iTouch - Who's buying it?

[Angel Tarragon]

As I have never owned a portable music/video player, and this is coming out relatively soon, I am keen on acquiring it.

Who else is interested in this?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was interested... but then I realised that it wasn't just an iphone with the phone and camera taken out, but they also eliminated the email, googlemaps, weather, stocks, calendar editing and notes functions. Not to mention hardware volume control missing. Why???

Plus there have been a lot of problems reported with sub-standard LCDs on the touch. Maybe those were production difficulties which have now been sorted out, but... I think I'll wait and see.

Maybe if I wait for three months or so there will be some breaks on the iPhone in the UK - if there were some changes in the contract or agreement there it would be a more attractive option for me.

Cheers

 

[reanjr]

It won't play 99% of the music files I own (wma and ogg) and Apple doesn't have any software to manage a conversion. When someone gets Linux running on it I might think about it, though.

People need to stop buying into the concept of vendor lock-in and corporate ownership of content that their customers "purchase".

 

[Aeolius]

I am considering getting an iPod Touch to use as a remote control for home automation functions. With household WiFi, one could use a program like Indigo in conjunction with INSTEON devices, to turn on lights, change HVAC settings, turn on other appliances, and more. One could also use a program like SecuritySpy coupled with a few networked cameras, to turn the iPod Touch into a video surveillance device.

 

[kenmarable]

I am considering getting an iPod Touch to use as a remote control for home automation functions. With household WiFi, one could use a program like Indigo in conjunction with INSTEON devices, to turn on lights, change HVAC settings, turn on other appliances, and more. One could also use a program like SecuritySpy coupled with a few networked cameras, to turn the iPod Touch into a video surveillance device.

Hey, that is an interesting idea.

I just finally broke into gadgetville and got my first iPod earlier this summer and utterly love it. I'm pretty keen on the iPod Touch, but since my first one is only a few months old, I think I'll wait a while. Also, I use my iPod for file transfer and backup, so I'd prefer one with a much larger drive. (That's still just bizarre to me that anything measured in GIGAbytes could be too small since I remember when it was a huge improvement to even have a hard drive in a PC! Ah, kids and their new fangled electronic toys. )

 

[Plane Sailing]

Also, I use my iPod for file transfer and backup, so I'd prefer one with a much larger drive.

Note - the iPod touch doesn't have a 'drive mode' to allow you to transfer files onto it, so it wouldn't work for you in that respect...

 

[GlassJaw]

Not enough space for me - 8 or 16 GB isn't even close. I'd rather have an 80 or 160 GB iPod classic.

 

[Enforcer]

An iPhone without the phone? Pass. 16GB is soooo close to what I'd need from a flash-memory player though. My total music collection weighs in at just under 19GB, so when we get a 32GB iPhone, I'm probably sold. I just hope the timing coincides with my mobile phone contract being up in April.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I went to the Apple store in the mall, and tried it out. I found the touch screen to be much more awkward to use than the physical controls. Part of that might have been unfamiliarity, and part may have been that it was a floor model. Even so, for the size of the screen touching was more awkward than it should have been. For that reason alone, I won't be buying a touch-model iPod when I decide to upgrade.

The size issue is a big second. It's not that I'll ever listen to all that music all at once, but I carry it around with me almost always, and often listen to music while I'm doing research, or riding the bus, or during lunch, or walking, and I like to have a variety to choose from. With as often as I use it, 8GB is definitely not enough, and even at 15GB (I have the 30GB model) I get a lot of repetition.

That leads me to my one complaint - how about actually improving the music playing functionality of the thing? For example, I would love the ability to have smart randomization on the iPod (not in iTunes), akin to what can be found in Amarok and numerous other players. If I want a playlist of shorter prog rock songs, I just choose "length max: 7 minutes" and "genre: prog rock" and "number of songs: 50" and bam, instant playlist tailored to a specific desire.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I preordered one. My 20GB iPod (monochrome, no less) is almost three years old and starting to run into some problems with control and battery life. I have a Treo 650 for work, so an iPhone is too little smartphone for my needs (I need full e-mail, managing many more contacts than the iPhone does well, more robust calendaring, etc. -- all stuff I expect the second or third generation iPhone will handle quite well), but I'm ready to jump up to a video iPod. (It's also the only way I can get the complete Tabloid Wars series, since Bravo isn't putting it on DVD for some reason.)

Alas, Amazon didn't get enough to fulfill all the preorders, so who knows when mine will actually arrive ...