I almost came out of my Sabbatical last week to talk about Apple’s lowering of the iPhone price tag and their release of the Touch. While I stayed true to my sabbatical, I have decided to talk about these topics today. I know I am “late to the party,” but no doubt some of you are still interested in an iPhone and in the Touch.
First, some thoughts on the Touch. At first this sounded like an incredible device to me: an iPhone without the phone, and a device that has some potential to be a PDA. (Thanks for the link, Lance.) I began picturing giving one of these babies to myself for Christmas.
Unfortunately, though, unless Apple makes some changes to it, it does not look it will be the kind of PDA I would like to have, where I can modify data through it. For example, there is a Gizmodo article that talks about how the ability to add Calendar appointments is disabled on the Touch. [Source: Jack Cook of Mobility Site.] I’ve never seen Apple do anything like this before. Bummer. I know Lance, Thomas, and I are hoping Apple fixes this or that a developer finds a way around it so we can get one of these jewels as our next PDA.
As to my thoughts on the iPhone price change: seems like a sensible move to me. Clearly Apple has an obligation to its stockholders to make as much money as they can, and they were not living up to projections with the initial pricing structure. Doing the price drop clearly pissed off a lot of early adopters, understandably, but I think Jobs at least partly offset that with his coupon strategy. I’ve had similar things happen to me in buying a Dell x51v, only to see Dell put it on sell a week later for $150 less. They never even pretended to care whether I and others like me were perturbed by the move.
Whether the iPhone was overhyped or overpriced initially is hard to say. I do know this: I wish I had held off for a couple of weeks on getting a new phone (the BlackBerry Curve), as I might have gone with an iPhone instead of the Curve at the price it is at now. I am not disappointed at all with Curve. In fact, I love it. But, the iPhone is clearly the most innovative phone to ever hit the market. And now I am locked into a contract for another two years. Bummer on having to do the contract. Oh well.
Let me hear from you on this. Do you plan to get a Touch or iPhone, or have you done so already? If the latter, what are your first impressions? Is it worthwhile for me to ditch my 4th Gen iPod to get a Touch?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I was planning on buying a touch back before it existed. With the release of the iPhone, it was obvious to me that Apple would eventually port that display technology to the iPod. Since I’m really mostly concerned with the Touch as a music device, I’m not bothered by the crippled calendar functionality. Presumably, that was done to help shield sales of the iPhone. Despite happy shiny words to the contrary, a $200 price cut and dropping of the lower model this soon after initial release indicates that sales were not as high as expected. The only disappointment in the Touch for me is the lack of memory. 16GB is half what I had on my 5th gen iPod (which I gave away last week. I’m committed to this course now :-). Going back to 16GB will take some adjustments, but I’m willing to do it for the sake of the other new technology. As to the PDA aspect, I’m wondering how well (if at all) Google Calendar or Scrybe will work in Safari on the device. I guess I’ll have to wait a couple more weeks to find out.
Hum, I had not considered the Google Calendar angle. Interesting. I’ll be waiting to hear from you once you get one. Maybe you can do a writeup on it if you get a chance, and are inclined to do so.
The 16GB is more than enough me, especially if I dump a bunch of outdated podcasts. But, I understand that I am atypical in this regard and lots of folks have more than 16GB of music and podcasts and movies on the iPods. I still have a 4th Gen iPod, so no movies on mine: otherwise I would probably want a bit more than 16GB, too.
I sure do like having the clickwheel for driving in the car, though, as I can just click to the next tune without looking down when I get tired of a tune. So, regardless, I will wind up keeping my current iPod as well.
I also have visions of a shiny new iTouch in my sweaty little hands. I gave my 60GB 5th gen video iPod to my youngest son last week. Forsook my Treo 650 for my old “just a phone” cellphone (hoping to recover some $$ on eBay). And now wait patiently to see if anyone has any comments re: Google calendar usage also. I live in gmail & gcal, so the only thing the Treo was doing for me was internet access (Sprint $15/month savings there). The wi-fi attribute was the deal sealer/treo killer for me. With the proliferation of wi-fi networks now-a-days why would any manufacturer consider making a device without it (aahhh-hheeemm … Treo!). I would love to see someone post here their experience with accessing Google productivity apps (mail, cal, docs, etc) via the Touch.
PS - the 16GB limit was a bummer, but a tradeoff is that this is flash and not a spinning hard drive platter like in the larger sized 5th gen iPods! Not a big deal until you drop that 5th gen iPod on the floor and pray as you pick it up that it is still working. My practice is to move video “stuff” off (archive) onto an external hard drive once I’ve watched it anyway and I trimmed down my 20GB music library to around 10GB - so I think I can live in the 16GB space.
Steve, I am getting anxious too to see someone comment on how well gmail and gcal works on the Touch. If they work I could easily be talked into getting one of these babies. I had told myself nothing new until Christmas, but I could go back on that for a Touch if it can be a PDA too.
An update, though it’s probably old news by now. Apple has “fixed” the “bug” that blocked the ability to modify the local calendar and contacts on the Touch. There is also an easy-as-pie hack available to allow other changes. I’m not in the habit of taking chances with expensive devices like the Touch, but as I understand it, the Touch keeps everything in ROM so there’s little to no chance of doing any permanent damage. You can mess it up to the point that it needs a hard reset (I’ve done that twice) but it’s not a problem to fix. Some of the things I’ve added to my device post-hack: iPhone Mail, Maps and the ability to SFTP files to and from. The iPhone Mail amd Maps apps are very well done. Google’s recent reformatting of their apps for the iPhone/Touch are equally well done. Apple is lining up to be a major player in the PDA market if they want it and if there is still such a market.
Thanks for the update, Capo. Sounds great to me. I still cannot justify an iPhone or Touch, just yet, but sure look forward to when I can.
Thanks again!
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