I’m not dumping my Treo, by any means, but it seems sort of silly to have unused Calendar and Contacts features on my iPod, especially as having an additional back-up of that information is nothing but a good idea.
That said, I don’t own Microsoft Outlook, so I can’t output the Palm data to Outlook and then have the iPod grab that. Does anyone else know a good solution to this?
I’m thinking of trying this program after today’s city council workshop/meeting double-header, but I was curious if anyone else had tried it.
It arrived last Friday, and in between, you know, finishing up the newspaper, raising a child, spending time with my parents, spending time with my wife and doing the Brewfest quests, I’ve been playing around with it ever since.
My last iPod was a monochrome 20 GB one, so there’s a whole lot of upgrades I’m getting at once in this new iPod (a mere 16 GB, and with the addition of video files and baby photos, a lot less space at the end of the day for actual music).
It’s a pretty amazing piece of hardware. The video screen is brighter and sharper than I could have imagined (and the brightness level automatically adjusts based on the amount of light in the room, saving battery power), the Internet access is astonishingly good over wi-fi (and, boy, are there a lot of unsecured Internet connections in Hesperia) and it is astonishingly small for what it does.
My old iPod was about the same size as my Treo 650 — about the size of a pack of cards — and while I love my Treo — I could barely do my job without it — next to the wafer-thin iPod touch, it looks like a product from another era, which I guess it really is.
That said, the iPod touch isn’t perfect. Not yet, anyway.
It gets confused sometimes when dealing with smart playlists, failing to update properly or loading the wrong files in general, even when the same playlist copies just fine to my old 20 GB iPod. This will presumably get patched in the future — there’s already been a new version of iTunes since I received the new iPod on iFriday.
I also don’t find the touch screen keyboard nearly as good as the built-in keyboard on my Treo, and I suspect, even after I’m fully proficient with the touchscreen, my typing will never be as fast as it is with the Treo. (I would buy an add-on keyboard, if such were available.)
The touchscreen aspect also means that I can’t pause, advance or change the volume on it without looking at the unit while driving. Since I’m using a tape adapter to work in the car, I don’t hold out a lot of hope that anyone will create an aftermarket device to help with this, since the number of cars with tape decks is rapidly declining.
And finally, the damn shiny metal back is a scratch magnet. Whatever soft metal it’s made out of has already gotten scratched, since no iPod touch cases are available yet (both ifrogz and iskin will e-mail me when this situation changes). I don’t know why Apple wanted to stick with the goofy old metal backs, when even their new standard iPods don’t have them any more, but it’s sort of irritating. (If a case also allowed it to be propped up horizontally to show videos, that’d be great, too.)
All that said, this was a huge leap forward and the new iPod is like almost nothing else (other than, you know, the iPhone). If the above problems are addressed, I can definitely see upgrading to a second or third generation iPhone in a few years. In the meantime, I’m really going to enjoy this new iPod.
Arrr, one step closer to multiplayer mischief, by thunder!
Here be the official announcement:
Since Phase 1 of the Beta test ended, the development team has been hard at work making exciting additions and refinements to the game. Players who participated in Phase 1 of the Beta test can use their existing account and check out all of the latest updates. If you did not participate in Phase 1 of the Beta test, but would like to, you can sign up now and we’ll add you to the waiting list.
(And yes, not even Barbossa talked like that all the time, but damn it, what’s the point in playing a pirate MMORPG if you don’t?)
Well, after being initially stymied in my quest for a 16 GB iPod touch, I noticed that Amazon was now shipping them, albeit from a different supplier. Since I was still yoked to the Amazon 1-2 months off shipment, I canceled that one, reordered it, and Amazon grabbed it from the new vendor (I know, this all should be automated on their end, but isn’t).
Seven minutes ago, I was just informed my iPod has shipped via UPS from Maspeth, New York. It’s almost within my grasp …
Now through November 2, whenever you go to Starbucks, you can get a card for a free iTunes song, a different specific song every day. Yesterday was Bob Dylan’s “Jokerman,” which I was lukewarm on, and today was a song off KT Tunstall’s new album.
Now, this doesn’t make a $6 coffee any cheaper, really, but if you’re going there on a regular basis anyway (you know who you are, vanilla latte drinker), it’s a nice bonus.
