Ipod Touch

There are a lot of applications that are available both for the Ipod touch and Iphone and here is a quick run down of applications that you may enjoy using. MiGhtyDocs MiGhtyDocs is an application that makes looking at your google documents easy. It allows you to view offline any document that you have consulted on either the touch or the Iphone. It’s limited in that you can’t do any editing from the device itself. Twittervision For those that enjoy using twitter and the international aspect this application allows you to see tweets from around the world as they’re sent out. It’s limited in that you can’t yet to select just your friend’s tweets. Tumble Tumble is the companion app to your use of tumblr. If you’re taking pictures, finding links you want to share or more it allows you access to the functionality of Tumblr whilst mobile. LinkedIn The Linkedin app has four main parts. The first of these is to show your contacts latest’ actions on the social networking website. The second option labelled connections shows you everyone that is in your contact book. Click on any contact and you get a few extra details. The third option is search if you’re looking for something specific. The final icon, the megaphone shows your contact’s status, whether they’re looking to hire people or any message they may feel like sending. Newton’s cradle Newton’s cradle is a little bit of fun. As a child we’ve all played with the cradle. It’s the one that has the four balls hanging and the one on one end taps into the three others and only the third bounces away. It detects the attitude of the device and can be a nice method of procrastination Audi A4 The audi a4 game is a blatant bit of advertising. It’s a driving game and the controls are very simple. Right pedal for acceleration, left pedal to break. You control the car by tilting the phone either to the right or left. It’s not that hard to play and it won’t be such a challenge to get the hang of the controls. Labyrinth LE Labyrinth LE is that platform you played with as a child. It’s a plank of wood with holes and walls. As you tilt the plank of wood (iphone or ipod touch) so the ball rolls with gravity. The tilt sensors work well on this game and it’s another way of making those moments of inactivity less boring. Pyramid Lite Pyramid lite is a card game where the aim is to add two cards together to get to a total of 13. Gottago Gottago makes it easy for you to plan your trips both within Switzerland and to outside. Select the city you’re leaving from and the city you want to get to. Do a quick search and it will provide you with a number of routes you can take. SBBTimetable It’s the same as gottago but by the CFF/SBB. Speedtest This is an application that allows you to test the connection speed of whatever you’re using to surf the web from on the ipod touch or iphone.

Last night I started using newsgator on the ipod touch and today I’ve come to the conclusion that I really enjoy this app. The reason for this is mobility. With the ipod touch I synchronise the feeds before I leave the computer and at my leisure I can read all the feeds and clip those that I think are relevant for later reading or to be shared. It’s also a nice way of feedreading because it’s small and practical. No laptop to carry around and no need for wifi to view the content.

Tomorrow I should have a clearer idea on why the laptop decided to die on me but a phonecall yesterday points towards dust. I’m not sure what the dust may have destroyed but that’s what may have caused the fault.  Without the laptop it’s been an interesting week. It’s seen me playing witgh two versions of linux and portable devices such as the N95 and the touch. Both have their merits and it’s got me thinking about phasing out laptops from my use of the world wide web. What if i could get all podcasts, all e-mails and media content to both these devices without a computer? With Nokia podcasts I can get all the audio files, with interbine I can get all the videos. With S60 I get some browsing for flash content and with the ipod I get a nicer display for browsing content. Both are easy to carry.  Both charge quickly with the right charger.  At the same time neither of them has a good typing keyboard, being perfect for short form but a nightmare for writing a blog post for example. With time the experience should improve.    Â

David Fisher - Dec 2, 2007

I normally have: -Cat, large and fierce -Macbook Pro -iPhone There’s also an unused Treo 650 within reach. Then again, everything’s within reach of the bed in my apartment… I know I sleep better actually when the laptop isn’t near the bed however.

Mobile phone… Google reader, Yeigo, Facebook, Twitter, MXit, Gmail

We’re living in a permantly more wired world and our conversations are no longer reserved to the workplace, bar or ski slope. As a result electronic devices are making their way into the bedroom more and more frequently. How many of you are on twitter. Is twitter the first person you say good morning to. Are you a Seesmic morning person or a seesmic goodnight person. Here are the answers I got within a few minutes. melissah @warzabidul Laptop for me. 08:14 AM December 01, 2007 from twitterrific in reply to warzabidul   ruperthowe @warzabidul if i take a laptop to bed, i get threatened with a red card. phone just feels a bit creepy. so i just stay up through the night. 09:02 PM November 30, 2007 from web in reply to warzabidul Documentally @warzabidul i am more a book/notebook and ipod touch in bed man. 09:02 PM November 30, 2007 from web in reply to warzabidul sizemore @warzabidul: Every night I take to bed with me a girl, a laptop, an archos, a book and occasionally a cat. I don’t get much sleep.  MaggieConv @warzabidul I take both! 03:56 PM November 30, 2007 from txt in reply to warzabidul   dungeekin @warzabidul: laptop/WiFi devices don’t go upstairs with me. Phone does, but only as an alarm clock. 09:19 PM November 30, 2007 from web in reply to warzabidul   So if you thought you were the only one taking your laptop, ipod touch or mobile phone you’re not the only one. There are many of us doing the same.

The social media living room is great because it’s really any device that you can connect to the web with, whether a simple mobile phone or a full spec desktop computer. Some of us look at the computer first thing in the morning and last thing at a night. This is as much as part of a technological expansion in the form of broadband. Just today an article by the BBC described how people are more and more wired with 90% using broadband, or some similar number. What this means is simple More hours spent therefore more conversation. With twitter it’s more overheard conversations. That’s not where it stops. Twitter, seesmic and similar websites turn a private discussion into a public one where the “overheard conversation” is a key point. It’s an evolution back to the route of internet chat. 10 years ago I spent 13hrs in a row online and I saw the shift from Australia to Japan, India, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Europe, NEw York and more. The difference is that at that time there was no meta data and the initiator to conversations was ASL. Now it’s reached maturity for those of us early adopters. Many of our friends are middle adopters and when they start using it they will not take full advantage. Look at how people use facebook. When asked by @leisa on twitter during a meeting in real life how often I checked facebook I answered as much as my e-mail. A lot of people do. What is not talked about is how middle adopters use it. They are far more limited. They don’t add rss feeds because they have no blog, few pictures if any on flickr and in general do not create content. They’re lurkers. Almost all of my friends are facebook I’ve been to parties with, studied or a combination of more. As a result it’s a personal network of IRL friends who have links to each other as well as through me. These people don’t use twitter, jaiku, tumblr, Pulse plaxo or more. I surprised a conversation on facebook where after seeing someone comment on their post one facebook user asked the other how dare they comment. They didn’t understand the principle of the forum. That’s something all of us are familiar with as early adopters. We are not technological determinists. We believe in the need for something and create a technology to cope. Look at Seesmic. It’s video. It’s twitter with video. One person commented on how it was based on time consumption. He said that although he would love to see everyone’s video and listen to what they have to say that because it’s time based it would take too long. As a result he’d follow just the friend’s timeline. This brings me back to twitter. How many friends do you have. Do you still use the public timeline or is your friend’s timeline filled with more than enough conversations not to need this? I think it’s a really interesting conversation. How does the social media living room integrate into your daily activities.

this is a post typed from the iPod touch to see how easy it isto use. Aside from not having a proper keyboard it seems to work fine. Great for blogging on the move.

David Fisher - Nov 4, 2007

It seems that the iPhone is very different there in terms of service contracts. My service contract includes 900 ‘daytime’ minutes, but is a two year contract. Data and texting is included. It’s about 90USD/month after taxes and all. I would honestly rather have one device to charge than 2-3 devices (PDA, MP3 player, and phone). Being able to charge over USB (which most other devices don’t) is another major plus. My Treo needed a USB cable to sync and a DC cable to charge. Bother were larger than the iPhone usb cable, and it was only USB 1. The keyboard is more than able for typing. I can’t type while driving anymore, but 1) I no longer drive in Boston and 2) That sounds like a safety feature to me. I don’t think I’m really any slower on this than I was on my Treo 650. Neither could really be used well with gloves (treo due to inaccuracy, the iphone due to the screen). Someone needs to make gloves with fake skin on the fingertips for iphone typing. The iPod Touch is a nice alternative. I’m waiting for someone to crack a VoIP/SIP phone onto it.

Had it not been for the ipod touch I would still care about the Iphone and I’d be down at regent street now with the geeks waiting for the device to be released into the wild. As things are not only can I not afford the device but more than anything else I found it large, clunky and uncomfortable in contrast to the touch. Would you really want to get a phone you can’t use for typing notes in conferences or lectures? Do you want to have your mp3 player and phone to die at the same time? I don’t think that’s a good option. I’m happy with my phone contract. Having 3200 minutes is more than enough for a person like me. The Iphone contract has just 200. Nothing worth getting excited about. When you consider the 18 month contract this seems a little stupid because free wifi is currently increasing across the country and with an 02 bolt on for £7 a month you get unlimited data (withn limits) whilst keeping the minutes you have at the moment. I’m looking forward to the next generation of iphones but at the moment I’m left cold. I’m sorry not to get excited about the iphone. Apple will just have to try harder to get me to want one.

Sam - Nov 4, 2007

Just so you know it’s impossible to brick your iPod touch, plugging it into iTunes and pressing will always always restore it to factory settings.