# question about past generation ipod touch



## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

My daughter has asked me to purchase a refurbished ipod touch for the grandchildren for Christmas. The model she is thinking about is a second generation. She plans to use it mainly for games to keep the children occupied in the car and at restaurants, etc.

My questions are: 

Will an ipod this old still get the software updates from Apple?
Will an ipod of this generation be able to play all the games - Angry Birds, Harbor Master, Traffic Rush etc - that they play on my 3rd generation ipod?


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

2nd gen iPod Touches are stuck at IOS 4.2.1, and won’t be updated. I have one of these, and it plays Angry Birds, Physics for Cats, and other games/apps just fine that don't have IOS5-specific features. I don't play many games on it, so I'm not the best to offer an opinion on this.

Also, it has no cameras. It might do just fine for your daughter.

Mike


----------



## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

My daughter (9) currently has that model and is upgrading for her birthday. I think it's great still, but I'm curious what the price difference would be? There should be plenty of refurbed newer models out there, as it came out over a year ago. 

Hmm, looking at the Apple site, it looks like they're offering a 32GB model 2g for $179 while the current 4g model 8gb is only $20 more, at $199. Of course, the space is a big difference, but that's not usually a big feature for kids. 

I would bet that you could find them on Craigslist and eBay for even less than $179 used, or look here on this board for sellers, they pop up reliably often. The newer model has front and back cameras, and kids love to take pictures with them, and they allow for facetime between friends, which my kids LOVE. My 12-year old does his homework with friends via facetime every night.


----------



## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

What started this whole thing is my daughter saw a refurbished ipod for $79, which turned out to be the second generation. The price seemed about right since the grandchildren are actually too young for an ipod (kindergarten and first grade) and it would only be used in highly supervised situations - restaurants, car trips, etc. - for entertainment. That being said, I was hoping to get an ipod that would receive the Apple updates for a while to, hopefully, get more mileage out of it. 

I have a 3rd generation ipod that the kids occasionally play games on and they LOVE it. I don't know that much about Apple apps or itunes; so I'm not sure about buying an older generation. I noticed that the apps started changing when the ipad was released and my ipod was new enough to get the software updates to keep up. I'm trying to figure out if the second generation ipod is good enough to keep up with interesting games until they are old enough for a new ipod and all its capabilities. If we were buying it to play music I wouldn't have a question, but games are a different ball game.


----------



## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

Given their ages, I think you're right. Second gen will be perfect!


----------



## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

jmiked and hsuthard - Thanks for the input. 

Now I'm having trouble finding that $79 ipod. Prices go up as the holidays approach.


----------



## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

talleylynn said:


> jmiked and hsuthard - Thanks for the input.
> 
> Now I'm having trouble finding that $79 ipod. Prices go up as the holidays approach.


That did sound really cheap to me. I have a 2nd gen iPod to sell, and a 4th gen to sell, and the prices are surprisingly high for both of them. I've been trying to determine a fair price to sell it for on Craigslist.


----------



## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

I bought my dd a 2nd gen from a KBer and we haven't found any apps that don't work on it.  I am finding that 8GB is on the small size if you are going to put on any movies.  We just put on 1-2 at a time.


----------

