Ok, so I've had it for a few weeks now - the one I was given at work.

I have tried to give it a fair chance, but I thought I'd post the positive sides and see what could be learned for the tablet. I'll continue the *****-fest on the other thread, so please only follow up here with constructive ideas.

1/ kinetic scrolling.
at first this irritated me but there are times it's done right - I'm not too sure about the deceleration style, BUT, what I do notice is that when you drag with your finger, the window drags at between 1.5 and 2x the speed. This is a big improvement on the tablet where you can sometimes feel like you're wearing out your finger!

is there any way to turn on drag speed multiplier on the tablet? on windows and linux I can set the mouse acceleration.

2/ podcasts
I never used to be interested in podcasts, but there are some quite good ones around which are particularly good for the time when driving to work - just the right length, and done to a high quality.

the on-device itunes/podcast (a term I still hate) feature built-in does work very well. I have attempted to make better use of VideoCenter, finding a few more video repositories manually (the built-in URL has broken). I suspect that it's the investment by apple in keeping repositories up to date that has made it so good - searchable, good layout with logos and descriptions with ratings.

I'll probably try the various podcast clients on tablet. I wonder if we could tap into the itunes back-end to get access to their rich list of podcasts?


3/ the "home page"
it's very simple, reminds me of Palm. a hybrid approach with application icons across the top third, and the bottom third with status, weather, quick contacts etc etc would be very appealing.

4/ on-screen keyboard
because of the vagueness of a capactive touchscreen which is finger-friendly but not stylus-friendly, they've done a pretty good job with the feedback - highlighting the letter. the tablet could learn a bit from that.

5/ movie playback
showing/hiding the OSD works well, though the time line and volume controls aren't so well thought out. I like the "back 30 seconds" button for podcasts. Most of the on-screen controls are too small though, unusable when driving, but overall it's not bad.

6/ A2DP just works
works v well with my Moto s705 headset adaptor except AVRCP.

lI'd be interested in other *constructive* ideas. b1tchfest =>> http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=30071

For podcasting try Gpodder. There's a version you can install directly onto the tablet, or you can install it in PC (Windows or Linux) and then set it up so you can transfer it over to a mobile device (either via USB or tell it to sync to a directory and ssh it over).

As for the iTunes database. YUP! You can. It's slightly annoying to do because it requires iTunes but the reason why is Apple obsfucated the URLs. Just subscribe to whatever podcasts that are iTunes only in iTunes. Then rightclick the podcasts playlsit and tell it to output as OPML. Then import that OPML into your rss feed, media player of choice and TADA it works!

Though one thing I have noticed about the iTouch and iPhone is the lack of a widget system. Which is strange considering Apple likes to brag about how they pioneered the idea..for weather you actually have to go into the weather application (the icon won't update always with the correct weather). And likewise for SMS messages (only the number), and whatever else you would normally look at a home screen for a quick update.

Podcast functionality is probably the best thing about iTunes and iPods/Phones... Being able to listen to a podcast on a computer and then plug the device into the computer and have the device automagically synced and ready to play from where the podcast left off is just incomparable. I used to listen to podcasts constantly with my iPod, but now I only do it once in a while, via my laptop.

Tim

maybe panucci should get a desktop port, and "sync with tablet" feature?

Ipod touch have been damn good device and i have had the first gen since the release. Actually haven't had nothing to complain other than i'm just getting bored with it and that's why eyeing for Zune HD to complement my future N900
I guess only thing that could be better is Itunes that i really don't like, but not a big problem.

The accelerometer is handy. And even though it has a smaller screen the the smaller form factor is nice when you want to be discreet,

I decided to give Canola a go again, and found its podcast support to be excellent - I simply found the URL of the RSS/XML using web browser and told Canola to add a new podcast. I'll put in a request for a new feature, the -30second jump, which is very useful.