Dad Revisited

I have been using an iPod Shuffle. I have one of the second generation Shuffles. You know, not the one that looked like a pack of gum, but the one that looked more like a money clip. It had 1GB of memory (the maximum available at the time) and it was purchased for $99. For $79 I could replace my current Shuffle with a 2GB for $79. Moore’s Law in action.

Why would I want an iPod Touch, when I could have gotten an iPod with 5 times the memory for the same price? The iPod Touch is more than an iPod. It also replaces a Palm T3, which I have been using as my PDA for more than 5 years. It is a Personal Digital Assistant. Well, maybe it’s more of a Partner than an Assistant.

My iPod Touch has built-in wifi, which allows it to access the internet using my router, a router at Starbucks, Panera Bread, or the nearest ‘unprotected’ router I can find. My Palm T3 did not have wifi, so on the road I did not have access to my email. I could not post to Twitter. I could not get maps or directions. Now, all I need to do is find an access point and I’m set. Additionally, if I need to check something on the internet, I do not have to break out my laptop. Now I can stay cuddly with the wife and kids and STILL find that IMDB entry proving that yes, it WAS that guy from the coffee shop who had that bit role in the video we rented.

My Touch integrates seamlessly with my iCal application (Mac only, but I understand Windows solutions are easy as well), and that integrates well with  Google Calendar. After the initial culture shock of moving my info and the realization that events on the Touch could not repeat on the ‘first monday of month’ but only by ‘monthly by date’, I am settling in well with the Touch. It certainly has more features and functions than the Palm T3. The iPhone Application Store is available to Touch users, and I have a bunch of free games (Daily Sodoku, anyone?) It is better integrated with podcasts than the Shuffle (for which I had a work-around, but it was kludgy.) Most importantly, it’s eliminated one item from my tool belt. I’ll miss the little clippy thing on my Shuffle, but I appreciate more that I can find my songs using a menu and not just via a search and destroy mission, hoping against hope to land on my intended target.

So if I sell my Shuffle on eBay, could I ask 10 bucks for it?

Tags: apple, calendar, ipod, palm, pda, shuffle, touch