At least here in Europe you don't need a credit card to use App Store. I'm using my bank number over a 3rd party (PayPal-like). Goes very easy.

another solution is to use paypal's temporary credit cards or visa's gift card which are acceptedd anywhere credit is. Just be careful about using them for things like XBOX LIVE or Netflix because they will setup a monthly billing charge when you use their services, the gift card will eventually run out of money unless yout put more on. and then you account gets suspended for not paying.

More *****ing.

1/ the device is a fingerprint and scratch magnet. I dont abuse my mobile phone or tablet or ipod but it looks quite shabby.

in contrast my N800 looks very lightly used, not 1y6 months!

2/ the internal speaker is a joke

the n800 speakers are quite respectable especially for speech podcasts and radio

3/ no shoutcast AFAICT

n800 does streaming very well

4/ very restrictive codecs, but ok, this is Apple. at least mplayer solved that

n800 has a fair selection of codecs, in fact it's usually only let down by CPU performance


5/ no linux support whatsoever, it's clear from reading up that apple deliberately kill any attempt by linux devs to make it possible



6/ safari is a miserably basic browser
- bookmarks are a linear list without folders and sub-folders!
- no begin/end of page - big pages require wearing out finger scrolling
- no search function in page
- no save page, no save-target-as (can't download an mp3, can play it though)

n800 browser is a dream in comparison, especially with flash

7/ copy/paste - doesn't work everywhere

n800 "just works".

8/ hardware
8a/ no FM radio. ok, maybe the iPod generation doesn't listen to the radio.
8b/ no camera. ok, the n800's isn't a good example here :-)
8c/ no replaceable battery. I guess it keeps it slim
8d/ no memory slot. even a single microSD would make it far less expendable.


9/ minimal bluetooth stack - basically it's for headphones only

n800 is relatively good - UI needs some work though!

10/ no background tasks without hacking

user should be allowed to control/choose this!


11/ relatively low screen resolution for the price

the n800's screen is fab; even the zaurus with VGA is better! it reminds me of wife's palm TX.

12/ having to pay for firmware updates. and it seems to be all-or-nothing, I could understand it if they separated bug fixes from new features/upgrades.

well, that's enough for now. the only time I pick it up now is either when I have to do my routine testing at work, or when the n800 is on charge!

The end-of-page part is a bummer, but just tap on the status bar (where the time is) and it will take you to the top of the page.

Have you tried double tapping in a column of interest? Safari (any iPhone OS webkit-based view) will zoom and fit the column to the screen. Double tapping again will zoom back out.

And Apple finally added the option of opening a link in a new window to tap-and-hold.

These features help my browsing experience quite a bit.

I'm not sure what n800 browser you're referring to, but if it's microb, for general browsing it can't be compared to mobile Safari on an iPod touch 2G.

speculatrix:
1. fingerprints permanently smudge your ipod touch?
2. Don't know about ipod touch, but the speakers on my 3G and 3GS are better than my N800.
6. Safari bookmarks always had folders. Tap 'edit' in bookmark view. Even though it's feature-crippled (no flash, no generic save-as), it has some rather advanced features not yet properly implemented in other mobile browsers (great zoom in\out functions) optimized for <4" screens.
7. The copy paste has some additional features, like copying formatting, not only the text. Also works with images and videos.
11. I'm not sure of the perceived DPI on iphone and nokia tablet screens and what the standards are, but of course higher resolution would be nice provided there is a way to easily manipulate the text to your desired size. Having one without the other sucks.
12. I read this has to do with their R&D cost calculation (for tax purposes). The same software stack on the iphones aren't encumbered by this fee because the iphones generate subscription revenues, thus they can book their r&d for OS updates as expenses to maintain the iphone software stack. They had to engineer some sort of 'fair income' for the ipod touches to tie with the subsequent OS updates for the same reason above.

1/ fingerprints aren't permanent, no, but the fine-grained scratches on the back are.
2/ the iPodTouch doesn't have an ear-piece/speaker like iphone, it seems to have a piezo buzzer attached to the metal case. reminds me of my childhood and crystal earpieces on AM radios!
6/ I stand corrected, I found the folder feature in bookmarks edit, thanks. It doesn't drag and drop though (unlike tablet bookmark manager), you have to edit the bookmark and choose folder, so useable but not great.
7/ interesting. copy/paste on n800 is purely text, useful/useable but basic. it's still feels a bit like it's "shoehorned in" rather than a well-planned feature.
11/ agreed. the higher res of the tablet is unfortunately not matched with the bandwidth of the video controller and thus I guess the apple's ability to play full motion video at full screen 100% resolution means as a media player it's a better compromise. I know we use the tablets for video but Nokia did indicate with the n810 and its more restrictive storage that they didn't see it as a video player per se.
12/ whilst I can whinge about being charged for software updates for ipodtouch, at least they haven't abandoned it, whereas all I see now are "fixed in freemantle"

That's not true at all. Maemo inherits the "same Copy&Paste feature" than your desktop GNU/Linux has. In fact, I just copied a full HTML table with images and links from MicroB to OpenOffice.org Writer. Doubt some girl operating system is going to exceed that

1. Argh, just buy a $10 case for them or something.
6. I've found iPhone\Touch's UI is way more optimized for single-hand usage.
11. Well, there's that, and the different UI paradigm also. iPhone\Touch = optimized for 1 hand navigation.
12. Apple also don't give a fuss if you download the OS update from alternative sources (*cough*torrentsnstuffs*cough*) even though they have means to enforce it.

Once I bought a Chinese Z80 based music player for like US$50. The same store had silicone covers for iPods selling for the same price!...

Really? Like better quality or louder? When I tested my cousin's iPhone 3G and my n800 the n800 was louder. As for quality I'm not an audiophile so I can't tell a difference.