It looks good, and it can be used as an instant Google device but it's without 3G so it only works in wireless Internet areas. The issues I have with iPod are so big that they almost make it worthy of a dumpster if it wasn't so expensive. First of all, what annoys me the most is that it has nearly zero connectivity to any other device. It has plenty of space on it but it can't be used as a memory stick because no computer recognizes it. Imagine an mp3 player which doesn't allow songs to be added... Okay, for the sake of fairness, it connects to Erkki's computer but even there it can take an hour or more to simply upload one song, and the procedure is so complicated that I've only managed to do it once (actually I watched and pointed at a folder and Erkki did all the impossible technical stuff). There's also Dropbox program but I'm still testing if it's useful to me. Theoretically iTunes is supposed to be used for adding songs to this impossibly annoying but pretty device but Apple is like a stupid American hippie, "Ummm... Estooonia... is that a country?"
so iTunes doesn't work here. Another problem are the playlists. With this much processing power, I'd expect iPod to have a really good program for listening to songs but it doesn't even come close to the ancient lightweight freeware Winamp. For one, iPod has nonfunctional playlists function, which is the only reason to make an mp3 player that big in the first place. I have very humble expectations for this level of technology - I would like to create new playlists, add songs, put songs in specific order, see information about the songs, remove songs or even delete completely, make another playlist, and perhaps I'd also like to easily make a third playlist that includes songs from the first two playlists. That's not much to ask for, is it? But noooooooo... The technological wonder allows me to make one on-the-go playlist and for that I have to add all songs manually while not being able to hear the songs I'm adding, then I get to delete the songs I don't like - one by one. I would MAYBE do it if I could have several playlists for different kinds of music, but currently I just listen to all my songs in random order and cringe and reach for iPod every time I get one of the children's songs I added for Siiri's sake. Theoretically I could "sync" it to Erkki's computer and then figure out how to make proper Apple playlists there but I'm really reluctant to make so much effort for something that ought to take a few minutes with working software. There must be an Application for this, why didn't I think of it sooner?
Anyway, I have a love-hate relationship with my iPod.
I love it when I need to kill some time in a place with decent wireless network and I've realized I love listening to songs while I walk, but I have learned to hate some fundamental things about Apple's approach.And that is why I have truly mixed feelings about the coolest popular gadget in human history - iPad.
At last there is a simple device for reading electronic books, surfing the net, watching video clips, listening to music, playing games and it has a touch screen. How cool is that! It looks good, it works well and it's the best buy we've had in the last years. The last time any piece of technology changed our lives so much was when we upgraded from an old flickering CRT television to a 37' widescreen HD-ready LCD. I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about the first couple of weeks. With iPad the change came more slowly - as we constantly find new uses for it, the demand for it increases. It rarely sits idly and even Siiri is very proficient at using it, especially for being an illiterate 1,5 year old. She can turn it on, open and close applications, put on music, select songs, change volume, finger paint, find images, scroll and zoom images and apparently delete Erkki's entire eBook collection. Fortunately Erkki had all the books backed up but it did take some time to restore them to iPad.In the evenings me and Erkki read our seperate books. Erkki reads from iPad and I read whatever I can get my hands on, but sometimes I'd like to read a computer document and then we have too few iPads. It would also be very convenient to be able to claim a tablet computer as my very own and use it during lectures. I couldn't let other people casually play around with it if I have important files there so it would be best to claim it as a personal tool. It could also be useful for viewing my work-related Excel charts and showing them the my supervisor without printing anything out. Erkki himself has said that we need another iPad and he is right, but (and it's a HUGE "but") I'm not willing to give any more money to a company with such control issues.
It's none of Apple's damn business which computer I connect MY gadget to. I won't buy a pretty toy which doesn't even have a file browser. Maybe I'm old-fashioned when it comes to file management but removing access to files in iPad and iPod has effectively reduced their usefulness by 50% in my opinion. I always thought Apple is user-friendly but after the first hour of getting used to the system, PC beats Apple gadgets in usability.Now I'm eagerly looking for iPad alternatives and I've read several news articles of developments in that area. There is one that I'm really looking forward to: Notion Ink Adam Tablet PC. It's coming out in December and I'm so excited about it. Its screen is slightly bigger with better resolution compared to iPad, it is claimed to have BETTER battery life (up to 2x-3x longer), it's thinner, with touch screen and it has 3 USB ports!!!
It even has a file manager... 
There must be some catch, aside from not running on Windows 7, and I want to know what it is. I won't buy it until I've read some decent user reviews how it performs in everyday use. Anyone planning to buy an iPad - go ahead, it really is an extraordinary device.
About iPod Touch. I agree - the control issues are extremely annoying. /o\ I miss being able to connect my mp3 player to any computer. Also, the fact that I need a separate application to transfer text files onto the device seems stupid; however, the fact that I can actually view text files on iPod Touch makes up for it, in my mind.
ReplyDeleteAbout adding songs. I use iTunes (correction: iTunes does work here - you can install it and get an account, but you can only buy apps through it). Basically, I open iTunes on my computer and connect my iPod to the computer (so that iTunes recognizes it), and then I go and drop the songs/videos I want to add into the "Music > iTunes Media > Automatically add to iTunes" folder (can't check the folder names right now, but it's something like that). Once the files have been categorized by iTunes (i.e. they have disappeared from the "Automatically..." folder; with mp3s, it usually takes a couple of seconds, with larger videos, it might take a minute or two), I go to iTunes and tell it to sync the contents of my iTunes and iPod Touch. It usually takes a couple of minutes at most (last week I added over 1 GB of videos/songs at once and the syncing took something like 10 minutes). Basically, I don't understand why it takes an hour for you to add one song. :)
About playlists. I like the fact that I can create playlists (my previous mp3 player didn't have that functionality), but I agree that the process should allow for more flexibility. I haven't really looked into creating playlists in iTunes (that is, I haven't tried it out), but it seems pretty effortless (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/how-to-create-playlists-in-itunes/). It could solve your problem with Siiri's songs (you could make a playlist that simply doesn't contain the 10-20 songs that you don't want to listen to), and it might solve my own problem with the fact that a) it's impossible to save an on-the-go playlist unless I connect my iPod to iTunes, and b) it's impossible to edit the saved on-the-go playlist on my iPod (this is actually my main pet peeve with iPod Touch). Also, when creating/editing the on-the-go playlist, you can actually add the whole contents of album folders and clear all the songs from the playlist by pressing one button - Add all songs and Clear - so it's not as bad as it might seem.
tl;dr version: I feel your pain, but it could be worse. ;)
Tõnis provided a link to an interesting alternative: http://www.kno.com/the-kno
ReplyDeleteLinux based 14" tablet. Downside in this case - weight and apps availability. Otherwise looks awesome.
There are also some free apps that turn iPod into a USB stick. Haven't tried them out myself, but at least I saw they exist in the appstore.
ReplyDeleteAbout adding the music/videos - well, here I agree with Sigrid that it really doesn't take that much time as I have also managed to sync ~gigabyte in a couple of minutes or so.. :)
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. :) I'm going to have to try them out soon enough because I still have only some music on my iPod (which was added by Erkki) and I have to really figure out how to do it in minutes in stead of an hour.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting suspicious of Notion inc Adam. I keep hearing that it will probably never come out and they have postponed their date already. Now I found this:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/09/notion-ink-adam-gets-caught-photoshopping-its-bezel-away/
I might even consider the Kno, even though I'm opposed to linux. From what I've heard it's the opposite of user-friendly or intuitive. Another thing is that I like the shape of a regular tablet because it seems more comfortable to hold than two screens attached together.