A few words from a professional procrastinator

I couldn’t resist it while I was looking at it in the store. It was just calling out to me. Begging me to set it free from it’s black box with the Macy Gray album on the cover. Yes, I made the jump and paid for a brand new iPod Touch.

Despite many websites citing the obvious flaws of the device, I must say that it’s still something to enjoy. Unlike most of the western world who will get their hands on localized versions of the iPhone in their country before the end of the year, the rest of the world has to wait another year for it and I’m not willing to hack an iPhone in order to get one. SMS messaging on it is archaic by Asian standards and surfing on the EDGE network is just so last gen especially in places such as Asia.

So let’s cut to the chase, the iPod touch delivers on what it promises to be, an iPod. It’s still a great music player (debatable sound quality tho) and video player. Watching videos with subtitles is definitely much easier with the bigger screen. I’m a big video fan of the iPod and the ability to load up at least 6 movies into it and watch it is a joy. Cover flow on it needs some work such as the ability to control the volume and part of the track you want to listen to other than just play-pause buttons on it. Viewing in coverflow shows you all your albums even if it’s not in the playlist you’re listening to.

16GB is just right since my opinion of the iPod is that what’s the point of carrying 3 months worth of music in your pocket if it doesn’t have the battery life to play it. Although 8 might be short for people into tv shows and movies.

Buying music on the iTunes store is smooth. I have two accounts, one on the Japan iTunes store and another on the US store and it syncs with the store to whichever is currently logged in the iTunes in your computer. So I can view both stores on it regardless of my current location. I bought a song just to test it and it downloads fast and is placed into a separate folder in my iTunes as Purchased Music from (insert name of iPod).

The Safari and You Tube experience is something to behold. I’ve gone through a lot of devices (Palm, O2, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and so on) and none of them was able to deliver on the internet experience similar to a PC. Apple delivers in their device. It works as advertised and more. Google Gmail has designed their website just for the Apple devices plus many more.

By default, the iPod Touch is gimped. You are unable to edit calendars, no To-do list, no notes. But with a simple hacking method (so simple that a caveman can do it) these are possible. Thus making the iPod Touch a PDA.

With these in mind, the iPod Touch delivers my needs. Other people have different requirements for the device but all in all I am pretty happy with the device. The only thing I hate, the shiny iPod back that is now pretty scratched up in my jacket pocket. They really need to get into the brushed metal finish. I really really really hate that shiny finish.