Touched

I’ve been touched recently — not by a Parisian pickpocket, or all the Forum activity (though it has been entertaining). No, I’ve been iPod Touched. This is my mobile device mea culpa. I love the thing, though I wrote disparagingly of it just a couple of months ago. All it took was one long, bad-weather, indoor weekend with it and I was hooked. The Touch has also reduced my blogging. Many mornings and evenings I don’t even fire up the netbook; the Touch is just quicker for e-mail and headline browsing. To be honest, I’ve had other things that kept me away from the site, but the Touch played a part. I’ll try to do better.

This has become a truly interactive site, which his how I always wanted it. Thanks to everyone that contributes! OBOW readers are kind and helpful to one another. Of how many sites can you say that?

Here’s a great armchair travel use for the Touch: set all your favorite travel destinations in the built-in weather app. Browsing the current conditions in these places takes you there. Want to know what it’s doing in Holmfirth, Melchtal, or Nice? Just ask me, I can always tell you.

NETBOOK WEBCAM PHOTOGRAPHS ITS RIVAL

Update on March 23, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

One of the better Touch tips posts I’ve read.

Update on March 23, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Comments

[Buzz]

You just found my secret...the Ipod Touch. Ever since I got it last fall, it's my morning ritual. E-mail, news, weather, rss feeds, stocks, banking, and more, all from the comfy of my recliner. I sit back, relax, sip my morning coffee and leave my computer alone.

And speaking of Holmfirth.....are you aware that Nora Batty's house can now be rented by the week?

[Frank@OBOW]

Buzz, I haven't been to Holmfirth yet, just nearby York, but it's on my list. I'd love to stay at Nora's.

[Monte]

We aren't really technically inclined but we took a 32GB Ipod Touch on our long journey last fall and our short one this winter. My wife runs the thing except when I want to send an email. She has downloaded our recent home photos and travel pictures on it to show whomever wants to look. Kids and grands too. When we are away from home my wife accesses our email through WiFi connections to delete spam and send and receive emails. Just getting spam out of our account makes it worth the cost. Our snow shots from last winter drew lots of interest in the Philippines.

[Alan Birnbaum]

The iPhone of course does everything the iTouch does, and more, albeit it at the cost of the $30 a month mandatory data plan for 3G access, which comes in handy more places than one might imagine, including hotels where Wi-Fi access in one's room is NOT free, but instead, costs $10-15 a day (while paradoxically, the cheaper the hotel, the more likely Wi-Fi is to be free!)

I suspect that I am like many who use their iPhone far more as a Web access tool than as a phone or a pager. It will get even better with the next generation that runs on 4G, not that I can really you what that means!

[Brad]

I haven't used it yet (in London) but the Tube Deluxe Underground app is fantastic - well worth the few dollars it cost. Even better if you have the iPhone since it can use the location services.

[Nun]

8MB versus 32MB? Which should I get? I've been considering an iPod Touch for a while, primarily as a wifi device for travel, maybe with some movie usage.

[Brad]

I've got the 32 and it's only about half full. If you listen to a lot of music or podcasts you probably want the 32.

[Buzz]

If you're going to watch movies, go for the 32 GB. I listen to old British and Canadian radio shows as well as audiobooks and I'm amazed how fast the thing fills up. Since you can't change HD size, my suggestion in this case, and only in this case, bigger is better.

And if you plan to watch movies places where you won't have access to a wall outlet to charge it, look into the Fueltank Uno or Duo by Callpod. I have both and they do exactly as they claim. I can get 2+ full charges for my ipod from the Uno. Twice that from the Duo.

[Brad]

Buzz is right. The battery life is not as good as you might wish if you do a lot of wifi (which I do) or watch movies (which I don't). For music only, the battery life is OK. Turning the wifi on and off to save the battery is sort of a pain. I probably need an Uno or a Duo for travel.

http://www.callpod.com/power

See video above.

Uno weighs 4 oz., Duo is 8 oz.

[Buzz]

I forgot to mention that I use the Chargepod to charge all of my "smaller" devices--ipod touch, cellphone, camera, etc. . I can also charge the Fueltanks off the Chargepod as well meaning I just need one charger for everything. And that saves weight and space as it all fits into a nice little pouch. (And don't we one baggers love to save weight and space.)

The Fueltanks also come in handy when I need to recharge my cellphone on the run.

Neither the Chargepod nor the Fueltanks will charge a laptop or netbook.

[LizL]

I was 'touched" for Valentines day, and am now contemplating getting not a smart phone, but the cheapest cell possible for the infrequent calls I make. i read somewhere that Apple makes most of its $$ off Touch sales and not iphone or ipod sales...

WiFi is almost everywhere and could be a great cost savings. So, no android phone for me, yet.

[Brad]

Liz, I have no trouble finding free wifi where I live but traveling is another story. In many places it's rarely free. I'd love to have 3G or 4G but no way can I pay the monthly fee associated with an iPhone -- but it would be nice.

[Brad]

I should have mentioned that my Touch was a combination birthday/25th anniversary present from my wife. I got better than I deserved -- in the case of the gift and my wife.

[Maria]

Belated Happy Birthday Brad and Happy Anniversary to you and your dear wife!

After reading the above posts, I am convinced I would like an IPod Touch even more, especially for travel. I'm staying away from the IPhone due to the monthly fees. However, I have to get a technician in to set up Wi-Fi in my home, and then go to the Apple store. (I'll bring cash and leave all cards at home - too tempting otherwise!) I've heard that the Ipod will not handle Flash sites and that means I cannot use it for viewing certain favourite sites. But I'll still have the main computer!

[Brad]

Thanks, Maria. I've heard some reference recently to really high charges for using the iPhone's 3G outside the US. Maybe another reason not to go with the iPhone if you travel internationally often.

[Maria]

Yes, I've heard from friends who found out the hard way when the bill came in that their IPhone OCD use was much more than they budgeted for while overseas.
Still, the Touch would be oh so convenient at home. I'm not the Crack-berry type, but the conveinece of accessing e-mail, headlines, OBOW updates...the Touch should work for me! Now to save up my pennies.

[Till]

On the Iphone for better battery use, turn of 3G when you don't need it. You can surf also with 2G. Often with 2G the call quality can be better. Also turn of notifications and email pushes. Turn of wi-fi when you don't need it.

In other words, when your phone is just in stand-by wi-fi and 3G should be turned off. That will increase your battery life considerably.

And of course yo know that there are some very convenient travel apps for the Iphone/Itouch from converters over maps to guides to flight tools.

[Paul Z]

64gb. Really - spring for the big one. I got one to replace my iPod and my PalmPilot and couldn't be happier. (Well, I lie -- I could be happier if there were a decent wine database like the one I had on my PalmPilot.)

[Ian Parr]

I'm completely hooked on the iPod touch. For half the cost of the iPhone you can get most of the functionality. I'm posting this from my iPod in a hotel room in Amsterdam and it is surprising how easy the touch screen keyboard is to use after a little practice.

Here's the pros and cons:

The phone has camera, GPS, 3G mobile web (oh and it's a phone too).

The Touch has none of those features but it's runs the same OS and most apps whilst being smaller, lots cheaper and has better battery life. I


Yes, the lack Flash support can be a bit annoying but I'll live.

[Andy Mesa]

Hate to say I told you so...wait, no I don't.

[Laurie]

I resisted getting an "i" anything since I was waiting for a fully featured item without AT&T. As it happened, I received an iPod Touch 64gb for Christmas- no camera, no video, no GPS, no phone. Well, now that I have it in my hot little hands I'm hooked on it's: wifi, the 64gb and all the amazing apps (many free). It's very liberating to be able to customize apps based on my specific needs/proclivities.

On a recent r/t flight- used a headphone splitter and shared a movie and tv shows with traveling companion. Also, I use the photo section of my iPod as additional data storage so that I'm not limited by wifi reception, for example: scanning pages from travel books, or using existing information I have in Excel or Word, etc.; saving in Paint and creating folders within Pictures for access through iPod. Aside from carrying less stuff, this also eliminates potentially losing info due to buggy app specific updates.

Finally, I'd like to suggest that OBOW create a site web clip (created my own so I could access through MyWebClip app instead of bookmarking in Safari). Thanx!

[Brad]

Laurie - I believe I've found instructions for how to set up the web clip, but I'm on the Touch so it will have to wait until I'm on a bigger machine. Thanks for suggesting.

[Laurie]

Love this site- looking forward to web clip. Thanx!