After this mornings festivities concerning our new collective bargaining contract, I found myself on the far side of Cleveland. So I stopped by the Apple Store on the way back and checked out the new iTouch.
It's a nice bit of kit, and could be something of a great tool, except Apple has crippled it too much. Can't install new widgets, can access the internal memory like a hard drive, and no bluetooth (iPhone has it, but is strictly for headphones, no keyboards). So, for how I would want to use it, mostly worthless. Sure, it's fun to surf, fun to use actually, but if I can't use it as a laptop substitute, not worth it.
The internal keyboard was neat, although it took up most of the screen and was a little too small. After about 5 minutes I was using it okay-ish. So probably with more practice I could write short emails, blog posts, or comments.
Apple, if you're listening, please add bluetooth, open bluetooth (at least for keyboards). Open up to downloading new widgets. And allow access from the device to the RAM like a disk drive. Add to that a widget that can serve as a text editor, and I'll snap one up. Probably the top model. iPhone isn't for me, little Orwell gets sucky cell service, and $60 a month to use it feels like usury.
Until then, too pricey for what I'd get, and unusable for what I want.
3 comments:
I got an Archos 605 wifi for Christmas and am reasonably pleased with it. The wifi doesn't have enough range for me, but I've read a few ebooks on it (including I Am Legend, btw) and with an 80 gig hd it's got just about all my music and pics on it, as well as a couple of movies. No bluetooth, though...
I have a Palm 3. I'm so not l33t.
Matt, I've been hearing more about this Archos. I wish I could dry run it someplace (like I did the iTouch). 'Cause as I said in the post, it's got to be a working device (as in I can work on it). If it's just a fancy iPod, well, I've got one of those already.
Ken, I've got a Newton 130 in a closet. That was my last handheld (other than the limited functionality of the iPod).
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