Not Quite As Good As My Old PDA

I finally splashed out the other weekend and bought an iPod Touch, even going so far as to buy the 32 GB version. I had some thank you money from my involvement in PLP over the summer, our prime minister is encouraging Australians to spend their way out of the recession and I was curious to get a little taste of what the Mac zealots were always carrying on about. Well, it is a very enjoyable toy but my first impressions after nearly a fortnight of use is that it is really a consumption tool, as opposed to a creativity tool. I mean, I am tapping out this post rather painfully right now while this sort of task was considerably easier on my old Pocket PC using a stylus and hand writing recognition.
There's no doubt that it has liberated a fair bit of music from my old CD collection but now I need to buy a converter to liberate my extensive cassette tape collection and help fill up this little contraption. We'll also see how it goes picking up stray wi-fi next week on our family holiday in Melbourne.
Hmmmm.....maybe there is a Macbook Pro in my future even though I don't see how Mac loving Windows critics can claim any form of moral superiority when two proprietary systems square off against each other.

-- Post From My iPod Touch

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5 thoughts on “Not Quite As Good As My Old PDA

  1. Paul Luke

    Hi Graham – seems like we have been both like two big kids in the lolly (candy) shop over the last two weeks. I have spent far tooo much time on my new iPhone – trying to keep my kids from taking over. Being a Mac user – I have found the syncing capabilities between my MBP and the iPhone to be a pretty good match – with on the fly access (on the iPhone) to Mail, iCal (inc spanning sync with Google Cal) and newsfeeds with NetNewsWire / Newsgator (just to name a few).
    Re the comparison with the PDA stylus – have a try at the WritePad app (iTunes Store) – once you get the settings write – your finger acts as the stylus and in no time you’ll find yourself punching out a stack of notes in no time. Re the creativity part – can’t go past this clip demonstrating innovation with musical composition at Live iPhone musical performance – Kids by MGMT played on iPhones and iPod Touches – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjx5_-SPhk0
    Another app that have interested is TrailGuru – which is a great free tool to capture and track and maps your movements – eg walking, cycling, etc – you post your data including pics to the web and get a full blown analysis of your journey – ave speed, distance travelled, elevation, a map etc.

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  2. Tim Wicks

    I am a Mac Man, if there is such a thing. Until last year I had always used PCs, taking them apart and recreating them. That is what I loved about them.

    Then on a whim I bought a 24″ Imac. I have never looked back, I won’t go on about all the cool attributes (other than the MONSTER screen), other than to say I love it.

    I have also had a couple of PDAs, the latest is a Jasjam, which I have had for a couple of years. I have been keen to try an ipod, and finally went into a store about a month ago to have a look.
    I liked it. But that’s all. It looks better than the Jasjam; sexier and it hooks up to the Imac straight up. The killer was the keypad: it is lame and I just cant text fast enough on it. How do you find the keypad Graham?

    Anyway, I will wait a bit longer before I splurge.

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  3. Graham Wegner

    Thanks for the links, Bill. It is nice to have a few options that might be suitable to actually get personal (as in doesn’t have to be shared) technology into students’ hands. I personally think it is still a year or two away from where we can offer a device for students from our school but it is the right direction to go. The technology is here but the pedagogy, the parental support and technical support is still evolving. Miguel’s review is very comprehensive, for sure.

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