As luck would have it, I recently came across an Ipod Touch 8G as a promo for participating in an online continuing ed podcast deal. After week or so of playing around with in and my n800, I figure it might be useful to share my experiences and comparison of both units. I've had my n800 since spring 07. First off, the Ipod Touch is much sleeker design. Big enough to view, small enough for the average pocket. However, as part of this, it sacrifices the stand and stereo speakers of the n800 that I find useful to listen to podcasts while eating breakfast viewing some web/rss page. The Touch's interface is also more 'fun' to use, although it's no where near as user configurable. The motion sensitivity is nice as it self adjusts for vertical or horizontal viewing. The ablity to zoom in or out with two finger touch screen sensitivity is very nice. The Touch screen keyboard is nothing to jump up and down about. I found the n800s touch keyboard is easier to use. I miss the stylus on the Touch. The Touch's Safari browser is a bit faster opening pages and generally does a slightly better job at YouTubing. Safari also routinely opens pages in mobile format if that option is provided by the web site. I'm not sure I always like this. There seem to be some webpages that Safari doesn't handle well that the n800 browser plows thru just fine. The Touch's (free and $) games are numerous and generally higher quality fun than n8x0 games, at least for the teen crowd. The Touch does a decent job playing video podcasts. It automatically sets bookmarks so you can pick up a podcast where you left off, days later, after you've viewed a lot of other 'stuff'. I'm not sure any of the internet tablet's numerous players and interfaces do this very well. The Touch games (free and otherwise) don't do much for me. I've downloaded and played several -- splurged $5 for one game, a whole $ for another. The motion sensitive games are kind of cool, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm well adapted to the simple brain teasers puzzles and solitaire games on my n8x0, although I know there are other more arcade like n800 games out there. Having a central Apple 'store' for shopping and downloading games makes it really easy to 'buy' apps and tunes. One click pays and downloads. Which helps move product along -- even if it's only a buck here or there... Supposedly, this helps produce higher quality apps and a broader growing marketplace. In summary, the Touch is well designed for it's marketing niche. That all said, I'm going to stick with the n8x0 and give the Touch to my teen age son. It's a matter of what you use these 'gadgets' for. I've not found the Touch to be very weak for RSS news browsing, which is perhaps my primary use for my n800. The n8x0 Claws email is much better suited for my use than the Touch's email program. Also, I haven't figured out if there is a way to sync my Touch with Google Calendars as I have with my n8x0. I also regularly do wireless file transfers to and from my n800 and my (Windows) LAN, which is verbotten on the iTouch. I also occasionally have used my n800 to help show patients xRays on my n800 via remote viewing of one of the clinic PCs. Nothing like that is available on the Touch. While a PC can detect a connected Ipod Touch, you can't interact with the Touch via file manager so far as I've figured out. Everything between PC and Touch has to be done thru iTunes. Basically, there no 'enduser' interaction with the inner workings of the iTouch. At least not unless you are willing to 'break' the various software locks that the iTouch has to protect it's proprietary nature. Bottomline, the closed proprietary nature of the iTouch is both it's strength and weakness. It's like owning a car that you can't open up the hood on. This is fine for some users, not for others. For me, this makes the Touch more like a very nice toy, verses the n8x0, which is is more a of "tool" that can really do things. I'm more of a tool junky... _______________________________________________ maemo-users mailing list maemo-users@xxxxxxxxx https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
