DailyTech - Apple Adds Firmware 1.2 Update for 5G iPods

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Gadgets Apple Adds Firmware 1.2 Update for 5G iPods
Brandon Hill (Blog) - September 12, 2006 7:02 PM

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23 comment(s) - last by imrehg.. on Sep 22 at 9:40 AM

Gapless playback finally arrives

Apple has released a new firmware update for 5G iPods. The new update adds support for games downloaded from Apple's iTunes music store and more importantly, it adds support for gapless playback -- no more 1-2 second pauses between songs. Fast scrolling through your library will also bring up a capitalized letter in the middle of the screen to indicate what section of the alphabet you’re flying past (Microsoft’s Zune players implement a similar feature). There is also a new option under "Settings" to adjust the screen brightness.

To get the update, simply download and install iTunes 7 and the integrated iPod updater will install the firmware update for you.

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By Brainonska511 on 9/12/2006 8:12:29 PM , Rating: 1

About time they added the gapless playback. As for the games, move over DS Lite, there is an new gaming king in town.

RE: eh

By brownba on 9/12/2006 9:20:15 PM , Rating: 2

lol
you're kidding, right?
the ipod is the new gaming king?

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RE: eh

By Chris Peredun

on 9/12/2006 9:38:53 PM , Rating: 5

quote:
sar-casm [sahr-kaz-uhm]
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark: a review full of sarcasms.

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RE: eh

By Brainonska511 on 9/12/2006 11:44:42 PM , Rating: 2

As this post puts it, yes, I was being sarcastic.

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RE: eh

By quickk on 9/13/2006 12:39:12 AM , Rating: 3

The problem with sarcasm is that it is very difficult to effectively convey in a written format. The top post "move over DS Lite, there is an new gaming king in town." is a perfect example. How is one supposed to know that the poster is being sarcastic without any additional cues? Maybe I'm being sarcastic right now! But maybe I'm not...

When someone posts an opinion like: "The ipod rocks", there's no way to really tell if this is coming from a fanatical ipod fan, or a person that hates ipods and thought that it would be really sarcastic to say that they rock.

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RE: eh

By kkwst2 on 9/13/2006 8:27:33 AM , Rating: 4

1) Context / common sense will usually guide you here. For instance, I suspected right away from your comments that you were not being sarcastic, though I did sense that you were being just a bit of a tool.

2) Who cares? Take it how you like.

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RE: eh

By feelingshorter on 9/12/2006 10:17:38 PM , Rating: 2

I hope you can play games on the zune. Imagine having a mp3 player that is capable of wireless gameplay! AHAHAH! Then imagine the zune syncing with the xbox 360 to dl mini games and transfering mp3s. Great!

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i posted it in ATOT under the new ipods thread

By secretanchitman on 9/12/2006 8:13:11 PM , Rating: 2

i can confirm all of this. also, the brightness can be adjusted on the original 5G ipods...

RE: i posted it in ATOT under the new ipods thread

By xFlankerx on 9/12/2006 9:54:40 PM , Rating: 2

I'm holding a 5G iPod with the 1.1.2 firmware installed, and I do not see an option to adjust the brightness.

Do the "old" 5G iPods have the same max brightness as the "new" 5G ones? Or is the new one really "60% brighter"?

IMO, It's bright enough already. My eyes bleed when I have the backlight on in the dark. I could probably use the new one as a lamp.

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RE: i posted it in ATOT under the new ipods thread

By secretanchitman on 9/12/2006 10:01:07 PM , Rating: 2

go into the settings and change it...or during video playback you can change it there as well.

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Moderated

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 9/12/06, Rating: 0

RE: i posted it in ATOT under the new ipods thread

By xFlankerx on 9/12/2006 10:34:58 PM , Rating: 3

Yea, I know the new one is 1.2, I was just commenting that I cannot change the brightness on the "original" 5G iPod.

And it would seem there is a problem for me, since it won't update the firmware. Might having Disk Use enabled cause this? Here is a pic I took;
http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ipodtj8.j...

The "update" button stays grayed out; all buttons were greyed out while I was viewing iTunes details.

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RE: i posted it in ATOT under the new ipods thread

By xFlankerx on 9/12/2006 11:49:46 PM , Rating: 2

Just a follow-up post, thanks to the jhollington on iLounge Forums, I got it to work. You have to restart iTunes with the iPod already connected. I don't know if everyone will have this problem, but it fixed it for me and I am now on the 1.2 firmware.

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ml_ipod

By The Sly Syl on 9/12/2006 9:37:43 PM , Rating: 2

Now to find out if this will work with my wonderful ml_ipod winamp plugin...

RE: ml_ipod

By jmunjr on 9/13/2006 1:51:45 AM , Rating: 1

LOL, gapless playback added in 2006? Oh an dwow now a big capital letter for browsing because iPods don't allow searching. What a waste. I can find any song on my 100GB collection in my car's mp3 player in 5-10 seconds.. Browsing is still slow when you have 20,000 songs.

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RE: ml_ipod

By urungus666 on 9/13/2006 10:56:43 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
iPods don't allow searching.

WRONG!!

photo of new search function:
http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/09/dsc_0870.jpg

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New nano?

By probedb on 9/13/2006 4:20:30 AM , Rating: 2

Does this mean the new nano is also likely to have gapless playback?

Will this work with LAME encoded MP3s?

RE: New nano?

By protosv on 9/13/2006 8:30:59 AM , Rating: 2

I believe Jobs said during the presentation that the new Nano will have the same gapless playback. As for LAME-encoded MP3s, I don't see why it wouldn't work. LAME is simply a codec for encoding an mp3 file, and shouldn't affect gapless playback.

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Album Artwork

By asabour on 9/13/2006 12:15:15 PM , Rating: 2

The new album artwork feature is cool. Anyone know how to update the album artwork on the Ipod? My itunes seems to only want to get new artwork for music on my computer, and leaves my Ipod without the new album artwork...

RE: Album Artwork

By rklaver on 9/13/2006 10:55:16 PM , Rating: 2

yeah the album art thing is pretty cool, same for using the album art browsing feature.

iTunes 7 seems a bit snappier in Windows as well, plus I think it will update itself now as opposed to re-installing for every update...at least I hope.

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Seach

By 777ipod on 9/13/2006 3:31:29 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
iPods don't allow searching.

WRONG!!

photo of new search function:
http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/09/dsc_0870.jpg

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Well maybe the new ones allow searching but my 5G doesn't allow searching, v.1.2
If you spin the click wheel realy fast then a CAP letter shows up in the center of the screen.

Problems with new firmware?

By jmonte55 on 9/20/2006 10:52:31 AM , Rating: 2

My ipod hasn't been the same since I upgraded the firmware.
It's pretty much broke! I restored and still having all sorts of problems. Screen colors lock up and songs feexe during the middle of playback.

I've found a few other people who've experienced this, just wondering if anyone on this message board has run into the same problems?

firmware brakes my pod

By imrehg on 9/22/2006 9:40:24 AM , Rating: 2

Just like the previous post have said it, my iPod 5G (60Gb) is also annoyingly broken since the firmware update. 1.1 was almost flawless, I had to restart it maybe once or twice.

The 1.2 - when I pause the song, and leave it like that for a couple of hours - just cannot turn it back on, have to do a reboot, or even, sometimes it reboots itself.

And also the playback - this happened never before, but now, every day I run into situation, when it basically cannot play the song, just gives crazy digital noise - rewind the song, and it plays again...

I think the limiting of the system volume is also a new feature, as well as to display the battery level on the video screen when you change the volume / rewind-forward...

Anyway... I pretty much wish back the old firmware, but don't want to delete all my data from its disk.... Bad bad stuff....