Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Agreed, the debate will never end. They both have different core markets, although I don't think the price difference is as big as you make it sound, an 8Gb Touch is around $200. Sure it costs more but it isn't that much more. Someone on a tight budget scraping to save for their kids education isn't going to get either probably.

If you want a fully open source based device that you can customize and hack then sure the N8xx is the way to go. Or you can also jailbreak an iPhone ot Touch and get additional fucntionality Apple wont permit. Both have pretty active communities for both offical and non offical software. They are just different communities with biases.

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Actually this is becoming one of my pet peeves. The tablet can't play h.264 that a lowly ipod can play. And I'm not sure that it's because the hardware can't handle it (between the ARM, DSP and IVA). Most podcasts are off limits. DVDs that I want to transport have to be encoded twice, once for the ipod users and once for the tablet users in my family.

Frank

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Yeah.. more what I get at when discussing price is also the cost of the follow on software.

The N8** nearly everything is free... anything it CAN do.. it can do with no added cost to the end user (few exceptions of course, like the Mapper).

The iPod Touch.. yes there is free apps, but the vast majority of them, in my experience (I don't own one, just played with a few), were either severely lacking in features - or were 'trial' versions of the real software in hopes to 'bait' you into buying the full version.

After you get an iPod touch with everything you want on it and buy the full versions to everything.. the price difference gets much larger. Again, just my experience.

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Most apps run from .99 to a few dollars, yes there are games and other apps that are 10, 20+

I guess I don't mind paying a bit for useful apps. Being a software developer I guess I see that I like to get paid for my work. And to be fair, I'm not an open source guy.

And having used both for some time, my experience of general day to day use for what I need it for still goes with the iPhone. Everyone will want different things and thus different devices may suit them better.

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

I respect that we have different tastes. Don't get me wrong, a refurb itouch from apple with 1yr warranty and 16gb storage is tempting at $230 or whatever they are now, but then i think about how much music I have, and it is automatically not a good choice as a music player. Then if i think about it as a computing device, and the kicker is the lack of any way to plug in useful things. If I could plug in a keyboard and a hard drive, then maybe I would think of getting one. To me it is really frustrating to have all these devices that come so close to meeting all my wildest computing dreams, and fit in my pocket, but fall short, not because it is not possible, but because they don't want to add very useful features. This is why I am hopeful for the next nokia device, because they have pushed off in the right direction and may just make the most useful device. Then again maybe not, or maybe it will cost more than the average moe can afford.

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

The whole turning the device part does seem odd, to me. Shouldn't the photo viewer know which orientation is optimal already and use it? And if the device loves horizontal orientation so much (coverflow, etc.) why don't they just make it a choice consistent through the entire operating system like Palm's Pre does?

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Agree completely. We are yet to see the prefect device, all have their strong points but no one device yet has all those points.

Re: n810 vs ipod touch review
 

Have you used a Palm Pre? Until we have I don't think we can really comment. Lots of UIs look great in pics and demos. It does look intresting though, but so have many others that have come before.