The Real Score

Last June, I've switched to the iPod touch (as my daily primary device). After nearly six months of use, I had come to know that the iPod touch/iPhone has an entirely different strength in usage than the Palm. It's neither on the league of the PDA/smartphones (like the Treo) nor it's made for everyone (especially to those who have used a PDA/smartphone before). You really need to make several decisions on what's important for you, before you even jump in. The eye candy on the iPhone platform is very hard to resist, thus switching to one can be very impulsive.

When I was still using my Palm TX, my primary apps were Calendar, Contacts, Expense and eReader. On my iPod touch, I use it primarily as my iPod. I hardly use the popular Mobile Safari and Mobile Mail. The iPhone's Notes app got even more love from me than the previous two. Despite the easy to use interface, the platform suffers from several distractions (like fancy effects) that results to less productivity. More admiration of the slick look than getting things done for me. The presence of social networking apps (like Twitter and FaceBook) also contribute to the distractions. Instead of reading my book on eReader, I tend to check what my friends are up to in FaceBook.

Maintaining a calendar in the iPhone platform poses a challenge as well. It is not as straight forward as one may think. It was way easier to schedule such appointment using the Palm's calendar app than doing it on either iCal or the Mobile Calendar app of the iPhone. I really missed the "few taps and done" experience.

Why am I still using the iPod touch as my daily device? As I've mentioned earlier, I use it as an iPod for my daily commute and never wanted to carry another device to maintain my other stuff. Device wise, the iPod touch is a more decent and elegant (yet useful) device than my TX (or any Palm brand device for that matter). While distractions can be managed by changing ones behavior (on the way you use your device). Should I part with my iPod touch soon? Maybe next year or the year after. For what device? Maybe an iPhone.

Sent from my iPod