My gadget-lust got the best of me again. I tried in vain to struggle it, but I had to submit.
I bought an iPod touch.
Yes, part of me feels bad about it. It keeps on reminding me that "instead of buying that thing, you could have saved that money". And while that is true, fact remains that every time I hold the iPod in my hand, I'm in awe. How did they manage to make something like this? It's so thin, it's so understated. The device feels like something straight out from Star Trek. Plastic? There are tiny amounts of that stuf here, but mostly it's steel and glass. It looks and feels superb.
Yes yes yes, I have handled lots of handheld devices over the course of years. And while some of them have been better than others, they have all felt... mechanical. They have felt like old technology that has been refined, and refined and refined. And while there's nothing wrong with that, it makes those devices feel "old". Not so with the iPod touch.
The touch (and iPhone, since the two are closely related) feel like first devices of the future. This is how devices will work in the future. It's not just a question of _what_ the devices do, it's _how_ they do it. The touch has no trace of the clumsiness or old technology that plagues phones and other mp3-players. It feels like a device that has been transported from the future.
Now, out of the box, the touch is a fine mediaplayer. It plays music, videos, photos, podcasts, and it does all that really well. It also has a great web-browser. Last weekend the touch was practically my only internet-terminal. I could have used the computer instead, but I had no need, since touch did such a good job. The Mrs. (who, after seeing the touch, asked me to buy her an iPhone) thanked me, since se had the computer all to herself.
But, there's so much more the touch could do. In order to differentiate iPhone and touch from each other, Apple was stupid and crippled the software on the touch. Even though touch could run all the apps iPhone does, it does not. That includes things like editable calendar, notes, email, Google Maps-client (you can use the website, but there's no dedicated app for it) and so forth. Bummer. But, some industrious folks have hacked the touch so that it runs all those apps. And mine does exactly that.
End-result is that I have a tiny device that fits in to my pocket. It's an excellent mediaplayer. It's also an excellent web-terminal. It handles my email. It has my calendar. It has all the maps in the world. It contains contact-information of all my friends and relatives (did I mention that if I click on the address in contact-information, it open the Google Maps client, and shows that address in there?). I can see myself carrying it with me everywhere I go, even if I had no intention of listening to music or watching movies. It's just so versatile and small that taking it with you is a no-brainer.
Touch is an expensive product. It's te most expensive iPod available. Yet I feel that this was one of the best purchases I have ever made, if not the best. This is the kind of stuff future will be built upon. Everything else looks lame in comparison.
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