WebCrush.Blog

It should be common knowledge that Apple did NOT create the MP3.  They didn’t even create the MP3 player.  MP3 players have existed long before Apple jumped into the consumer electronic market, all the way back in 1997.  I know, I owned them.  In fact, I’ve had many non-Apple MP3 players over the years and sort of prided myself on the fact that not only had I not owned an iPod, that I didn’t intend to purchase one.  What Apple had done was created a means of MP3 distribution that took the medium into the mainstream with their iTunes store.  No longer were MP3s synonymous with piracy–they were accepted.

So, if I had other MP3 players, what did I need an iPod for?  Status symbol?  I’ve never been cool enough to need one.

By the time the iPhone and iPod Touch came out, sure they were sexy and sleek, but still unnecessary for me.  I was ahead of the curve and already had a convergent mobile device which incorporated phone, pda, and media player.  Like the iPod, the technology in the iPhone was not anything new, although marketed as such to make it mainstream.

So, here I am in lawschool and one of the best study guides I use is the Law in a Flash series of flashcards.  Say what you want, I love them.  What did I quickly find–hey, they offer these things for the iPhone.  Can you get them for Windows Mobile or BlackBerry?  Nope, iPhone only.  Crap.

So, the dilemmna was whether to pickup an iPod Touch just for using the flashcards, or stay tried and true.

Enter Kluper, a fellow lawstudent on Twitter who offers me her used 16gb iPod Touch for a low low price.  How can I say no?  Well, I don’t, and after only two days of using this thing I can say I’m addicted.  It’s not the fact that I can email, Tweet, Facebook, play music, check the weather, surf online, etc all on my little phone.  I was able to do that before.  It’s that I can do all of these with such ease.  Aside from the superiorness of the touchscreen (all other screen on the market suck compared to it), its the sheer simpleness of these applications.

The developer community and the applications provided are the heart and soul of the Apple platform.  Not only are they far more numerous that what is available for other mobile platforms, when they exist for both the Apple version still outshines.

For the past six months I had my personal phone, a Windows Mobile based Samsung Omnia i910 with touchscreen skinned and themed to look like an iPhone, and you know what, it was pretty similar to the Apple product, but it had its flaws, namely the clunky system interface and crappy touchscreen.  With a bunch of add-on applications, I had touchflow like music players, photo slide viewers, finger friendly calendars, etc.  But it just was missing ’something’.

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late)–its 2009 and after 2 days of use I love my iPod Touch.  For both its touchscreen and fantastic applications available for it.  Is it perfect?  No–cut & paste is missing, no bluetooth support, and only one app can run at a time.

But damn–I hate having to carry two devices with me everywhere.  I’m still not 100% sold on the touchscreen keyboard yet.  Flipping back and forth between numbers, letters, and symbols is annoying plus I do like a ‘real’ physical keyboard.

Time for Verizon to step up to the plate and get themselves a deal with Apple (as the rumors say) because I’m not sure how much longer I can wait . . .