Informationoverlord

Apple want me to spend around £400 to buy a giant 16GB iPod Touch. Hmmm… Yes, the iPad is nice a shiny, just like all Apple’s stuff, but what is it for exactly? When and where would I use it?

Q: Would I take it out and about with me instead of a netbook/laptop?

A: No.

Q: Would I buy it to read books?

A: No. At £400 that’s still an expensive eBook reader with a backlit screen.
Q: Is it a game changer?

A: No. The iPod was, the iPhone was, this is just a nice piece of kit.

Q: Do I want one?

A: Of course.

I have now had my iPhone for just over a week, so I thought it was time to jot down a few comments on it. Do I like it / Am I in love with it? I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it a lot, but I want to start with the negatives.

Battery: If you have 3G connection active it just eats the battery life. A couple of calls and some reasonable surfing and mail checking and it is time to recharge.MMS: Text but no MMS? why? Yes, I can send an email, but that wont be of much use to my friend with an MMS capable phone.

Camera: Ok, it does at least have one, but 2mpx and no zoom function. A bit crap. It is also a bit shaky compared to the one on my Nokia  6332 making getting a clear picture a challenge.

Video Recording: Thanks for the phone but why can’t I record video with it?

Cut & Paste: Yep, still no C&P, something that would be a huge thing for the internet side of things.App Store Hype: Most of the things available are, frankly, crap.

Phone: I think it has gotten better as a phone, but making and receiving calls is still not up to the quality you get from any nokia handset. There are a number of other issues too, but I don’t want to make you thing it is all bad.

On the plus side, the phone looks great, it feels good in the hand, and whilst wider than my Nokia, is not much different than handling a blackberry. If like me, you are not a big phone call maker, but do text, email and surf a lot, this is the internet in your pocket and is capable of being a true hand held computer, if Apple lets go a bit. You just want to go on the internet at every opportunity - because you can. Suddenly, you can be there when Twitter is down, even on the move.

Text: I like that text messages between me and any other person are grouped and displayed in a conversation - a bit like iChat.

Typing: This actually works quite well. Having an iTouch probably helped but, you can quickly get to two thumb blackberry pose, and be pretty quick due to the iphone predicting what you are trying to type even when you’re mistyping, and just hitting the spacebar will insert the predicted word.

GPS: The GPS on it is a bit hit and miss. My default is not to let the phone tell apps where I am, but on occasion it can be useful for googlemaps or for an app such as urban spoon - although the latter incorrectly identified where in London I was. However, it often fails to find where you are even with 4 bar reception on 3g.

So what about the Apps? Download and tried several. RSS Reader: Newsgator do a nice rss reader app, but I am still finding that just using the mobile version of google reader is better.

Twitterrific: The big twitter app. This is pretty good. Clean interface and easy to use. BUT they seem to have chosen not to make responding to twits easy - in fact it is a pain. As a result one might again be tempted to just stick with mobile internet and just use Hahlo instead. More options, and just better.

Pownse: Like many people, I have an account but do not really use it very often, unless using ping to post to multiple platforms. Again this is very clean looking and posting and commenting are both a dream - unlike TwitterrificFacebook: I still like facebook, and still think it has the ability to be my first stop every day - a friendfeed+ if you will. It isn’t, but this app. is handy for letting you see your inbox, the latest updates from your friends, your friends list, and chat. What I do not like is that there does not seem to be any way to view a friends wall or post to that wall.

I see T-Mobile Germany are going to start allowing German customers to buy Apple’s iPhone without a contract to its network - this after a Court upheld a challenge from Vodafone that the exclusive tying of the phone to a T-mobile contract was in breach of German law. In response T-Mobile has announced it will now sell people the handset for 999 euros !! (£719).

Now, if your were tied to the contract, the total cost of having the phone would be around 1500 euro; so you could say if you can keep your contract costs for two years to less that 500 euro, you’re going to come out ahead.

Of course you could also say, well for just 50 euros more I can buy a pretty decent spec MacBook instead …