I Got an iPod Touch and now I’m Confused
By: Keith
A friend of mine sent me an iPod Touch for my birthday last week. Do you know what I’ve done with it so far? I added a song to it (yes, just one – and it’s a Dolly Parton song at that), used it to time 55 minutes on a spatchcocked chicken (spatchcock is indeed a real word), put two games on it (Ski Ball and Angry Birds), and I also checked my e-mail once a few days ago when I was too lazy to get out of bed to walk to my computer. In other words, it’s a spectacularly attractive gizmo that I’m at a loss to fully appreciate. What am I going to do with this thing?
Listen to Music?
No, I’m not going to do that because I don’t walk and listen to music at the same time anyway. Anyway, listening to compressed music should be a crime. Another crime is charging 99 cents for songs that you don’t actually own. Then there’s the weirdness of people walking around with earphones waiting to get mugged or run over by a bus. I was a competitive runner for a long time. At one point I was running 100 miles a week. Not once did I ever feel the need or desire to listen to music while exercising.
Organize Myself?
I’m told there are some good apps. What am I going to do with these apps? I don’t need an organizer (because I don’t have many things to organize). I spend enough time on the internet that checking anything online while out of the house seems like it would be stealing time from my kids. Although, I have to admit, 99 cents for some of these apps seems like a good value if you are a person who has any need for them. As far as I can tell, I’m not one of those people.
Interesting Statistics about Apps:
- There are 225,000 apps available in the Apple App Store; 60,000 for Android and 72,000 from GetJar (an independent mobile store).
- Last year revenue from mobile apps was 10 billion dollars across the board.
- Most Developers get to keep 70% of the revenue from their apps.
- Apple has Generated 1.4 billion in revenue from its app store since 2008 and has passed on 1 billion in revenue to developers.
- The Average cost of an app is $1.90.
- On July 1st Apple will launch a new advertising platform that will allow advertisements to be placed directly within apps (aren’t you looking forward to that?).
Information from this week’s The Economist Magazine
The Heart of the Matter:
I’m boring. I know most people don’t like to admit that about themselves. But, yeah, I’m boring. I’ve had the same basic cell phone for almost three years, and I’m a stay at home parent who spends his days grocery shopping, writing, and homeschooling from my kitchen table. I can understand busy/trendy people who have a use for an iPhone. They have the convenience of constant internet access, mail, a real web interface, organizational tools, and apps that do any sort of specialized whatever that anybody could ever need or want. But, an iPod Touch? I don’t get it. To use it, I must be in a hot spot. If I’m not, I don’t benefit from any of the more useful features. What I do have access to are stupid games (I secretly believe Angry Birds is super fun), a date book, and a stop watch. I don’t need those things. It seems, then, more like a glorified Palm Pilot (remember those things?) than a cutting edge life changing tool.
If anybody can tell me how this will make my life better, I’m all ears. Are there apps that an average stay at home parent would find useful? There might be something I’m missing. What do people get out of having an iPod touch?
No related posts.
DUH, use it to entertain the kids while your in line at the grocery store, or trying on shoes or entertain yourself when they’ve made a friend at the park and left you on your own. upload a bunch of books, so you can tell people “your reading that”, it counts if it has be uploaded to a device you carry around. vbn/ n
Christina: I’ve heard there are tons of kid related educational apps. That’s probably a good use for it as well.
I have a 16 year old who just got one for his birthday…his favorite apps…a glowstick, a glass of milk you tip to drink, a belching app, and an app that meows like a cat
go figure, something else to help him make stupid noises!! I would definitely listen to music on mine and check my email and surf the web and have movies on it. I’m a stay at home, homeschooling parent just like you and I think I would like one of these but I think I would like an iphone better 
Rebecca: HAHA That’s funny. leave it to teenagers to want a belching app! I agree also that an iPhone is much more useful, if just for the greater connectivity.
It IS a glorified Palm Pilot, more or less. There’s a lot more application development support than there ever was for Palm OS, and the multimedia support is great as well.
I’ve got an iPhone, and in addition to the replacement of my PDA (I had a Windows Pocket PC before) for stuff like calendar and contact info, I use it for mobile browsing, quickly checking something online instead of booting up my laptop, more rapid email delivery (again, no laptop running 24/7) and casual games (something I enjoy that you may not).
I’ve also gotten some good apps for the kids: stuff like e-books that have audio if they want to be read to that can also be turned off if they want to read to themselves. It’s not that we don’t read to them from paper books, but sometimes they enjoy the novelty.
.-= SciFi Dad´s last blog .."Watch, Daddy!" =-.
SciFi: Those are all good points. The thing that sorta bugs me though is that I have to find a hotspot to use all that stuff. I was always told that the only difference between the iPhone and the iPod touch was the phone part, but it appears that it’s much more than that. An iPhone would be infinitely more useful to me because, like you say, I’d be able to use it for browsing and e-mail anytime.
Erm… you know they have residental WiFi routers out there now, right? As in, you can have a “hot spot” at your house.
I barely use the 3G data connection on my iPhone… last month I hit a total bandwidth of 49MB.
.-= SciFi Dad´s last blog .."Watch, Daddy!" =-.
SciFi: yes, my whole house is a hotspot. I know that, but I don’t really need a mobile device in my house; I need it when I’m in walmart or doing something that isn’t at home. I guess my major use for it would be e-mail and keeping up on blogs and such.
Keith,
you can acutally pay to have 3G service to your iTouch, then you would have all of those things. i even hear that there is a VOIP (voice over internet like Vonage) for the iTouch, basically turning it into a phone.
Lance: I did not know that! Wow, okay. See, I knew there was probably something I was missing
I agree, iPhone would b better. I have Android and I use it all the time to check email, read and post here, and even post on my blog. I do have a laptop, but I can’t carry it everywhere I go, sit, and lay while holding a baby. For example, I’m breastfeeding and writing this right now. And, That is great. Once I start to have more time, then I’m gonna use all the aps too. But for now, its helpful w what I want.
.-= Tavus´s last blog ..Project-New Food Introduction =-.
Sign up for Google Voice, grab a headset for it and have a make your own iPhone without being tethered to AT&T
.-= PJ Mullen´s last blog ..Her first photo shoot =-.
If you paid for the music, then you DO own it.
I, on the other hand, rent my music from Rhapsody.com which is $9.99 a month. I can rent all I want and listen all I want as long as I keep my subscription. If you bought the single track, you own it. Paying = No DRM
Kody: You mean apple doesn’t have DRM on their songs anymore? If that’s true then that’s awesome and I have some restored faith in them
I use my iPod touch everyday. No lie. I had it in the hospital with me as well.
I use it for my 7 gigs of music. Video. Twitter. Facebook. Blogging. Emailing. Basically, anything I do on a computer. Granted, you need wireless internet for connectivity. Not for games. Or watching movies or music videos. It is an iPod firstly. It is the older brother of the younger ipods. This one has a wifi connection though
Best $400 dollars I’ve ever spent. I’ve had mine since they first came out. iTouch 1st GENERATION! WOOT WOOT!
Yep! No more DRM. They removed all of it about a year or so ago.
Granted, it is in a weird format: .m4a But it’s playable on most devices nowadays. I haven’t found one that doesnt support it. Plus, you can burn them to CD’s unlimitedly now that there’s no DRM. You were limited to 5 or so times and then no more.
Like I said, I “rent” my music from Rhapsody for 10 bucks. But that doesn’t stop me from ripping away the DRM and converting them to mp3s. It THEN becomes Illegal when I cancel my subscription.
But i don’t plan on leaving my unlimited supply of legal music!
Kody: Thanks! I didn’t know that. See how useful it is to ask questions in a blog post. You’re sure to find someone who knows the answer.
Apple won’t allow a Google voice app… Unless they’ve JUST realeased one. You can use the mobile site for it, but it isn’t the same. I have a Motorola Droid. Anytime I makle a phone call, it asks “Call with Google Voice” or “Call Without Google Voice”.
I love the app. It builds itself into the phone software.
Kody: You should write an article about this stuff! I’m so glad you’ve cleared up so much confusion for me on the iPod thing. God, I remember when I was up on the new technology and old people used to ask me things. Now I’m the OLD GUY! Arghhhh!
Hi Keith,
One thing which I would like to appreciate about you is, you write very well. You are like most of the writer who first explain all the story then tells about the problem. iPod Touch is really a nice gadget which can be utilize for several purposes. You just need to fit it in your daily usage. I advise you to do blogging, mail checking, orkuting and other social networking activities on it. If it contains camera then share your pictures with your friends through it. I am also an iPod Touch user and I am not a business man. But still I use it for many more purposes. I am sure you will also enjoy it.
Reply me if you get your answer
Regards