spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

and I hate to admit that I actually liked it (mostly). I really just used the browser functions, since that's what I was really interested in.

Overall, it seemed to be faster and more responsive than my 770. The keyboard was easy to use for me, and faster than using the stylus on the 770, since you can use two hands (fingers?) to type with. I don't have huge hands, so it worked well for me.

The browser scaling works really well, and you don't really notice that the screen is lower resolution than the nokia ITs. Pinch zooming works beautifully, as does the inertial scrolling. The way you navigate through multiple browser windows is very nice too. Somone at nokia really needs to spend time with apples UI, it really is one of the best I've used on a small device in some time. it also has a built in PIM, which I didn't really look into much, other than scrolling though the calendar.

Now for the bad: Price, of course, is a bit steep $300 for 8gb, and $400 for 16gb. I guess compared to a new n810, its not bad, (but I got the 770 new for $120). No SD slot or expandable memory, though 8gb (or 16gb) is much more than what you'd get with most of these devices out of the box. My 770 is pretty much limited to 2gb storage because it uses MMC cards.

and the worst part of the whole deal is NO FLASH SUPPORT. I went on MSN.com and went to the videos page and it said the browser is not supported. This is pretty much the deal breaker for me, since so many sites use flash content these days.

If it wasn't for the flash issue, I may have been tempted to plunk down $300 for one. Maybe in the future, someone will port firefox over with apple's new devkit, who knows. I still need to get my hands on an n810 though, and see if its as snappy and responsive as the touch. but if apple does release a dedicated internet tablet, or resolves the flash issue in the next generation touch, I may end up jumping ship. Actually, I've been ready to replace the 770 with something else for a while now, but there is nothing out there that I see as a significant improvement.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

Um, what about the 770's software thumb-board as an alternative to the stylus? What's more, those buttons are bigger than the iPhone's buttons - a logical consquence of the 770's screen being bigger than the iphone's screen.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

Sorry, but Apple's thumb-keyboard is WAY easier to use than Nokia's default. It's smaller, yes, but much more responsive and accurate anyway. Have you tries the Enlightenment demo of the Apple keyboard on the IT? It is awesome. (A few people have begun using it in their maemo apps.)

Anyway, I think it would serve Nokia well to look at the Apple UIs -- as they probably already do -- and vice versa.

-T.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

And why is flash support really necessary? I read that apple decided not to support it to make the browser faster. I think flash is a major resource hog and is used in most cases by advertisers and some crooks to basically take control of your browser to show adverts that you do not want to see.
Flash scripting is a major security risk and many turn it off anyway ( i do) just to not be annoyed by the eye candy.
there is a heck of a lot of bad flash out there that is not worth having to see.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

Flash is necessary because a lot of websites use it, not only for embedded media, but also for menu bars and links - so if you don't have flash support, you can't navigate the site. Also, many sites/forums I go to embed youtube video in the page, which doesn't work without flash. And the Apple "youtube" browser does not take you to www.youtube.com, but rather an alternate site for mobile devices which doesn't have the same media as the www site (I couldn't find videos I had uploaded on youtube.com using the touch).

I understand why you disable flash in your mobile browsing device, and I use a script blocker on my pc at home as well, but at least I have the option of enabling flash (and setting permissions for certain sites) when I need it to view a site properly.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

The smaller size of the iTouch makes it much easier for my thumbs to reach over to the needed keys compared to the N800. But my iTouch friend said he like the N800's as much as his iTouch's.

AFAIC, the iPod families media access and interface are still king. FWIW, I still prefer physical thumb and vol. wheels (like on my Insignia MP4 player) over touchscreens - esp. when working or on the go.

IPods supposedly got a new release, or 3rd party app, that will allow access to other (presumably Flash based) video sites.

Apple has the rep of always putting out devices w/ higher prices and too little memory onboard. It's the price of innovation, I suppose. But having enough solid-state memory will be a moot point by '09 when the new terabyte tech is marketed.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

I have an n800 it works fast enough.

I was thinking about buying the iTouch, but like you said the lack of flash was a deal breaker. Also a another deal breaker is I really hate hate....did I say hate iTunes. I really dislike the way it manages music files. I want to store my music as .mp3's iTunes converts everything before storing it on an I(device) to some other format. That means I have keep my .mp3 on the computer or double store the songs on the device both as mp3's and whatever format Apple uses. Plus I find having the library and the idevice library a pain up to date.

I just really dislike iTunes.

Yet, another reason I went with the N800 was it was running linux, which I knew meant open-sourse and many free programs could be installed.

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

Do you know that this is an option that you can turn off in iTune's preferences? You can choose to have iTunes manage your Library or you can manage it manually (and, it will leave your mp3s as mp3s).

Tim

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

No, how do I do that?
Will my Ipod play mp3 native?

Or let me ask like this....
Can I make the ipod work without iTunes?

Re: spent some time with an ipod Touch this weekend
 

No, you need iTunes to copy music files to your iPod (I personally like iTunes). And, I'm not completely certain, but iTunes may convert the music files to m4p before transferring them to your iPod, but if you're managing your file manually, the ones on your computer should remain mp3s.

There is a setting in the iTunes Preferences to do this:

Edit>Preferences>Advanced:

Uncheck the "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" and "Copy file to iTunes..." options.

Tim