Thoughts On the iPod Touch

I bought an iPod Touch 16GB recently. I thought I’d lay down some thoughts about it. I’m not aiming for a full review—there are plenty of those already—just some plusses and minuses I’ve noticed after owning it for a short while. It’s mostly really great, especially as an upgrade from the monochrome 4th generation iPod I’ve been using for the last 3-4 years (which is still going strong after an inexpensive diy battery replacement). Like its older brother the iPhone, it is an undeniably attractive and innovative product. It’s not without its flaws and limitations, though. I have several significant gripes, in fact, which I will get into later.

HomescreenFirst, the good stuff: It has the same groundbreaking touch screen interface that helped make the iPhone a big deal; once you get over constantly smudging the screen, it’s a pleasure to use. The form factor is amazingly thin and sleek, too. You’ll hardly believe they got it so small. And it’s not all good looks and slickness. The Touch has a host of good apps onboard, in addition to the features you’d expect in an iPod and built-in wifi. But, wait—there’s more! The recent software upgrade unveiled at Macworld ‘08 brings to the Touch a real email client, Google Maps (with the new auto-location feature), notes, weather, and stocks. This helps make the Touch more of a PDA than it ever was. It also brings it more in line with the features of the iPhone, making it much more like an iPhone without the phone. This upgrade is what basically pushed me over the edge and made me really want one of these guys.

I have to say I was initially concerned that 16GB was not enough, having gotten used to my 20GB iPod, but I really don’t think it will be a problem. I never once filled up my old iPod completely. I also found myself never listening to half of what was on it. With a little tighter management, I’m pretty sure that the smaller storage on the Touch will be just fine for day-to-day use, even with video content. Besides, I still have my old iPod for long trips and stuff.

Google Maps Auto LocationAs I mentioned, I do have a number of gripes. It’s kinda hard not to think about shortcomings when you drop over $400 on something this small and fragile. Take these with a grain of salt, though; I am generallly happy with the thing. I just know that it could be better. These things would make me even happier, as I’m sure they would any other picky iPhone/Touch user.

To-dos
The Touch has a simplified version of Apple’s calendar app, iCal, which you can sync to your Mac’s iCal (or Outlook if you swing that way). Now you can even add events to the calendar (duh, don’t know why that wasn’t there in the first place, but whatever). But what it’s lacking is at least one essential feature: a to-do list. As a generally forgetful guy, I really need stuff like that to keep me on task. And sure, I could use something like Remember The Milk or Sandy to keep track of to-dos, but those all exist in the cloud. What if I’m at the grocery store or somewhere else that doesn’t offer wifi and I want to check my to-dos? I’m screwed because I can’t access the net and can’t pull down that list of to-dos which is stored on some server in the middle of Kansas. What do I do then? I forget that I need batteries, cat food and that I need to buy Mom a birthday card. Sorry Mom!

More Widescreen Views
One of the wowee zowee features of these guys is the accelerometer which allows the device to sense its orientation. When you switch to a widescreen orientation, the image rotates to follow. It’s great, especially when viewing photos or videos that benefit from a wide view. This behavior is not quite ubiquitous, though. In the browser, and the music and photos areas you’re good to go, but what about in email? Or any other typing-intensive instance for that matter? The wider on-screen keyboard with its bigger keys featured on the widescreen view sure would be nice when I’m typing an email. I’m still getting used to that little virtual keyboard and I find I get less typos with the bigger keyboard. This should be easy to implement, so why not?

Wireless Sync
I’m sure I’m not alone on this one. The Touch has wifi and could talk to my Macbook wirelessly if it wanted to, but it has to be plugged in. What is this, the 80’s? Now, I might not want to fill it up with music and video over wifi, but surely for syncing contacts and calendars this would be useful. [If any of you iPhone/Touch owners out there wanna see the neat stuff your device is capable of doing without being tethered, and you have a Mac, check out Telekinesis. Prepare to be amazed.]

Airtunes
Speaking of wireless magic, I’m a big fan of Apple’s Airport Express. It’s what I use to wirelessly stream audio from iTunes running on my Mac (or on my PC) to the stereo in my living room. It’s amazing and awesome and I don’t think I could live happily without it. So why can’t I stream stuff from my Touch to this thing? I have a few friends who have AEs as well. It would be pretty sweet to be able to play them some stuff right from my iPod without forcing an earbud in their ears.

More iTunes Music Store Content
It’s neat that I can connect to the iTunes store right from the Touch and buy music. Unfortunately, that’s all you can do. Why can’t I get free content like podcasts that way too?

Multiple Calendars
Ok, this might just be something only I care about. I’ll admit it’s a pretty small gripe. Why can’t I manage multiple calendars on the Touch? I have multiple calendars in iCal, why not have those exist in parallel on my iPod? Instead, I have to tell iTunes to which calendar to add events created on the Touch. Lame. It should be fairly easy to add support for multiple calendars and have one of those neat spinning wheel choosers in the event entry thing. Am I missing something?

Copy and Paste
And last but not least…can we please have copy and paste on this thing? It’s not a neat feature to have; it’s damn near essential. Rumor has it that Apple is working on it, but they haven’t yet figured out how to implement it. If that is the case, then they somehow missed this video, which pretty clearly (and cleverly) demonstrates how exactly to implement cut and paste. Watch and learn, Apple, and please put that into the next update.

So there are my gripes, in no particular order. Like I said, I’m mostly happy with my purchase. And I expect that at least a few of these will be addressed by a future software update. That’s the beauty of this platform; almost everything about it can be changed by software. It only has two physical buttons, after all. Everything else is happening inside. Let’s see if Apple can continue making these things even better by adding features. I hope so, and I bet that they will. I’m also hoping that opening up this platform to 3rd-party developers (which will happen pretty soon it seems) will not keep Apple from improving on the core functionality. The iPod Touch is so close to being everything I need in a PDA. And it also plays music.

January 30, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | 4 Comments 

Beach House

38903.beachhousesmallI’m in love with this new Beach House album. Their sound remains closer to Winter wonderland than Summer day at the beach, but this new one is a little less chilly by comparison. It’s built from the same materials as their excellent debut: woozy organs, reverbed guitar twang, and lovely female vocals. But there is a refinement of that sound on display here. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Victoria Legrand (vocals, organs) has definitely gotten a little more confident. Her ability to craft a vocal hook from a one-word chorus, for example, is just magic. Also I think they’ve just become better song writers. Whatever it is, it’s working for me. Though it’s too early to say, I think it will easily make into my favorite records of 2008.

From the Carpark site:

Feeling lonely tonight? Turn off the TV and lower the lights. Baltimore duo Beach House have returned with their sophomore full length entitled Devotion. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have written eleven delicate pop tunes about love, feeling, and, of course, devotion. Their new album is a surefire antidote to the winter blues.

Here’s one of my favorites from Devotion (due out Feburary 26th on Carpark), “Holy Dances”

Beach House: “Holy Dances”

January 13, 2008 | Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment