Apple: Give me a free iPhone 3GS

So there I was, back in December 2008 --- all ecstatic about the iPhone Killer in the form of the Nokia N97. The specs (3.5inch tilting touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, GPS, 5megapixel camera and a 32GB internal memory) sounded awesome then, but recent reviews and user reports on Nokias' discussion forum (over 800 posts on a search with "N97 problem") are making me worried (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

I was hoping to upgrade to Nokia's flagship phone, but reading reviews and user feedback have now convinced me that an Apple iPhone 3GS will be the better choice (Apple, if you read this, you courier me one, it will work very well with my MacBook Air and Airport Express (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) .

Nokia N97 issues reported on the Nokia forum (most of them on the latest v11 firmware):

GPS Issues: Many users complain about the phones (in)capability to lock on to satellites. Some blame it on overclouding, others had their phone replaced and some report that the GPS (in comparison to an iPhone or TomTom) reports the location off by several 100 metres (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) .

The integrated GPS does not seem work well or fast (up to 2 minutes to lock onto satellites) and many users result to rely on AGPS (which will chow your bandwidth like there was no tomorrow .

Signal strength: Firmware version v11 seems to have improved the signal strength problem. If you do a side-by-side comparison with a N95 or 5800 you will find that those phones will show 3 bars, while the N97 will barely show one. This occurs on both 3G and normal EDGE/GSM network modes (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

Widget stability: Still many issues, with widgets either not refreshing, crashing or just not responding at all

In car calling: The N97 supports TV Out (via a Nokia Video-Out CA-75U cable) to hook up your phone to your in-car-entertainment system. While the N95 works perfectly, the N97 displays the video, but any attempt to make a call (voice dialing or manual) or receive call shuts down audio - quite disappointing, considering that this worked flawless on N95's (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

Speaker quality: Compared to the Nokia 5800, the N97's speakers have poor volume and seem to be plagued by lack of bass and too much trebble. True, the 5800 is the "music-phone" but I would expect similar quality in a USD 700,00 phone. The speakers seems to be optimised for good voice-/speaker-phone functionality, but lack in the multimedia-/entertainment division (Dell TT485 Battery) .

Transition effects: This will get Nokia into some sort of trouble. If you watch the YouTube marketing video you will see some nifty transitions. Pity, that those are currently not available in the N97 production version. The phone itself seems to be already slow when it comes to widgets and adding this functionality will certainly have a performance penalty (Dell XT832 Battery) .

Compass calibration flawed: My word - better head over to this post if your screen rotation resets the compass calibration. Not a good thing if you rely on this functionality and can not trust the device (Hp 520 battery) .

Received text messages not showing the sender: I hope you don't have friends sharing a landline or multiple contacts with the same home-phone number, because the N97 will not show you at least one contact name, and this was "perfectly" justified by Nokia: 'Quote: "If the phone finds the same number against more than one name (IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet battery) .

it doesn't know which to use so, perfectly sensibly, it defaults to showing the number."' - not sure about "perfectly sensibly - I would have assumed a more user intuitive approach would have helped (Acer Extensa 500 battery) .

Flawed music app: If you happen to have in excess of 300-400 albums, it will take about 30 seconds for the library to load or 10 seconds for the artist list to display. One user reported that his N97's music library "lost" all music and it took 15 hours to refresh the music library (granted it consisted of 737 albums (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) .

Exchange support: You can run Mail for Exchange and v2.9 seems to be better than 2.7 on the N95, but to have a proper mail-experience you will need to purchase RoadSync. Puzzles me about Nokia's choice of product placement, it appears that the N75 is the true communicator. Again, I would have thought that better corporate support would be bundled wit the phone (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

Contact management / labels: No support to edit existing labels. Don't get irritated if you sync your phone the first time, only to notice that all personal mobile phone numbers are now placed in the business-mobile label (Ibm ThinkPad X41 Tablet battery) .

Calendaring: So you saw those call transitions and full calendar views in landscape mode. Guess what? Your new N97 will only show you today's event in the home-screen. Even my current (and two year old) N73ME will at least show me events for tomorrow if I am on the last event for today (Sony VGP-BPL9 battery) .

While I typically don't follow the hype and prefer to judge the quality of a phone myself, I do believe that customer feedback on Nokia's support forum are a better representation of a products quality. Although Nokia is quick in fixing issues, Nokia is also known to abandon phones after a certain period of time and to me, the N97 does not seem to have a lifespan of more than 12 months (Sony VGP-BPL11 battery) .

Phone Interface and App

Peavey Electronics and Agile Partners partner up to launch an app and interface that models amps/effects and a studio.

Meridian, MS (June 16, 2010) – Musical-instrument and sound-equipment innovator Peavey Electronics and leading iPhone applications developer and 2010 Apple Design Award winner Agile Partners announced the two companies are joining forces to launch AmpKit?, a guitar amp and effects iPhone application, and AmpKit (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) ?

LiNK?, a high-fidelity audio interface for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Together, AmpKit? and AmpKit? LiNK? provide musicians of all skill levels with a powerful and convenient way to jam with high quality tones anytime and anywhere (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) .

The AmpKit? LiNK? audio interface raises the audio fidelity bar for the iPhone platform. AmpKit? LiNK? is a high fidelity iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad interface for electric guitar, bass, or any line level source, with an output that can be connected to headphones, powered speakers or a PA. AmpKit (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) ?

LiNK’s CrossTalk? Eliminator solves the feedback problem inherent in existing unpowered iPhone interfaces. The interface can be used with any recording, processing, or tuning application, including Agile Partners’ GuitarToolkit (Dell Precision M70 Battery) ?.

AmpKit features include:

Amps

Starting with the Peavey ValveKing? amp that comes free with AmpKit?, AmpKit? offers amps that are based on legends, amps that roar, and amps that crunch when you turn them up (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

Each amp in AmpKit? is modeled after the real amp’s actual circuitry and includes individual controls that match up with the most important knobs and switches on the amp. Many amps include multiple channels: the Peavey ValveKing?, for example, includes both Clean and Lead channels. Add new amps to AmpKit? through the in-app Gear Store, making AmpKit? infinitely extendable. There are 11 amps and 19 amp channels available currently (Dell TT485 Battery) .

Pedals

A total of 15 pedals make up AmpKit’s pedal selection. The user can run as many as a dozen or even more effects pedals at a time. Available effects include: multiple distortion and fuzz pedals, reverb, delay, 10-band EQ, octave, chorus, flanger, phaser, vibrato, noise gate, and compressor. The free AmpKit? app includes three pedals, with 12 additional pedals available in the Gear Store and more to come (Dell XT832 Battery) .

Cabs

AmpKit gives you total control of your cabinets. The AmpKit? app includes two awesome cabinets for free: the Peavey ValveKing? 4x12 and ValveKing? 112. You can add up to 11 more cabinets as you add amps through the Gear Store, from workhorse cabs with solid mid tones to powerful cabs with colorful crunches and sparkling highs. AmpKit’s polished user interface makes it easy to choose from a wide range of cabinets, mix and match cabinets with different amps, and save your favorite setups (Hp 520 battery) .

Mics

AmpKit gives you total control of the microphone and the microphone positioning. The app includes two mics. Six additional mics are available in the Gear Store, from rugged dynamic mics that can handle whatever volume you dish out to amazing condenser mics with the frequency and transient response you need, all with ultra-low latency (IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet battery) .

Tools

AmpKit includes tools you need for a guitar audio studio.

Recording & Reamping: AmpKit? allows you to record as you play. Since it records both dry, unprocessed guitar audio and wet sound that has run through the amp and effects chain, you can actually take your recording and “reamp” it through a different amp setup (Acer Extensa 500 battery) .

Backing Tracks: Upload your favorite songs and play along, or record your own backing tracks.

Tuner & Metronome: AmpKit? includes ultra-precise tuner and metronome capabilities.

Availability & Ordering (Dell Studio 1737 battery )

The AmpKit? LiNK? guitar interface will be available for pre-order from the Peavey online store as well as from dealers, distributors and retail stores for $39.99. The AmpKit? app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad will be available in the Apple iTunes App Store (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

Apple iPad

Well this post is a bit of a milestone for me on two fronts. Firstly this marks a return to writing for me after several months. The second is that I never actually thought I'd be writing about a "tablet pc" by Apple, not so much because of the long standing rumours but no product but mainly because before the release of the iPad I simply wasn't interested in tablet / slate computing (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

Follow up:

My skepticism for all things tablet is well founded after years of terrible devices. All of these devices were bulky, badly thought out and ran a full operating system that was about as at home with a touch screen interface as a canoe would be in the open sea (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) .

Plain and simple it just didn't work, and hearing about an Apple tablet running OS X that no doubt would be better just didn't seem to excite me in any way.

Then the day arrived and Apple demonstrated the iPad in a media event. Oh how my feelings have changed (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

Apple showed off a product that was thin, ran a modified version of the iPhone OS (which is still the best touch screen interface I have seen) and above all else looked like a product that would appeal to a wide audience (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) .

I was instantly taken with the product, but why? Was it the Steve Jobs reality distortion field kicking in? Nope it wasn't that. Something was very different here, a custom made OS for a custom made device. Low power use, long battery life, stunning screen and usability in abundance here (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

This is a product that would meet a long standing need of mine, enabling me to email and browse the web from the comfort of the sofa. Sure my iPhone is great, but for long emails or serious web browsing, the small screen just doesn't cut it (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

What about netbooks? Well, they run a full bodied operating system on low power hardware. It works well enough but the laptop like design makes it a little harder to use on the sofa, when you may not want to be sitting up all the time. So Apple created a device that can be used pretty much anywhere, anytime and without having to sit in a particular way (Dell TT485 Battery) .

That's an emphatic tick in the box for me.

Next, the interface. Netbooks tend to have 10 inch widescreen displays, never a bad thing but window clutter eats in to the useable space. By window clutter I mean things like the taskbar, menu bars, window dressing etc (Dell XT832 Battery) .

All things that the iPad doesn't suffer from. All applications are full screen and even the browser bar in safari doesn't take up that much real estate. More screen for your applications? Another tick for me (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) .

As you'd expect from Apple, the way the iPad OS works is seemless and slick. Animations, functionality and responsiveness all appear to be intact. But beyond anything else, the iPad just looks fun to use. Interacting with your content the way Apple envisage makes simple things like browsing photo albums come alive. I think that's another box ticked (Dell Studio XPS 1340 Battery) .

Once again Apple have created a product that is desirable and for me personally looks like a great option for sofa browsing. The catch is though, the iPad is released in the USA as I write this and selling very well. The rest of us however, still have a couple of weeks to wait before we see the iPad on these shores. I for one can't wait to test drive the iPad in my local Apple store (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) . This is one product to watch, it could prove to define a market and change the way we think about computing in ways we never thought of before.

Five business uses for an Apple iPad

Since Apple?s Steve Jobs loped onto the stage in San Francisco to unveil his latest digital creation, the vast majority of coverage has focused on what the device will do for consumers. But I see big potential in the corporate world as well (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

I should say at the outset I?m not an Apple fan boy. While I acknowledge beautiful design when I see it, the ?Do it our way or no way? ethos espoused by Apple makes me squirm (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) .

That said, there is a lot to like about the iPad and I believe it will provide a healthy kick to what has until now been a very lacklustre category: tablet devices (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

But what place will they have in the business world? Here?s five potential uses to start the ball rolling (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) :

* Stepping closer to the paperless office

Much of daily corporate dealings still rely on paper. Everything from reports and memos to invoices and stock sheets find themselves in paper form at some point in their lives. Equipping managerial staff with iPads could go a long way to alleviating many paper trails. The good sized screen means things that would have been habitually printed out to read or take on the road can now remain in electronic form (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

* Slicker customer proposals

The relatively low cost of the iPad will allow them to be incorporated as part of big client proposals. Why just leave a print out of a PowerPoint presentation we you could leave an electronic copy, together with embedded audio and video, for the CEO to enjoy at their leisure? If it wins you the big contract, an iPad is a small investment to make (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

* Better media monitoring

Rather than subscribing to multiple magazines and newspapers for the office, switch to electronic versions and have them downloaded to a number of shared devices. Staff can borrow them to read as required, returning them to the pool when they?ve finished. It?s a big step forward from sharing that dog-eared magazine that?s a month out of date (Dell TT485 Battery) .

* Replacing notebooks

Face it. Many people who lug around notebook PCs only use a fraction of their capabilities. Equipping selected staff with iPads could reduce both costs and shoulder strain (Dell XT832 Battery) .

* New business opportunities

Once there is a critical mass of iPads in the market, new and unforseen business opportunities will emerge. The device could revolutionise everything from books and magazines to games and video. Keep an open mind to what this could mean for your business (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) .

So, there?s five. What other corporate uses can you see for the iPad?

World Browser War III : HTML 5 vs. Flash : Flash is Not Satan

Over the past week, I have been surprised by the number of eMails and calls I have received from people in my network regarding HTML 5, Flash, Adobe and Apple. Folks in my eLearning circle are abuzz and asking questions about the future of Flash and the Web and what "these changes" are going to do to the field of eLearning development (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

I am so over it.

I really, truly believe that right now, at this moment, it?s a non-issue. Initially, I was concerned because of Apple's childish decision (there, I've said it) not to include the Flash player on their iPad and iPhone. Then I started thinking about how my business was going to be impacted by the lack of Flash on these devices, and I had a huge "So what?" moment. So what if I can't run my stuff on iPads and iPhones? Are my business clients going to be negatively impacted because they cannot run "Effective eMails and You" on their iPad (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) ?

Odds are, I think that we won't see any kind of major investment into iPads at the corporate level. Why? Do you see IT teams making decisions to replace Blackberries with iPhones? Do you see IT teams issuing NetBooks to their employees instead of laptops and desktops? Is the iPad that much more powerful than a NetBook? Is the App store a blessing or a curse to an IT team concerned about privacy issues (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) ?

If I issue my employee an iPad, do I dictate which apps are allowed to run? Who gets the app the employee purchased after termination? And on and on and on?in this climate, business have more important things to think about than jumping ship to a new technology infrastructure (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

What about the business of HTML 5 killing Flash? Why are they mutually exclusive of each other? HTML 5 has a long, long way to go before the standards are finalized; generous estimates state that the standards will be in place in 5 years; conservative estimates consider 10 years a more realistic guess. Either way, this means that the web designer/programmer and eLearning designer/programmer is facing 5-10 years of pain because of the ultimate weak link: the browser (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

HTML 5 is a programming language, but it is up to the browser to interpret that language and display the content. If the browser can't render the code, strange things start to happen in the display. We are facing that now with some versions of CSS. Different browsers on different platforms interpret the CSS differently and browsers display the content as they see fit. Look at sites on your Mac using Safari or Firefox and then on your PC using Internet Explorer - slight differences may appear if your programmer used CSS to any major degree (Dell TT485 Battery) .

Until HTML 5 gets standardized, each browser will interpret it differently. It's World Browser War III.

I have to tell you from experience (building on the web since 1996), clients don't get it and they don't care. If it works fine on your machine but breaks on the client machine, it?s broken. Clients don't want or appreciate long winded explanations of how browsers work; they paid you to design and program something and it doesn't work on their computer (Dell XT832 Battery) .

You stink. It's a painful process of trial and error, multiple browser testing and all that stuff we used to HAVE to do during the previous World Brower Wars.

Adobe CTO says that they are going to make the best tools for HTML 5 and people scream "OMG!!! Adobe is saying that they are going to drop Flash (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) !!!"

No, it means that Adobe is going to keep current with browser coding tech and make their tools better by including it, just like they did with previous versions of HTML and with CSS. It's nothing to hoot about - it's a great step in the right direction. Adobe has always done this with Dreamweaver to ensure that coders have the most current tools at their fingertips. It?s great, and in no way says anything negative about Flash (Dell RM791 battery) .

And while I am on that note, why is Flash suddenly Satan?

As far as I'm concerned, Flash is awesome. For me and my customers, it is the best way to deliver interactive content and eLearning for distribution over the web. Period.

Think about this: The odds are HUGE that the HTML 5 standard will still support browser plug-ins which means Flash will run just fine in HTML 5 standard browsers (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

Your current Flash movies and content will run in the HTML 5 standard browser, as long as that browser allows for the Flash plug-in. Based on the current specs (point 2.1.5), the use of plug-ins hasn?t gone away. Repeat after me ? HTML 5 browsers will run your Flash projects (Dell inspiron 1501 battery) .

Right now, the big whoopdy is Flash video vs. HTML 5's video capabilities. Sure, the browser will now be able to play video files, but what about the interactive capabilities of Flash? Will HTML 5 allow me to create the unique, interactive learning experiences that I build in Flash (Dell Vostro 1000 battery) ?

Will HTML 5 allow me to store variables and convert them to numbers, compute on those numbers and then deliver customized responses based on those numbers? Will HTML 5 allow me to program ?If...Then? paths based on user feedback and decision making? It doesn?t look like it (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

Flash is a great tool and the files it creates display the same in every browser on every platform. The inconsistencies in the way the browser displays content has no impact on your .swf. It runs the same, it looks the same, it feels the same, and it sounds the same on each and every platform. It is a stable tech that my clients understand and provides me with creative flexibility. I don?t every have to say ?no? to a client when building in Flash (Dell Studio XPS 1340 Battery) .

It needs to be stressed again that just because HTML 5 is coming out doesn't mean that Flash goes away. By the time HTML 5 standards are finalized, Adobe will have released Flash CS6, CS7, CS8 and maybe even CS9. Developers and the general public are freaking because Apple is ignoring the huge install base, the huge number of Flash developers and issues some sweeping statements against Flash. Since when is Apple the ?be all, end all? of computing technology? If Apple says it, it must be the right (Dell Inspiron 300M Battery) ?

In 2006, the W3C indicated an interest to participate in the development of HTML5 and in 2007 formed a working group chartered to work with the WHATWG on the development of the HTML5 specification. Odds are, you didn't know about it until Apple kicked Flash to the curb a month ago ( HP Pavilion dv9000 battery) .

I truly believe HTML 5 a long way off, will be filled with developer frustration as the browsers work on figuring out how to display the code, and it will not have the same multimedia and computational power I currently enjoy using Flash.

Clients don't always care about the technology, they just want it to look a certain way and to work as they want it to work (HP Pavilion dv6000 Battery) .

Until HTML 5 standards are finalized and all the browsers have figured out how to display the code, and until I can create the same multimedia/interactive experience for my learners, I'm going to continue developing my eLearning in Flash (Acer Aspire One battery) .

Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad: Which e-book reader should you buy?

If you're in the market for an e-book reader, the past couple of weeks have considerably changed your options, and for the better. Barnes & Noble's and Amazon's new products and price drops have made their e-book reader hardware considerably more affordable, and you now have excellent options available in the $149 to $199 price range. Also, a flood of new reading-centric apps continues to solidify the Apple iPad's position as the premium media tablet of choice (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

With these new variables, now is a perfect time to re-evaluate the e-book reader landscape and figure out which product is best for you. If you're an experienced shopper, you can jump straight to our list of top e-book readers; however, everyone else can consult this quick guide, which boils the purchase decision down to five questions (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) :

1.How much are you willing to spend?

You ask this same straightforward question yourself with every purchase decision. At the bottom of the price scale, you'll find lesser-known readers such as the Aluratek Libre and Kobo eReader that now cost as little as $119 to $129 (the latter price is if you factor in a $20 gift card from Borders). However, we strongly steer bargain hunters toward the Barnes & Noble Nook. The company's new Wi-Fi-only version of its Nook reader has an ultra-affordable $149 price tag (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) .

If you want to step up to an e-book reader with 3G wireless that lets you download books and magazines anywhere there's AT&T cellular coverage, we recommend that you consider the Amazon Kindle or 3G Nook, which cost $189 and $199, respectively (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

Amazon's large-screen Kindle DX and the Apple iPad dominate the high-end e-book reader market. The Kindle DX costs $379, while the iPad ranges in price from $499 (16GB, Wi-Fi only) to $829 (64GB, Wi-Fi plus 3G). Yes, both of these devices are considerably more expensive than the aforementioned readers, but the iPad is more of a Netbook or laptop competitor than it is an e-book reader competitor (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

The iPad offers a variety of step-up features--such as a color touch screen, full-motion video, and thousands of apps--that aren't available on more affordable e-book models (Dell TT485 Battery) .

We know there are a variety of competing e-book readers available that we didn't mention, including the trio of Sony Reader models, Entourage Edge, and the Alex eReader. That's because we don't consider any of them truly competitive with the Nook, Kindle, or iPad at their current prices (Dell XT832 Battery) .

2.How large of a screen (and weight) do you want?

Even if you plan to never leave home with your e-book reader, you should consider its size before buying one. Since you hold the device in front of you whenever you want to read, the weight and size can be an issue. The smallest and lightest e-book reader we've seen is the Sony Reader Pocket Edition, which has a 5-inch screen and weighs just 7.7 ounces. The Kindle and Nook models each have 6-inch screens and weigh 10.2 and 11.2 ounces, respectively, without their cases (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) .

If you want a truly large (9.7-inch) screen, you'll want to buy the Kindle DX or Apple iPad. However, at 1.2 pounds and 1.5 pounds, respectively, some people find these devices to be too heavy to hold for long reading sessions (Dell RM791 battery) .

Remember, all e-book readers let you adjust the font size of the content you're reading, so even a small screen can display much larger type than you're used to seeing in a book, magazine, or newspaper. In other words, a smaller screen does not mean you need to sacrifice readability (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

3. What's your screen preference: e-ink or backlit LCD?

Dedicated e-book readers such as Nook and Kindle use an e-ink screen. However, e-ink screens have some drawbacks: They're black and white and the pages don't refresh as quickly as an LCD does. However, they do an excellent job of reproducing the look of the printed paper. With few exceptions, they're not backlit--so you can't read in the dark--but you can read them in direct sunlight, which is something you can't do on an LCD screen (Dell inspiron 1501 battery) .

In contrast, the iPad's LCD screen is a bright, colorful, beautiful display. It's also a full touch screen--the Nook has a small LCD touch screen that's used for navigation, but the larger e-ink display doesn't respond to finger swipes. But those advantages have trade-offs. The iPad's reflective screen makes it hard to read in bright light, and many people find the backlight tires their eyes over long reading sessions (Dell Vostro 1000 battery) .

So, which screen is better for reading: e-ink or LCD? We can't answer that question for you. If you don't have a problem staring at your laptop or LCD monitor screen for hours on end--or if you enjoy reading in low light--you'll probably like the iPad's screen. However, if you prefer the look of newsprint or if you enjoy reading outside, an e-ink display is your friend (Dell Vostro 1710 Battery) .

We'd strongly recommend that you try a few devices before you buy one: iPads are on display at all Apple Stores and most Best Buys. Nooks can be found at Barnes & Noble bookstores and Best Buy. Kindles are available at Target. (Note that the Kindle and Nook displays are effectively identical, so either one will do for screen comparison, even if you intend to buy the other device. (Dell Studio XPS 1340 Battery)

One Week with the iPod Touch

A week ago, I bought a 16GB iPod Touch. I meant to write a long fawning review praising this thing as an incredible device. I never got around to writing that blog. It's a good thing too. Now that I've spent a full week with it, I've had time to get a much more realistic opinion of it. Here are a few of my likes and dislikes about it (Dell XPS M1210 Battery) .

The Good

The screen: The screen on this thing is absolutely gorgeous. It's large, full color 320x480 screen is a joy to watch videos on and the album art looks positively huge on it. There have been some reports of problems with the screen on the iPod Touch, but I haven't noticed any problems on mine (Dell Latitude X200 Battery) .

Safari: The mobile browser on this thing is fantastic. It's the best mobile browser I've ever seen. I'm curious how you would program for it though. What screen resolution does it report? Is there any way to detect when the screen gets rotated between portrait and landscape mode (Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet PC Battery) .

Onscreen keyboard: The onscreen keyboard is very well designed. It's also one of the 'smartest' keyboards I've ever seen. The keyboard adapts itself to whatever type of information you are entering. If you are entering an email address, it displays letters, an '@' symbol and even a '.com' button right on the main keyboard screen. If you are typing a company name into the Contacts, it knows to capitalize the beginning of every word automatically (Dell Precision M70 Battery) .

If you double click on the space button, it inserts a period followed by a space. This is a great way to end a sentence and start a new one. If you are typing in a text field, and you hold your finger down on the text field for a few seconds, it will show you a 'magnifying glass' view of whatever area you run your finger over on the text field. Inside this magnified view, it shows you where the typing cursor will be as you move your finger. This makes it very easy to reposition the typing cursor, even on a small screen using a big 'stylus' (Dell XPS M1330 Battery) .

Connecting to the PC: You no longer have to manually 'eject' the iPod from the computer. Just unplug it. If you are not syncing anything to it, you can unplug it at any time. This works beautifully on the Mac. I haven't tried it on the PC (Dell TT485 Battery) .

Device construction: The iPod Touch has a surprisingly solid feel to it. It doesn't feel cheap. It's encased in metal with a nice, real glass screen, and it has a surprising weight to it, for a device as slim as it is.

Storage capacity: I rather expected that I would have a lot of trouble living with 'only' 16GB on it, but I find that it's not really that big of an issue (Dell XT832 Battery) .

Yes, if you put a large number of videos on it, it will eat the space fast, but if you limit it to just whatever music you like and whatever videos you are watching right now, it's plenty of space. I find that I use the iPod Touch to mostly listen to podcasts and music. Podcasts are a very 'transient' thing in that once you've listened to it, it no longer needs to be on your iPod, so they often don't stay on the iPod for very long - usually no more than a few days. As for music, by forcing you to limit your music selection to only the songs you like off of every album, it makes shuffling the music much easier. You don't even really need playlists. Just shuffle the whole thing and you'll still end up with lots of music you like (Hp 520 battery) .

Contacts application: This application is very well designed and feels nicely 'Mac-ish'. It has lots of smooth animations from one screen to another, and it quite capable for creating, editing, and deleting contacts. The UI of it is very intuitive. I was easily able to make any change I wanted to a contact without any documentation. I certainly can't say the same for the confusing UIs on every other contact manager on the various cell phone's I've used (IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet battery) .

The Bad

No disk mode: There is no way to use this thing as a portable hard drive, as you could on the older iPods. It never even shows up on the Mac desktop at all when you plug it in. It only shows up in iTunes (Acer Extensa 500 battery) .

VERY hard to hack: The previous iPods were very easy to hack into. The file formats of everything on the iPod had been long since reverse engineered and you could do just about anything you want with it. This thing is locked up as tight as a drum. From what I read, a lot about the file formats have changed, to include things such as hashes and other very difficult to crack changes. it's even considerably more locked down than the iPhone, of which it is otherwise nearly identical (Dell Studio 1737 battery ) .

No physical playback controls: There are only two buttons on the entire iPod - a 'Home' button that goes back to the main list of applications, and a 'sleep/off' button. There are no buttons to allow you to pause/play, fast forward, rewind, etc. a song. You have to actually click the controls on the screen to do this. The problem is, once you start playing a song, the screen will shut off to conserve power while you are listening (Dell RM791 battery) .

In order to get to the controls, you have to essentially double click the home button to turn the screen back on and display the controls. THEN you press whatever control you want. That means to pause the music, you need to press at least three buttons every time. This is an annoying feature. The old iPods where much easier. Just in the physical play/pause button (Dell Latitude E6400 battery) .

Wi-fi eats the battery: I've come to the conclusion that if you have the WiFi turned on, even if you are not using it, it eats the battery MUCH faster than if you turn the Wi-Fi off. I've even had cases where I pause a song, turn of the screen and walk away. I come back a while later, and despite the fact that it's been sitting there with the screen off, doing nothing, the battery has been drained considerably (Dell inspiron 1501 battery) .

My best guess is that since the WiFi was still on, it was still eating the battery trying to connect to a WiFi access point, even if I'm doing nothing else. if you want good battery life out of this thing, turn off the WiFi unless you need it. If you need the WiFi, turn it on just as long as you need it and then turn it back off (in the Settings). This should provide much better battery life. I will experiment with this and report back as to how much it seems to help, if any (Dell Vostro 1000 battery) .

Can't add Calendar items: It completely puzzles me why you have full access to create, edit and delete contacts, but you can only view calendar items. it makes no sense The iPhone can create calendar items, so why the hell can't the iPod Touch? It's the same application! This strikes me as a stupid attempt to differentiate the iPod Touch from the iPhone (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) .

No email application: The email application that was present on the iPhone is missing. While you could certainly make the argument that since the email requires a network connection, and the iPod Touch won't always be connected to a network, like the iPhone usually is, that the app is not necessary. Of course Safari also requires a network connection and it's on the iPod Touch, so that argument kind of falls apart. Stupid (Acer Aspire One battery) .

No notes application: Yet another application from the iPhone that was removed from the iPod Touch for no apparent reason. Note that even on the iPhone there is no way to sync notes back to the computer, so even on the iPhone the Notes app is of little use. I wonder if this will change once Leopard is released. All in all, this mising feature is another stupid omission (ACER Aspire 5020 Battery) .

No document reader application: The older iPods had a 'Notes' feature. This was a very primitive way to keep text notes on the iPod. You could then read these notes from the iPod at any time. There is no equivalent on the iPod Touch. This is a previous iPod feature that has gone entirely missing on the never version of the iPod. This makes no sense (Acer AS07B72 battery) .

What I had hoped they would do would be to design some simple way of syncing a list of PDF and Word documents onto the iPod Touch. Then all they would need is a very simple application that presents you with a list of the documents and lets you view them. The iPod Touch already has the ability to view PDF and Word documents loaded from a web page (and the iPhone can also do this from documents attached to emails (Dell XPS M2010 battery) .

It already can view the documents, so what's so hard about writing a simple program to show a list of documents and then pass the document onto it's existing document viewer? The iPod Touch (and the iPhone) would make gorgeous document readers.

All in all, I'm quite impressed with the iPod Touch. From a hardware point of view, it's downright beautiful (as is typical of Apple hardware design). As for software, it's mostly quite good, but has a few glaring things missing (Dell Latitude C400 Battery) .