So that new iPod touch that Apple presented today is pretty nifty, isn’t it? And Steve’s keynote was pretty entertaining too.
Yeah well… there’s quite a few missing features (no it’s not the Beatles) that itch me… even before I lay down the $399 I will no doubt end up spending on this (nonetheless) beautiful peace of art. And Especially:
Podcasts: yes, so it has WiFi and a browser and an online music store… but what about podcasts? You subscribe to podcast in order to get new episodes when they become available. The least I’d expect from a WiFi enabled portable podcast player is to actually get the episodes of the podcasts I’m subscribed too. Not a single word about that…
…well maybe it is actually there. Maybe Steve just didn’t mention it because they haven’t found a way to gently rip you off with it, as they’re getting ready to do with their iPhone ringtone business! Think about it: you already bought a full length song (at a fairly high price). Now Apple lets you clip out 10 seconds of that song to use as a ring tone. All you have to do is pay another $.99 for those 10 seconds you already have on your iPone! Why exactly did people applause to that?
Email: can you name one single good reason why this thing doesn’t include a POP3/IMAP mail client? Does Apple’s partnership with Google go so far they’re going to encourage us to use Gmail instead?
And by the way, if Google rules, where’s the Google maps application?
Edit: The new $20 iPod Touch upgrade finally addresses that!
Games: Steve proudly showed off the games on the new iPod nano. What about the iPod touch? Can I play all the games I purchased for my iPod “classic” on my soon to be iPod touch? Odds look pretty bad…
PDA features: This device now clearly has the capabilities of a top of the line PDA. It just lacks some software to do it right. Todo lists, anyone? Can you at least edit your calendar and contacts on the go? You couldn’t do it with the previous iPods and Steve didn’t mention it. It would be odd not to be able to do it, but then again, the software on this one is so trimmed down compared to the iPhone that I’m a little scared…
Edit: you can now edit calendar and contents in version 1.1.2.
Now of course, what I should really do is get an iPhone… Especially at the new $399 price! Yeah… if only they were available in Europe… (fingers crossed for Apple Expo Paris this September).
Camera: Actually, now the iPhone is just $100 more than the iPod, does it really make sense not to have a camera built into the high-end iPod? … well, that would make it a killer blogger tool for sure. And again, the iPhone is not available everywhere, not even in certain regions of the US where there is no AT&T coverage…