My New Love (AKA my iPod Touch)
Everyone who’s been paying attention knows by now that Bree and I each got an iPod Touch yesterday. Though we managed to finish our edits, we spent a great deal of yesterday futzing around with them. (To be honest, I keep pausing to futz with mine even as I write this. LOL)
I think the Touch is a smart move on the part of Apple. I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t want my cell phone combined with everything else. I want a cell phone that makes and receives calls, maybe takes pictures (though I wouldn’t cry if it didn’t do that) and handles messaging. I don’t even want my phone to do email stuff. I just want A PHONE.
So the iPod Touch is perfect for me. In addition to my phone, I essentially want a PDA with a lot of the functionality the Touch has: music and video capability, photo storage, calendar, email, web surfing, maps and directions and so forth. So if I can have an iPod that does all this…
Heaven. 
Of course, the fact that it was a Gold Box deal at Amazon cinched it, but I was looking at these puppies before I knew that. Why? Because of all the hubbub about Lexcycle’s Stanza program turning the iPhone/iPod Touch into a fantastic ebook reading device.
One of Stanza’s best features is that you can customize aspects of your reading experience like font color, screen color and (maybe most importantly) font size. Another is the fact that you can download books directly to your device for reading on the go. And readers are catching on fast; Stanza is a free download, and reportedly already has somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million users in 50 countries.
This is important to me because, while the majority of Stanza’s offerings thus far are public domain works, several romance and erotica ePublishers will soon be making their catalogs available for purchase and download through Stanza. Publishers associated with All Romance eBooks will have their catalogs available, and Samhain has announced plans to roll this out as well (through BooksonBoard; you can read the press release here).
As far as the quality of the reading experience on the iPhone/iPod Touch, I have to say the level of customization outweighs the small size of the device (the reading screen is about three-and-a-half inches). Because what works for me as far as color combos and print size might not work for someone else, I love this feature.
That said, I really think the only way to choose a reading device is to get your hands on it and play. Try it out. So…find a friend with an iPhone or iPod Touch and go crazy, people! This thing rocks.
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I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
I’m definitely with you on wanting a phone to be a phone. That’s part of the reason I’ve never wanted an iPhone or a Blackberry. As long as it can handle phone calls and messaging, I’m a happy person.
The iPod Touch sounds really great, though. Perhaps I’ll have to look into it as a Christmas present for myself…
I wish I’d known it was a gold box deal!
I’m with you on the phone thing. My phone can barely text, it wasn’t intended to text, and starting to text has worn some buttons to the point where I need to press like 5 times. *sigh* But I don’t want it to do more. I’d rather carry a seperate music/PDA and a phone than one device that tries to do it all and fails.
hey! I have to say I agree on so many of these things with you! I, too, just want a phone. I text, take pics at times, and call. That’s all I want a phone for. I don’t want a phone that does all the other stuff, too, like the iPhone.
But, the iTouch. Oh yeah. I LOVE mine! I bought it for the specific reason of being able to read on it and though yes I know I could have bought an ereader, for the cost, I just couldn’t justify buying a $300 dollar book. The iTouch is perfect for what I wanted, and add in the whole Stanza thing with ARe and now Samhain, plus the email, IM, apps, maps, etc…and well, it’s been a gem!
My only complaint with it is that because it does all this fun stuff, the battery doesn’t last as long as I wish it did.
This is fabulous…truly and utterly fab!!!!
Lissa
Thanks, Eric!
You know, Karin, a Touch would really be worth it…especially if you can find it for half off like I did.
I usually get weird looks when I mention wanting a phone to just be a phone–I think people assume I’m technopobic and want my old rotary landline back or something. LOL But it’s really more a matter of convenience for me. I like to keep our family cellular plan simple, and adding a bunch of unlimited stuff adds up. Having broadband access for my PDA would be nice, but I’m usually either at home or at Bree’s anyway…and I can access a WiFi network in either place.