Caving in: Giving the iPod Touch a chance
The iPod Touch is an intriguing gadget.
On the plus side, the WiFi management is fantastic, battery management is pretty spiffy, sound quality is quite good. The multi-touch interface is mostly pretty amazing (although skin moisture, humidity, touch pressure and other factors seem to impact its effectiveness). The accelerometer thing is pretty spiffy. The display is sharp and it handles pretty well for a handheld.
On the minus side, it is an Apple product, so it’s a “closed” device. It’s a very closed device. It’s so closed, it can’t be used at all until it is activated on Windows or Mac machine with iTunes installed. It has no means of playing ogg/vorbis audio files, or installing anything on the Touch that Apple doesn’t approve.
There is a way around this closedness. It’s called “jailbreaking”. I haven’t done it to mine yet, because I’m a little spooked. I’ve bricked a couple other “embedded systems” trying to do something other than what was intended by the manufacturer, and I’ve decided I’m not ready to risk that with the Touch yet.
What’s nice is that the iTunes and App stores have no-cost content, like NPR podcasts and apps like TouchTerm and WiFinder. What’s a drag is that there is very limited configurability and no access to a terminal/console.
I got the iPod Touch, in part because it’s a really handy WiFi handheld… and even more handy gadget than a “netbook”, like an eee-PC or an Acer Aspire one, but it’s also more limited. The on-screen keyboard is kinda slow and clunky. It works a lot better with the Touch flipped over on its side.
All in all, it’s a pretty neat gadget. I’ve been able to catch up on a bunch of NPR shows I’ve been missing out on. It lets me grab mail and Slashdot pretty quickly. Mostly, I see it as a handy ninja web gadget that also plays free podcasts. I’m not going to go and spend a bunch of money on money on music on iTunes. Why not? Because I can’t do anything with the music, other than play it on an iPod. I’m sticking with CDs for now.