Staff Thoughts On The iPod Touch

Tag : AV Connection Cable

Note: This blog (an email thread between the MyMac Staff) concernsthe iPod Touch (version 1.0) and the new Apple Update (2.0) for thenew Apple iPhone (version 2.0) and the existing Touch. A newer (andmaybe cheaper) version of the Touch is expected soon (iPod Touchversion 2.0)

From Robert
Hey,

I know Chad has an iPod Touch but I am sending this to the entirestaff for everyone's input. My question is:

What do you find is missing in the iPod Touch that the iPhone has?

I know the iPhone has a camera, a mic, a speaker, a built-in phone(go figure), and a retarded $30 data plan (which I'm trying toavoid).

What do you wish the Touch had something that it doesn't?

Thanks, Robert

From Donny
I have a Touch and there are two things I'd like: camera andspeakers.

Sent from my iPod Touch.

From Roger
robert,

my wife connie has the touch. she loves it. especially with the new2.0 update and all the new apps. some are free and some she hasbought ($5-10 each). she says what she misses is a microphone soshe can dictate notes. the other thing is a camera. she does notmiss the phone feature of the $10,000 cost to operate it over fouryears (we took to heart that recent joyoftech cartoon). connie usesthe touch to access her online email account, to surf the web, andto handle her teacher-ease grading program for her school job. verycool. given the new low $199 cost of the new iphone 3g, she would buy oneif there was a way to get it without the at&t service plan, or nophone plan at all. the new iphone is almost as thin as the touchand has both a camera and a microphone, and it cost less. it is abit heavier, and the battery life still is not as long-lasting asthe touch, but if she manages to get one, i will then inherit hertouch.

here is the whole point. to me, the touch is the new mac.

it has everything the mac has, except a keyboard, but both connieand i are pretty fast with the virtual finger keyboard on thescreen. i would not write a book on it, so i will still keep mylaptop, but for any and everything else we use the touch. since connie cannot use the touch at school (things like these growlegs and walk away) she leaves the touch at home for me to use.connie instead bought a used 30gb ipod video that she uses atschool to run movies and powerpoint on the school projector via theapple AV cable. it was $100 and if it walks away she is not out alot. besides, the kids there don't want an old ipod like they woulda touch. BTW, the ipod video is only half full, including all themovies connie needs for her english class for the year, and all thedaily class notes, and all the powerpoint presentations for theyear. wowser. while it was on her ipod touch, it really filled itup. now all she has on her 8 gb touch is her music, her email andher apps and games. it is not even half full. (once i inherit thisipod touch 1.0, it will hold all my reading (sci fi books, etc.),and all my writings, including novels i hope to publish one day.plus my music. and i know i will not even begin to fill it.)

the touch is just awesome, in my opinion.

regards, roger

ps,

the new apps are great - AOLradio, flashlight, AIM, shazam,instapaper, battleatsea and fivedice. =)

one new app you gotta try the Shape Writing Pad app. their virtualkeyboard is amazing. you slide your finger around the keyboard toeach letter, to make a word instead of hitting on individual keys.this is even better than the keyboard that comes with the ipodtouch. and like the built-in virtual keyboard, the Writing Pad appadds a space after each word you type. across the top of thekeyboard on the screen is a list of similar words to choose from ifthe app happens to give you a word you did not want. what an app.wowser.

pps,

i should explain the use of our favorite apps on the touch.

the reason AOLradio is so cool is that it is better than serius/smradio and it is free. in the car with our mobile attachment to thebottom of the touch, we get channels that are not available here inbarsow through the touch using the AOLradio app.

instapaper is so cool because we can capture any news paper onlineand save it for reading later. in fact any website can be capturedthe same way. since the touch only uses wifi and has not always oninternet connection like the iphone 3g does, this is an invaluableapp for the touch user.

connie uses the flashlight app a lot, after dark, and it is verybright, turning the touch screen into a large LED light. you all already know about shazam and how it gets the name and theartist of any music that is playing close by. and you already knowabout our son's two games out on the iphone, but seriously, youhave to try writing pad.

more than this, with the new upgrade connie can access bothmicrosoft word files and powerpoint files, with copy and paste - aswell as using acrobat files too. before she could only get those onher touch via the emai as attachments she would sent to herself.these attachements would open just fine in the email app, so theycould be both scaled and read easily. but this update supplies thefinal barrier that is to be broken, to make the touch equal in useto the macintosh. with the new upgrade now she can also open andmodify these documents as well as open them and display them on anoverhead or video screen.

i still wish there were a larger verion of the touch - say the sizeof a two-handed sony PSP (5 by 9 inches). a larger touch versionwould still fit in my jacket pocket, and with a bigger screen andan attached real keyboard, it would be just about perfect.

besides, apple might be more likely to come up with a larger touchthan the smaller ibook a lot of us want, right?

i appreciate all you guys here. thanks for making my days a lotbrighter with all the goings-on at mymac.

regards, roger

From David,
Roger, what exactly are you using on the WiFi-only Touch thatallows you to keep in contact with AOL's Internet radio streamwhile driving in the car?

From Roger
david, (grin) thought someone might notice that. we park around town bothhere in barstow and nearby victorville where wifi is prevalent.southern california has so many wifi transmitters, we could almostdrive between towns using it. which beggers the question of payinghigh monthly fees for always-on mobile access to the internet. notevery place has 3g out here, so even with the new iphone, servicewill be slow. wifi is so much faster and free, what with astarbucks every few blocks.

it is not that we are going out to park around town looking forfree wifi connections. we have time-warner cable modem here athome, connected to a d-link wireless router. but when we do go out,we happen to find connections for connie's touch all over theplace. so we go through the drive-thru at starbucks, or listen tomusic out under the stars while parking up on the sports complexhill. wifi even works at the local drive-in movie theater. nightshere in the high desert are always awesome. but it was the AOLradioapp that got us to check it out wherever we might park around town.we do miss the great los angeles radio stations which are not onour car radio dial here in barstow.

(note - some starbucks charge a monthly subscription fee for theirwifi usage, or so i have been told. barstow is on the i-15 thatruns from los angeles to las vegas, what with all the motels andeven the trains and bus station here, all that is needed, is toturn your touch on and connect to some wifi automatically, and/orjust call the place you are driving by and ask for their free wifipassword. but most wifi is free here. and it should be everywhere, right?

regards, roger

From David
Robert et al:

If the iPhone is not your idea of fun, you might be interested inthis:

News: Apple offers special pricing on refurb 8, 16GB iPod touch

Regards, David.

From Lee
Hey Roger,
We found that the iPhone 1.0 is a great Touch 2.0...it has all theiPhone features (camera, speaker, mic) but since it's nowdeactivated from AT&T, it's now a great iPod Touch.

If you can find one on Ebay, it's a great alternative.

thanks...Lee

from donny
Roger wrote:
here is the whole point. to me, the touch is the new mac. it haseverything the mac has, except a keyboard, but both of us arepretty fast on the finger keys on the screen.

Roger,

I tend to agree. Since I got the Touch I use it more than my iBookfor checking email around the house. It is great for when I havethe baby sleeping in my arms and nothing to do. I grab the Touchand check email and surf the net. Now with the apps I play games onit, too. We are going out of town next week and I usually take theiBook. I'm just taking the Touch this time. Less to take and willbe perfect for the overnight trip!

Donny

from donny
To Staff, I still think the (touch 2.0) price will drop more in September orat the next iPod event and more features will be added/more storage(although the 8GB model is working fine for me. I still have over3gb to spare).

Donny

From Roger
dear lee, my son has the iphone 1.0, although he and his wife just bought thenew one (family plan, less than 15 minutes to buy and activate atthe apple store). i think the iphone 1.0 is large and clunky nextto the touch 1.0. in fact the original iphone now reminds me of theoriginal ipod - what a brick!

the touch is everything the iphone is not - elegant and beautiful.but this is only my opinion. the touch weighs less, it is thinnerand the battery lasts a lot longer. nor does it cost as much.whats not to love?

but then, i have not seen or handled the new iphone 2.0.

is it still not as elegant, light and long lasting as the touch? orare they more alike now? am i the only one who thinks this way?

regards, roger

From Tom
To Staff

This has been fairly interesting reading. Where I'm at right now is8 GB iPod nano, a 3G, Virgin Mobile USA Snapper phone ($5/mo forservice), and a Palm Tungsten C - which I depend on to do mycheckbook & also play games, maps, browse, some mail...

The lynchpin in all of this is My Checkbook MyCheckBook

In my wildest dreams (knowing full well I can't have an iPhone withVM), what I'd like to have is a Palm OS II/Nova (coming in 2009)SmartPhone, on Virgin Mobile, to replace both my TC and my flipphone. With that I could still use all my old Palm apps, takeadvantage of all the forthcoming mobile Linux features (includingemail & browsing etc. which is far superior to my TC), and have amuch better phone. The thing that tempts me now is the iPod touch. The thing isamazing (games, Safari, Mail, MobileMe "push"), but the wi-fi onlycould likely limit the data usability for me and there is nocheckbook app. As much as I'm tempted to get an iPod touch I justneed to wait & see how the app situation evolves; what happens withPalm; and what Virgin Mobile does. I had an interesting emailexchange with an exec with Virgin Mobile USA, and they are at leastlooking at SmartPhones. If they came out with a Palm Centro beforethe end of the year I'd be tempted that way.

Regards, Tom

from donny
It seems as if iphone apps are being added everyday. I'd keepchecking the store.

From Roger
tom,

we use a checkbook program too - an old one from the performa days,on our old color classic. but it seems with the touch, we are goingto be abandoning that.

but my bank offers access to our bank accounts online, so we usesafari on the touch to see them, and their checkbook features arepretty good, actually, so i can sit down and load in the cardreceipts from my back pocket to reconcile my account (we don't usechecks, but pay all our bills online with the card) these automaticpayments already show up in our account, so all that may be missingis the short-term activity from using our card at stores andrestaurants. and since i keep all those stupid receipts (and knowwhere to find them), i can actually know what my balance really is,anytime i want to. thi is really getting too easy, huh? scary. my advice to you would be to go ahead and get a touch, instead ofthe palm or other devices. my wife already has an older palm trio,a palm lifedrive, and several neat and thin phones we still usefrom t-mobile (pay-as-you-go, no monthly service charges, 10 centsa minute, etc.). we still use these phones, but the touch takes theplace of everything else.

regards, roger

From Roger
John

there is just so much to talk about with the touch and the 2.0upgrade, it is embarrassing. i wonder if steve jobs knows howpeople feel about the iphone and the touch compared to theirmacintoshes?

regards, roger

From John
He doesn't care, Rog, but loads of other people do.

Regards, Nemo

From Tom
The touch could do all of that for me - except reconciling thecheckbook and having a secondary register. I know there's acheckbook web app for the iPhone/touch, but it doesn't work the wayI want it to - potential security issues not withstanding. I'm itchy, but still in a wait & see mode. If I got an iPod touchand then Virgin Mobile USA & Palm did everything I hoped for... Andthen what if StyleTap for iPhone/iPod touch sees the light ofday... Or what if Android is really good... Or what if someonecomes out with a checkbook app that's fantastic... Too manyswirling "what if"s for me to make a move right now, as cool as theiPod touch is.

Thanks, Tom

From John
What do you do (with all them cell phones), put 'em all in a basketby the front door? :-)

I just have the one cell phone, and I still can't add contacts orsend a text message without reading the manual. Curiously, I'venever added more than my wife to my contacts, and I can't recallthat I've ever sent a text message. This phone makes all kinds ofclicks and beeps at odd times of the day or night, and I have noidea what's going on.

Eek. I just forgot how to go online. Hey, what is this thing infront of me? MOMMY! Buy me a new plane, will you?

J.

From Roger
About Shazam (a very cool story from my son, Chris)

(Note: Shazam will only work on the iPhone because it needs abuilt-in microphone to access the music it needs to hear. To use iton the Touch, you need to have a microphone attachment.)

Yea, that was fun. A guy who wrote it was at WWDC, and used it to"cheat" in answering a question during one of the evening events.It was one of the funniest things the whole night of rather funnycraziness. They have an event called Stump the Experts where abunch of long time Apple engineers are on stage, and the audiencehas a chance to ask questions, about anything to try and stumpthem. But, the guys on stage get to pose questions trying to stumpthe collective audience as well.

Microphones are setup around the audience where people can queue upto answer various questions that are presented through out thenight. One of these questions was in regards to six songs that wereplaying over the PA while people were coming in to the auditorium,and just prior to the event starting. The audience was asked toname the songs and the artist. You know random music that is playedbefore large events. No one is really paying attention.

Well, about early on one person was able to identify one song. Forhalf an hour or so, maybe two others attempted to identify acouple, but failed. After a while, a guy who had been standing inthe queue for some time, made it up to the mic. He was able to namenot only all six songs and their artists, but also the album andyear of release. This stopped the entire entourage of engineers onthe stage, and silenced the audience. (It was a rowdy crazy night.) The hosts, also engineers who were rather good comedian, were goingnuts. They asked the guy who he was, who he worked for. He gave hisfirst name, and said that he could not say to the later. Thiscreated a great deal of excitement from everyone. When asked how heknew, he said, "my iPhone told me!" It took some some time for thecheering to stop, but when it did, the hosts and some others weresurrounding him, and he finally caved. He works for a company thatdoes audio pattern recognition, and he was testing his iPhoneapplication that night from his seat.

Needless to say, he was well received by all 2000 people. They alsogave him several of the prizes, which ranged from shirts, computeraccessories, and rather expensive software packages but Apple,Adobe and others.

Very funny. As soon as I saw the Shazam app Thursday, I was playingwith all over the place.

(my wife, connie, chris' mom, also got the FREE shazam app for heripod touch last night. very cool app.

regards, roger

Shamless iPhone App Plug, From Roger
From Chris to me
Dad

BattleAtSea made the front page of TUAW.com today.. I got a littleover 2000 hits so far since 3pm. Pretty cool. And Apple officiallyaccepted the app into the store, so it will be there on launch thisFriday.

Thanks, Chris

(This is from my son, Chris Born, for his new iPhone game Battle AtSea, being released Friday for the new iPhone 3G. He already turneddown an offer to work at Apple because of his free Five Dice game,which he wrote last year. (He told them ''ask me again nextyear''). - not to toot my own horn here or nothing. (grin) Also,expect his great Five Dice iPhone/Touch game to be released inabout a week. Still only 5 bucks.)

From Chad,
Robert,

My primary reasons for getting touch were:

1. To replace my old 3G iPod whose hard drive had failed.
2. Replace my old Palm V organizer.

My 16G Touch has been a great replacement for both.

I don't use it for photos, so I don't miss the camera feature, buta built in mic would be nice to capture memos to myself a littlemore quickly. The only thing I really felt it was missing was agood task organizer.

Since the App Store went live, I have purchased the OmniFocus app,and have been very pleased with it. I don't know as I'd buy thefull version for the Mac, since I try not to take work home andwould rather not spend my evenings organizing work activities athome.

In retrospect, the one thing I wished I would have done is pickedup the 32G model. Right now I have only 2G of available space lefton this one.

If you don't need the phone features or access to the Edge or 3G,the Touch is just as good a platform as the iPhone, IMHO.