The iPod Touch has Landed (in my hands)

Over the past few weeks, I was thinking of getting one of the following gadgets: the Eee PC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Well, the weeks long thinking of what to get is over. And I finally decided to get an iPod Touch.


So some people are already asking me why I settled for the Touch at this point in time. Well here are the reasons:

• The Eee PC is, as far as I'm concerned is still vaporware (no sign of being released locally). I may still get the Eee PC in the near future but as of now, its scratched off of my to-buy gadget list.
  
• The iPhone, as attractive as it is, is not yet officially sanctioned to work in our neck of the woods. I'd hate to have a "brick" in case an accidental software update happens.
  

So there. Its been more that 24 hours since I got this baby and so far, no buyer's remorse (yet). So how do I like it so far? I LOVE IT! This is my first video-enabled iPod and I like the way it sort of liberates my digital video collection. Now I can watch my movies whenever I have the time to do so. I watched an episode of a TV series and I like the experience. So as an iPod, the iPod Touch works and it works really well.

Its Touch interface is topnotch. The much praised user interface of the iPhone really works well with the iPod Touch. Mobile Safari works pretty much like its desktop sibling. Using it on the iPod Touch is pretty much like using it on the iPhone... lots of pecking of the fingers on screen, some pinching/unpinching to zoom/unzoom, dragging and flicking. As a colleague says: its like working on an early version of the computer that was used in the movie "Minority Report". Shifting views from portrait to landscape is, in itself, a conversation starter. Married to Mobile Safari, the automatic shifting of view makes any website readable and usable. Since this is basically a phoneless iPhone, most websites that work with the iPhone works with the iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch is not without its fair share of niggling annoyances. One of which is its inability to add/edit calendar entries while it allows its contact list to be edited. Some application interface is still a bit inconsistent -- it allows Mobile Safari to move into any orientation (portrait and landscape) while doesn't allow its video player the same capabilities. Some system messages/error messages does not follow its orientation, I encountered a system message in portrait mode while using Mobile Safari in landscape mode.

Despite these annoyances, I feel like a device from 10 years in the future has fallen on my lap. This is an impressive piece of hardware and software and I would recommend this to anyone who would ask.

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