Angela BensonI’m in love. 
With the new iTouch or iPod Touch from Apple. I’ve never had a PDA so the ITouch is the closest I’ve come. I wanted the iPhone but I couldn’t get it. The iTouch is close enough.
What do I love about it?
It’s small, smaller than my cellphone, making it pretty easy for me to carry both around with me.
i can get email from both my work account and my gmail account. Right now I just keep a week’s worth but you can keep as much as a month’s worth.
It syncs my Outlook calendar. This is a biggie for me. I’ve always the person in the room without a PDA or a dayplanner. Now I’ll have one.
It has a whispersync feature that syncs my Kindle books. Another biggie. Guess what? The text size is even readable on the small screen! I couldn’t believe it. I haven’t tried any long bouts of reading on it and I do wonder if my eyes will get tired fairly quickly. I’ll keep you posted. Oh, yeah, one more good thing: the book covers on the iTouch show in color, while on the Kindle they’re in black and white.
It has a speaker so you don’t always have to use the headphones the way you do with a regular iPod.
You can rotate it so that you read landscape or portrait. This doesn’t work for mail for some reason, but it works for webpages and kindle books.
I’m using boingo for mobile Internet service. The upside is the price is only $7.95/month compared to the $30/month the wireless phone company charges for Internet service. The downside is that service is only available where there are hotspots. While there are a lot of hotspots, I won’t have all-the-time Internet access the way I’d have it if I had Internet service through a wireless phone company.
There are hundreds of apps that you can get for it. From games to utilities to educational programs. I haven’t done much investigation with the apps yet, but I’ll be getting into it, especially the educational programs.
What don’t I like about it?
It only allows me to dowload Kindle books, not the other files (pdfs, doc files) that I’ve sent to my Kindle.
I’m sure there’s something else, but I’m so wowed now that I can’t think of it. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
Anybody else got any new gadgets?
Ah, the day when I too shall become high tech is a coming. I’m not that good with gadgets but my 17 yr old can figure them out for me.
I purchased a digital voice recorder a few months ago. Cost me $40 at a Circuit City that was closing. I was excited beyond words to be able to record my writing thoughts while driving. No tapes to deal with. That’s as high tech gadgety as it gets for me. I do plan to treat myself to a Blackberry when my novel is released in December. That will be a huge deal.
Hey Angela,
I have two iPods and I had been looking at the iPhone for awhile now. Believe it or not, only recently did I purchase a PDA and I love it!!
I have the HTC Fuze which is very much like an iPhone, but it’s more business-like. I’m not a phone person, but I wanted something I could keep up with email and social networks without having to wait until I get back to the desktop.
Congrats on the new tech toy! Up next for me is a Netbook. I love gadgets! 🙂
Rhonda, I should have made a Circuit City run myself but I didn’t. I’m glad you found something you like. A couple of years ago I bought an attachment for my iPod that allows it to do digital voice recordings. I love it!
Ty, I had to look up “netbook” to figure out what you were talking about. :)One of my colleagues has one and now everybody in the College wants one. I’ve forgotten which one she has but I’ve seen it and it’s too cute. I’m not sure if I want one though give I have the iTouch. I’ll have to think about it. I wouldn’t mind a tabletPC though. Are they even still making those?
I just learned the term, “Netbook,” a month ago myself. LOL!
Oh definitely, Tablet PC’s are just as popular. They even have pens now that work like little PC’s. Check out LiveScribe.com.
It’s so weird all this stuff that used to be sci-fi is real now!
Ty, you’re not going to believe this but I have that LIveScribe pen. I’ve had it for about five months and I haven’t even opened the box. One of my students did a presentation on it in class in December. It is great! That should have been my motivation to crack open the box. Maybe this post will be instead.
What! Okay, I hope you cracked open the box now. LOL! I’ve been eying the LiveScribe pen for awhile now. I’m telling on myself, but I opted to get the Fly Pen which is really marketed to teens by LeapFrog. I’m impressed with it. I purchased it at less than $75.
My only gripe, I don’t think they are going to continue the product and the notebooks are expensive for so little paper.
Ty, the box is open, the pen is charged and I’ve played around with the tutorial. I’ll post after I’ve had a chance to use it in a real setting.
LiveScribe is supposed to have an option where you can now print paper from your printer. That’s all I know. Will let you know more when I find out.