New iPods

Inane baanter or words of wisdom - you decide...
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Kemper_Boyd
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Post by Kemper_Boyd »

Firefox wrote:
Kemper_Boyd wrote:Safari works well, it really is just like using a proper browser but with a piddly screen. It absolutely slaughters the browsers of any hardware of a similar size.
How does it compare to Opera on the N800?
I was really thinking of smart phones but anyway...

The sites I loaded looked essentially identical to how they'd look in Safari
on a Mac. Other than being rendered to fit and the zoom level. So at first
glance I'd say at least as good as the N800, but it's the tapping, zooming
and finger scrolling that really set it apart. It doesn't have the resolution
of the screen on the N800, but the DPI is still very high and the free
zooming works so well I'm not sure there's much in it. A smaller screen
isn't a big problem when you can so easily focus in on the part you are
trying to read.

The iPod is a lot smaller than the N800, it's about 40% of the volume,
and 60% of the weight. The N800 is jacket pocket sized, and feels it. I
think you could stick the iPod in a trouser pocket. I've carried a Palm T3
in my trouser pockets before, and it seems that the iPod is half the depth
of the T3 (at its broadest point). I'm in danger of talking myself into buying one. :)

Which is best? I can see that an N800 has potential. An open source
system and the big screen sounds great in theory, but I can't see it
becoming a mainstream product. It's too geeky IMHO.

The iPod Touch really is a 'idiot-proof' pocket internet, and makes the
not-smart phones browsers out there look quite silly. If Nokia, Sony
Ericsson, Microsoft, Symbian and others aren't crapping themselves
I'd be surprised. To my eyes the internet aspects of the iPhone and
iPod Touch are qualitatively better than competing products, and this is
only the beginning. :)

Broadly though this ties in with many of the points Intel was hammering
home at IDF a couple of weeks back. You want full mainstream browsers
on a pocket device, not the crap we've generally seen so far. That means
fast processors, bigger screens, new user interfaces, lots of storage and
memory; who's laughing at the size of the iPhones firmware now?
I think the N770 and N800 show that Nokia sort of get it, but damn it they
really need to work on the UI. I don't think Windows Mobile, or sadly Palm
OS and Symbian, is up to the job.
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Post by Kemper_Boyd »

tufty wrote:
Kemper_Boyd wrote:I think it's more likely than not. The hardware necessary to put a PC in your pocket is coming soon. Most other PC manufacturers will use it why wouldn't Apple?
KB, you're a bastard. An utter cunt. My hopes for a newton replacement are now well and truly got up. The only question now is, do I replace the shagged batteries in my Newt's power pack, or just wait for Apple to release the damn thing?

Apple have everything needed to do this. They have an OS that can run on the required hardware. They have the hardware. And they have the best handwriting recognition system ever released on a PDA, integrated into the OS.

Newton was way ahead of its time when it was discontinued 9 years ago. It's still way better than any modern PDA I've seen, despite being greenscale and requiring some hackery to make it sync with the modern desktop. I still use my MP2100 on a daily basis.

bastardbastardbastardbastardWANTITNOW

etc
I've got a couple of Newtons, I've got a few Psions and I've got some
Palm Pilots as well. WinCE, the Palm BeOS/Linux/Access catastrophe,
and Symbian fragmentation has been a disaster for the pocketable
computer market. Who'd have thought NeXT could save the day? :)
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Post by RiK »

tufty wrote:My hopes for a newton replacement are now well and truly got up. The only question now is, do I replace the shagged batteries in my Newt's power pack, or just wait for Apple to release the damn thing?
One can only hope eh..?
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Post by GeeZa »

Firefox wrote:
Kemper_Boyd wrote:Safari works well, it really is just like using a proper browser but with a piddly screen. It absolutely slaughters the browsers of any hardware of a similar size.
How does it compare to Opera on the N800?
Personally I've thrown my 770 in the bin. Opera on that was the best portable browser I've ever seen but somehow, and I'm not sure how, Safari trumps it. Browsing and scanning across pages with the touch interface, zooming in/out is fast and intuitive. Flipping to landscape mode and back again is also fast and ergonomic if you want to fit larger font sizes to the screen. If the 800 version is quicker and more responsive then it might be a closer call. It really is all about the feel and that's sometimes difficult to quantify if you know what I mean.

On the typing, you do need to ignore/turn off the suggestions and the keyboard is much easier to use in landscape. Still a little fiddly but a worthwhile trade off given the form-factor of the thing.
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Post by Kemper_Boyd »

£3.99 a month Wifi for the iPod Touch. What do you think of this?
http://www.thecloud.co.uk/page/3615
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Post by HGFB »

Kemper_Boyd wrote:£3.99 a month Wifi for the iPod Touch. What do you think of this?
http://www.thecloud.co.uk/page/3615
It'd be nice if I was spending a lot of time in pubs and clubs needing to check my email. Otherwise not so handy.
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Post by tufty »

kalmar wrote:
tufty wrote: The only question now is, do I replace the shagged batteries in my Newt's power pack
Do that anyway. It's served you well :)
That was a joke, really, all I need to do now is find some 2700mAh batteries with solder tabs.

Apart from the daily use I give the newt, I *need* it. It's now the only machine I have handy with a serial port, which means that it's the terminal I use for access to my Netra's LOM port. I really should find myself a VT220 :)

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Post by sty »

didn't manage to sort out my iTouch woes yet, but screwed another 5% discount out of the store and we may have one next week.

More interestingly though I did actually manage to find a single demo unit in Christchurch and had a decent play with it.

I can confirm everything KB said, it works like a dream.

Viewing pictures is brilliant, multitouch just works.

Surfing yakyak was fine but a bit tricky hitting the pages of threads without zooming in, I have to say that vanilla will beat phpBB hands down if you are a iTouch user as it will take you straight to the newest posts by default.

Overall it seemed bigger than I was expecting which is great for a video based device, and it feels like a really expensive quality product, nothing cheap and plasticy. It's going to turn heads that's for sure.

Get loading that artwork because coverflow on the iTouch is just right.
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Post by Sir_LANs-a-lot »

Just been in to local HMV who are apparently getting them in from 1st October (ie. Monday).
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Post by Portland »

Thought they'd shipped - there was some little white thing mania in Meadowhell yesterday.
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Post by matt »

Tried one last week at Regent Street.

I'll be getting one as soon as I can.
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Post by Sickboy »

Got one.
I'm in love. :D
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Post by matt »

Where from?
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Post by HGFB »

Ok you cunts. Apple wins. I'm going to get a new Nano tomorrow.


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Post by rockwaldo »

matt wrote:Where from?
yes, where from?

And - get me one..:)
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