Hi Carlene,
I'm not sure whether my comments about wireless use of the iPod Touch
will help you, but I'll make a couple of suggestions, and I'll also cc
this to the viphone list in case others have seen your issue. You
mentioned that recently apps like Pandora, AOL Radio, and iBlink Radio
that used to stream for hours now stop after about 20 minutes, and
that you seem to get better results (e.g. 45 minutes) with VO off.
Also, you mention that when this happens, you are occasionally
prompted to choose a network to join. I'll answer these two points in
separate paragraphs.
I find that my iPod Touch app performance can be affected by the
amount of memory that is used on my system, just as on my computer.
VoiceOver also uses these resources, so the other thing that can
happen when memory usage is high is that VoiceOver may break up on the
iPod Touch, or app performance can be sluggish, if memory is
required. (Streaming radio apps use caching on your device to play.)
When I first got my iPod Touch, and before the firmware upgrades for
OS. 3.1, I noticed that when I did experiments on uploading files
through MobileMe and other sources (trying out other ways to read PDFs
and documents, or play media files transferred to the iPod Touch), I
would see performance issues where files would stop playing and the
like. I was trying to "stress test" my device, and I was transferring/
playing large media files that I expect to use up memory when I saw
these issues. So I went searching for an app to free memory and got
System Activity Monitor ($2.99) from Recession Apps. In these cases I
invariably found that memory usage (reported in the app, which
displays information in a fashion that is very like the "System
Activity Monitor" utility that runs on the Mac) on the iPod Touch was
low, and using the free memory function of the app improved
performance as well as app stability. The iPod Touch is also supposed
to release memory used by apps when you power down the device and
restart it, so you could also try that. However, I generally don't
want to turn off my iPod Touch to resolve these problems, so I use the
free memory option of System Activity Monitor. Some of these issues
supposedly got better after the firmware update last fall.
There's a detailed post in the Mail Archives about how to use the
System Activity Monitor app to free memory. Just skip over the bits
that describe the Koi Pond app that is also described in the same post:
http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg14638.html
(Info about Koi Pond and System Activity Monitor apps (Long) [was Re:
user opinions on some apps?])
You also asked about sometimes being prompted to choose a (wireless)
network when the app stops streaming. This is perhaps a separate
issue about iPod Touch device performance. I'll give you my own
experience and speculations here, and this wireless performance
description appears to be independent about whether VoiceOver is
running. I don't see any issues with losing a wifi connection when
the signal is strong. I also don't think that I get prompted for a
password when the wifi signal is weak, and the network only has WEP
security, but I'm less certain about that. What I do know is that the
iPod Touch 3GS model seems to have more difficulty picking up and
maintaining the connection to WiFi networks when the signal is faint,
and when there is WPA wireless security, in comparison with earlier
models of the iPod Touch used in the same circumstances. And I
suspect that at least part of this failure to maintain good wireless
connection when signals are faint and/or encrypted with WPA security
is due to the way the OS 3.0+ firmware runs, rather than actual
quality control issues in production from model to model, since a
number of users of earlier generation iPod Touch models reported
problems with maintaining WiFi connections after applying the upgrade
to 3.0 and again after the upgrade to 3.1. Here's the link to the
Apple TroubleShooting document:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1398
(iPhone and iPod touch: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections)
Now, I'm using an Apple AirPort Express (admittedly, 5 years old, but
with the latest firmware and WPA encryption), so this is Apple's own
hardware. Doing the various network resets on the iPod Touch and
restoring the contents of the device has not changed any of the
behavior, nor have things changed with the latest OS 3.1.3 software.
I think the problem lies with how frequently the iPod Touch software
queries the wireless network, and its action in stepping down the
connection if it thinks a network may not be present to save battery
power. This is pure speculation, but it does explain the way that I
can run partial workarounds. Also, I asked someone who got the earlier
iPod Touch as a freebie as part of an educational purchase order of a
Mac, and then bought the iPod Touch 3GS to try out the connection.
Exactly the same content installed, both using the latest OS, and the
iPod Touch 3GS cuts out intermittently where the older generation iPod
Touch does not. Again, this only happens when in a location where the
WiFi signal is low, and where there is WPA security enabled.
The two things I do to handle the low wifi signal plus WPA encryption
case:
1) I reconnect using the WiFiTrak app, which gives me information on
current signal strength, detects WiFi networks below the limits
reported by the iPod Touch's native WiFi connection app, and tries
longer to establish a connection before timing out. In the low WiFi
signal case, when the iPod Touch disconnects, it sometimes does not
take my network selection, but will ask me again to type in a
password; this never happens with WiFiTrak. I think its a timeout
setting in the native app.
2) This sounds a bit weird, but works for me: I play an internet radio
station at low bit rate in background through the ooTunes app
switching over to Safari. (I think WunderRadio can also do this).
What this does is keep the WiFi connection active. Otherwise, what
happens is that if I'm not actively using the WiFi connection in the
low signal level case, the connection drops out eventually when the
iPod Touch is idle. Again, my guess is that the OS software is set to
drop the connection relatively fast, if it doesn't detect activity or
a strong WiFi signal. With a low rate of flow through, my WiFi
connection never drops out. Because this is running in background, I
can access any of the apps that rely on an internet connection without
problems -- read news, download new books from Kobo, etc. Obviously
when I do this I don't have a problem with memory usage on my iPod
Touch. I'm not trying to stream movies, or pull in huge downloads.
This has been a rather long commentary. I'd love to hear any
responses, especially from the viphone list users, about the low
wireless signal case. Probably only the iPod Touch users will be able
to check this out. Also, hear are a list of the applications I
mentioned:
• System Activity Monitor ($2.99) by Recession Apps -- it should say
"3GS Update! With Free Memory and Battery Level"
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/system-activity-monitor-3gs/id306192663?mt=8
• WiFiTrak (Find Free WiFi) ($0.99) by Bitrino
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifitrak-find-free-wifi/id294771472?mt=8
• ooTunes Radio - Recording and Alarm Clock ($4.99) by Oogli LLC
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifitrak-find-free-wifi/id294771472?mt=8
All these apps work and are available internationally.
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
carlene knight wrote:
Hi:
I hope this isn't too off topic, but I wondered if anybody else is
having trouble with their IPod Touch regarding wireless? I used to
be able to use my Touch for hours wirelessly, but now it stops every
20 minutes or so. It's done it on Pandora with a subscription, AOL
Radio and IBlink Radio. My husband's IPhone has no issues, and
neither do our computers on the rare occasion we use it for them.
Sometimes it asks me to choose a network, and sometimes it doesn't.
seems as though the problem is better when I turn VO off. I've
listened to Pandora for about 45 minutes with VO off. Does anybody
else have this issue? Do I need to get my IPod looked at? Thanks.
Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or advice would be
greatly appreciated.
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