at night and listen to during the day. You can even stick complete seasons of TV shows on it and watch those. It's also a lot smaller than a TV.
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