It’s been a little over a month since I got my iPod Touch. Here are a couple of observations to supplement my ranting about the quality of the music player.
App Store Surprisingly, I’m not finding a whole of useful stuff in the App Store. I’m really not much into gaming which seems to be a category that dominates the ratings. Right now the only app type that I’m thinking of picking up is some kind of task or productivity manager. I grabbed Evernote and Instapaper, yet still haven’t put them to any use.
e-books The one sample chapter of Neuromancer that I read using iBooks was actually quite pleasant. Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPhone is up next. I’m going to use it to read Charles Stross’ free novellette Overtime. I could get to like this e-book thing. Hopefully publishers will get the pricing straightened out. I can’t remember the title, but they were asking $11.99 for an e-book edition when I could have bought the paperback for $9.99.
Social Media I enjoy social media browsing and light feed reading much more on the touch. Browsing Twitter and Facebook one handed, leaning back, with my feet up, just feels more natural and appropriate. Flicking through some low intensity feeds with NetNewsWire is a breeze. In general, the Touch is really good at filling interstitial spaces.
Podcasting Video podcasts? Other than The Economist video segments (quite nicely done despite the loud Lotus intros), I’ve been pretty disappointed. Might as well be extended radio segments. This Week in Google is surprisingly weak given the pedigree. It’s an hour of unorganized chit-chat which tends to be pretty close to content free. They really need a good radio producer to give the show some structure and focus.
The new iPhone 4 induced a little bit of feature envy, but I’m still pretty happy with the Touch. Not having readily available 3G definitely does have an impact though. The device feels totally different when it has no connectivity.