Note: This blog (an email thread between the MyMac Staff) concerns the iPod Touch (version 1.0) and the new Apple Update (2.0) for the new Apple iPhone (version 2.0) and the existing Touch. A newer (and maybe cheaper) version of the Touch is expected soon (iPod Touch version 2.0)
From Robert
Hey,
I know Chad has an iPod Touch but I am sending this to the entire staff 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 to avoid).
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 and speakers.
Sent from my iPod Touch.
From Roger
robert,
my wife connie has the touch. she loves it. especially with the new 2.0 update and all the new apps. some are free and some she has bought ($5-10 each). she says what she misses is a microphone so she can dictate notes. the other thing is a camera. she does not miss the phone feature of the $10,000 cost to operate it over four years (we took to heart that recent joyoftech cartoon). connie uses the touch to access her online email account, to surf the web, and to handle her teacher-ease grading program for her school job. very cool.
given the new low $199 cost of the new iphone 3g, she would buy one if there was a way to get it without the at&t service plan, or no phone plan at all. the new iphone is almost as thin as the touch and has both a camera and a microphone, and it cost less. it is a bit heavier, and the battery life still is not as long-lasting as the touch, but if she manages to get one, i will then inherit her touch.
here is the whole point. to me, the touch is the new mac.
it has everything the mac has, except a keyboard, but both connie and i are pretty fast with the virtual finger keyboard on the screen. i would not write a book on it, so i will still keep my laptop, but for any and everything else we use the touch.
since connie cannot use the touch at school (things like these grow legs and walk away) she leaves the touch at home for me to use. connie instead bought a used 30gb ipod video that she uses at school to run movies and powerpoint on the school projector via the apple AV cable. it was $100 and if it walks away she is not out a lot. besides, the kids there don’t want an old ipod like they would a touch. BTW, the ipod video is only half full, including all the movies connie needs for her english class for the year, and all the daily class notes, and all the powerpoint presentations for the year. wowser. while it was on her ipod touch, it really filled it up. now all she has on her 8 gb touch is her music, her email and her apps and games. it is not even half full. (once i inherit this ipod 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 virtual keyboard is amazing. you slide your finger around the keyboard to each letter, to make a word instead of hitting on individual keys. this is even better than the keyboard that comes with the ipod touch. and like the built-in virtual keyboard, the Writing Pad app adds a space after each word you type. across the top of the keyboard on the screen is a list of similar words to choose from if the 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/sm radio and it is free. in the car with our mobile attachment to the bottom of the touch, we get channels that are not available here in barsow through the touch using the AOLradio app.
instapaper is so cool because we can capture any news paper online and save it for reading later. in fact any website can be captured the same way. since the touch only uses wifi and has not always on internet connection like the iphone 3g does, this is an invaluable app for the touch user.
connie uses the flashlight app a lot, after dark, and it is very bright, turning the touch screen into a large LED light.
you all already know about shazam and how it gets the name and the artist of any music that is playing close by. and you already know about our son’s two games out on the iphone, but seriously, you have to try writing pad.
more than this, with the new upgrade connie can access both microsoft word files and powerpoint files, with copy and paste – as well as using acrobat files too. before she could only get those on her touch via the emai as attachments she would sent to herself. these attachements would open just fine in the email app, so they could be both scaled and read easily. but this update supplies the final barrier that is to be broken, to make the touch equal in use to the macintosh. with the new upgrade now she can also open and modify these documents as well as open them and display them on an overhead or video screen.
i still wish there were a larger verion of the touch – say the size of a two-handed sony PSP (5 by 9 inches). a larger touch version would still fit in my jacket pocket, and with a bigger screen and an attached real keyboard, it would be just about perfect.
besides, apple might be more likely to come up with a larger touch than the smaller ibook a lot of us want, right?
i appreciate all you guys here. thanks for making my days a lot brighter with all the goings-on at mymac.
regards, roger
From David,
Roger, what exactly are you using on the WiFi-only Touch that allows you to keep in contact with AOL’s Internet radio stream while driving in the car?
From Roger
david,
(grin) thought someone might notice that. we park around town both here in barstow and nearby victorville where wifi is prevalent. southern california has so many wifi transmitters, we could almost drive between towns using it. which beggers the question of paying high monthly fees for always-on mobile access to the internet. not every place has 3g out here, so even with the new iphone, service will be slow. wifi is so much faster and free, what with a starbucks every few blocks.
it is not that we are going out to park around town looking for free wifi connections. we have time-warner cable modem here at home, connected to a d-link wireless router. but when we do go out, we happen to find connections for connie’s touch all over the place. so we go through the drive-thru at starbucks, or listen to music out under the stars while parking up on the sports complex hill. wifi even works at the local drive-in movie theater. nights here in the high desert are always awesome. but it was the AOLradio app 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 on our car radio dial here in barstow.
(note – some starbucks charge a monthly subscription fee for their wifi usage, or so i have been told. barstow is on the i-15 that runs from los angeles to las vegas, what with all the motels and even the trains and bus station here, all that is needed, is to turn your touch on and connect to some wifi automatically, and/or just call the place you are driving by and ask for their free wifi password.
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 in this:
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 the iPhone features (camera, speaker, mic) but since it’s now deactivated 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 has everything the mac has, except a keyboard, but both of us are pretty fast on the finger keys on the screen.
Roger,
I tend to agree. Since I got the Touch I use it more than my iBook for checking email around the house. It is great for when I have the baby sleeping in my arms and nothing to do. I grab the Touch and check email and surf the net. Now with the apps I play games on it, too. We are going out of town next week and I usually take the iBook. I’m just taking the Touch this time. Less to take and will be perfect for the overnight trip!
Donny
from donny
To Staff,
I still think the (touch 2.0) price will drop more in September or at the next iPod event and more features will be added/more storage (although the 8GB model is working fine for me. I still have over 3gb to spare).
Donny
From Roger
dear lee,
my son has the iphone 1.0, although he and his wife just bought the new one (family plan, less than 15 minutes to buy and activate at the apple store). i think the iphone 1.0 is large and clunky next to the touch 1.0. in fact the original iphone now reminds me of the original 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 thinner and the battery lasts a lot longer. nor does it cost as much. what’s 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? or are 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 is 8 GB iPod nano, a 3G, Virgin Mobile USA Snapper phone ($5/mo for service), and a Palm Tungsten C – which I depend on to do my checkbook & 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 with VM), 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 flip phone. With that I could still use all my old Palm apps, take advantage of all the forthcoming mobile Linux features (including email & browsing etc. which is far superior to my TC), and have a much better phone.
The thing that tempts me now is the iPod touch. The thing is amazing (games, Safari, Mail, MobileMe “push”), but the wi-fi only could likely limit the data usability for me and there is no checkbook app. As much as I’m tempted to get an iPod touch I just need to wait & see how the app situation evolves; what happens with Palm; and what Virgin Mobile does. I had an interesting email exchange with an exec with Virgin Mobile USA, and they are at least looking at SmartPhones. If they came out with a Palm Centro before the 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 keep checking 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 going to be abandoning that.
but my bank offers access to our bank accounts online, so we use safari on the touch to see them, and their checkbook features are pretty good, actually, so i can sit down and load in the card receipts from my back pocket to reconcile my account (we don’t use checks, but pay all our bills online with the card) these automatic payments already show up in our account, so all that may be missing is the short-term activity from using our card at stores and restaurants. and since i keep all those stupid receipts (and know where 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 of the palm or other devices. my wife already has an older palm trio, a palm lifedrive, and several neat and thin phones we still use from t-mobile (pay-as-you-go, no monthly service charges, 10 cents a minute, etc.). we still use these phones, but the touch takes the place of everything else.
regards, roger
From Roger
John
there is just so much to talk about with the touch and the 2.0 upgrade, it is embarrassing. i wonder if steve jobs knows how people feel about the iphone and the touch compared to their macintoshes?
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 the checkbook and having a secondary register. I know there’s a checkbook web app for the iPhone/touch, but it doesn’t work the way I want it to – potential security issues not withstanding.
I’m itchy, but still in a wait & see mode. If I got an iPod touch and then Virgin Mobile USA & Palm did everything I hoped for… And then what if StyleTap for iPhone/iPod touch sees the light of day… Or what if Android is really good… Or what if someone comes out with a checkbook app that’s fantastic… Too many swirling “what if”s for me to make a move right now, as cool as the iPod touch is.
Thanks, Tom
From John
What do you do (with all them cell phones), put ’em all in a basket by the front door? 
I just have the one cell phone, and I still can’t add contacts or send a text message without reading the manual. Curiously, I’ve never added more than my wife to my contacts, and I can’t recall that I’ve ever sent a text message. This phone makes all kinds of clicks and beeps at odd times of the day or night, and I have no idea what’s going on.
Eek. I just forgot how to go online. Hey, what is this thing in front 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 a built-in microphone to access the music it needs to hear. To use it on 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 funny craziness. They have an event called Stump the Experts where a bunch of long time Apple engineers are on stage, and the audience has a chance to ask questions, about anything to try and stump them. But, the guys on stage get to pose questions trying to stump the collective audience as well.
Microphones are setup around the audience where people can queue up to answer various questions that are presented through out the night. One of these questions was in regards to six songs that were playing over the PA while people were coming in to the auditorium, and just prior to the event starting. The audience was asked to name the songs and the artist. You know random music that is played before large events. No one is really paying attention.
Well, about early on one person was able to identify one song. For half an hour or so, maybe two others attempted to identify a couple, but failed. After a while, a guy who had been standing in the queue for some time, made it up to the mic. He was able to name not only all six songs and their artists, but also the album and year of release. This stopped the entire entourage of engineers on the stage, and silenced the audience. (It was a rowdy crazy night.)
The hosts, also engineers who were rather good comedian, were going nuts. They asked the guy who he was, who he worked for. He gave his first name, and said that he could not say to the later. This created a great deal of excitement from everyone. When asked how he knew, he said, “my iPhone told me!” It took some some time for the cheering to stop, but when it did, the hosts and some others were surrounding him, and he finally caved. He works for a company that does audio pattern recognition, and he was testing his iPhone application that night from his seat.
Needless to say, he was well received by all 2000 people. They also gave him several of the prizes, which ranged from shirts, computer accessories, and rather expensive software packages but Apple, Adobe and others.
Very funny. As soon as I saw the Shazam app Thursday, I was playing with all over the place.
(my wife, connie, chris’ mom, also got the FREE shazam app for her ipod 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 little over 2000 hits so far since 3pm. Pretty cool. And Apple officially accepted the app into the store, so it will be there on launch this Friday.
Thanks, Chris
(This is from my son, Chris Born, for his new iPhone game Battle At Sea, being released Friday for the new iPhone 3G. He already turned down an offer to work at Apple because of his free Five Dice game, which he wrote last year. (He told them ”ask me again next year”). – not to toot my own horn here or nothing. (grin) Also, expect his great Five Dice iPhone/Touch game to be released in about 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, but a built in mic would be nice to capture memos to myself a little more quickly. The only thing I really felt it was missing was a good 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 the full version for the Mac, since I try not to take work home and would rather not spend my evenings organizing work activities at home.
In retrospect, the one thing I wished I would have done is picked up the 32G model. Right now I have only 2G of available space left on 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.
Chad
Sent from my iPod
From Richard
To Staff,
…and that is what I am waiting for…Touch 2.
FIN (for now)
.
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