Home is Where the iPods Gather
Despite my role as an unrepentant Mac geek, I've been a longtime (for me) holdout in the iPod Touch/iPhone arena. After my 60 Gigabyte iPod Photo started trying to die, I switched to the cheaper, lighter, iPod Shuffle for music, and the upgrade to a new MacBook Pro negated the need to cart the old iPod around solely for disk storage. When the iPod Touch and iPhone came out, I knew they were leagues beyond what I had, but as much as I knew I wanted them, I couldn't justify buying them.
So, imagine my delight when a frequent reader of this blog saw my call for help last Saturday, and bought me an iPod Touch.
Today, FedEx dropped off a package from Amazon.com at the office, containing a brand-new 16 gigabyte iPod Touch, free of charge. Now, thanks to their overwhelming generosity, I can watch videos in wide-screen mode, I can browse YouTube, I can download TV shows and take them with me, in my pocket, and browse the Web anywhere I can get WiFi. This new device, already far better than any iPod I've ever had, will be an amazing gadget for cross-country flights, and it makes me feel whole again, as a Mac geek. I no longer have to admit being so far behind when friends show me their iPod Touch, and when iPhones come up, at least I can keep my head up.
Since unwrapping the new iPod Touch, I loaded up more than 1,200 songs, visited a few Web sites, including FriendFeed and Louisgray.com. I logged into our company's Webmail access for Exchange, and it performed flawlessly. I checked out YouTube, enjoyed CoverFlow, and keep rotating the device to see the screen's orientation change. It's just too cool.
The Real Internet, In Your Pocket
As you can see in the top photo, the iPod Touch joins our first and second generation iPod Shuffles and the aforementioned iPod Photo in the louisgray.com household. Now, I will retire our iPod Photo to its permanent roost atop our iHome alarm clock, my wife will utilize the 2nd generation iPod Shuffle, and in the case I need to travel light, I'll keep my 1st generation Shuffle around. But if anybody tries to tell you there's such a thing as too many iPods, they're wrong. Just make sure the iPod Touch is one of them!