iPod Touch Impressions

I caved and bought the iPod touch (2g). Seems a little decadent, but it is actually the result of a long search for a tablet pc or e-reader. I wanted to be able to do three things:

1. Read materials to and from work without printing it out needlessly.
2. Read documents at work
3. Take notes electronically.

Turns out that the tech to let you do this is really pricey and unreliable.

1. Amazon (Kindle) and Sony (e-Reader) don't permit note-taking.
2. More importantly, to get a doc onto those units, I would need to sync them to my work machine. I cannot install software on my local machine, so that would be impossible.
3. iRex makes an e-Reader [NOTE: e-readers are different from tablet PCs because they have e-Ink displays that are B+W and really, really low power]. That unit is $650+
4. A tablet PC, even used, is heavy, large, and well over $500. Not to mention the fact that most handwriting OCR is OK at best.

Why the iPod Touch:

1. www.instapaper.com . I find something I want to read at work, copy the link to my instapaper account (which is bookmarked), and I am done. I just update the app on our public wifi before I leave the office and I have all the content offline.
2. $200. Cheap. Relatively.
3. There is a lot of free wifi. I have it at home and office - the two place I spend the most time, and I am finding it in a lot of places I would not expect.
4. I carry an iPod shuffle anyway, so this would replace that unit and allow me to download more podcasts - which are all I listen to anyway - without having to sync to iTunes. I have to sync to delete them, but that can be done once in a blue moon.
5. It's an iPhone without the phone. I don't need games, but I like them, and, thanks to black friday, I got two games that would have cost $19.98 together for $1.98. Then I got some free games. Why not?

Verdict: Amazing little toy. It really is a small computer.