Yesterday my iTouch stopped working. Safari went first, it just froze. And Gmail was being weird: I could access it through the Mail app, if I went through ‘Accounts’, but if I tried to use the actual Gmail app I could get as far as looking at the list of mail in my inbox and no further. iGoogle was also just…frozen. In other words, everything that went through Safari was screwed but the other stuff was fine.
I tried a couple of basic things like deleting caches and cookies and whatnot. No difference. So, huh, clearly it was the Safari app itself. So then I tried opening Safari and holding down the home button on the theory that it will somehow get a grip on itself and behave. (I’m very technical that way.) It did, in fact, return me eventually to the home screen but with an unexpected result: all my apps got a red cross in the upper left corner and, I don’t know how else to say this, waggled at me insultingly.
Being taunted by technology makes me cross.
No, I didn’t hurl the cheeky git at the wall, I turned it off. (Ha! That’ll teach you!) Then I got focused and did what I should have done hours earlier and used my desktop to do a web search for ‘iTouch frozen Safari’. (Which would make a nifty sf story title, I think: global freezing, tech, and porn…) The solution popped up immediately: I reset the iTouch by holding down the Home and Off buttons simultaneously until the screen went blank and the Apple logo appeared. Then I turned it off. Waited anxiously for a moment with visions of returning the thing to its factory settings and rocking the neighbourhood with wails of grief and despair. Then I turned it on again. Whap, good as new.
My relief was instructive. I’ve had this thing for less than six weeks and it’s already indispensable. I can’t make up my mind whether to be delighted about human brain plasticity, or to be appalled at the speed with which we become dependent on technology.
Sadly, the reset did nothing to improve crapcam.
Nicola Griffith 
I don't know if you found this out when you did a help search, but the waggling means you can move the apps or delete them.
I have an iPad and I love it, mostly for aimless surfing and reading the kindle app in bed in the dark. I'm debating going iPhone next time, though I really really like buttons for texting.
Also, have you found a good ingoing AND outgoing text app for iTouch? My daughter wants one. I don't think it exists…
Ohhhh, I KNOW what you mean about those taunting waggles! That never feels like a productive way to approach a tech problem.
Sorry about the crapcam. Someday they'll get their act together and make the whole device useful rather than just the bits.
ssas, yep, after blinking I guessed that–but, damn, when all lined up that way it reminded me of an army mooning the opposition–think Braveheart. Sadly, no, I don't know of good text apps.
Janine, yep. See above.
You might like this app for your iTouch camera. It's used to great effect by pro photographers.
I haven't used it myself (my iTouch doesn't have a camera), but I've heard great things about it.
Kelly, crapcam is so crap that using effect would be throwing pearls before swine :(
You're syncing that thing to your computer every day so you don't lose anything, right?
I am always inordinately pleased with myself when I can simply solve my tech problem with a google search. As if I did something brilliant!
Kelly, that app is probably used by most people on an iPhone which it turns out has a much better camera. For no apparent good reason – at least from the consumers POV.