As one of my feline friends dismantled parts of my laptop computer a few weeks ago, and seeking a reasonable substitute, I took the plunge and went from IBM PC to Apple platform – in a sense. Needing CHEAP – and PORTABLE – I sprang for an iTouch. Basically, an iPhone without the phone. WHY? Apps, pure and simple. Apps are applications that run on the device. Many hundreds of them… free. And most that you buy are only a buck. And with Wifi (wireless router), I can truly be mobile, as this device connects to the internet. wherever you happen to have an open connection e.g. The Coffee Bean, Rusty Parker Memorial Park, home, etc…
The Apps? Just totally, totally awesome. Yeah, the iTouch is a PDA with address book, contact manager, calendar that sync up with my Yahoo account… pretty standard stuff. BUT, here’s some of the apps that I find so useful… yPmobile is the yellow pages on steroids…Flixster is up to the minute movie guide linked to my location for movies in my area, with trailers…New York Times with tech, sports, news , obits, etc…What’s On is a TV guide for my area and cable provider, around the clock…Sportacular with EVERTHING you want to know about games and players, stats, schedules…Wikipanion, the citizen’s encyclopedia about everything…Allrecipes from AllRecipes.com, no leftovers here…King James Version of the Bible, one of MANY versions available…Youtube… Epocrates, a medical reference and guide to prescription medicines, along with contraindications and side-effects…Converter, which converts anything, including real-time currency updates (did you know that one US dollar = 198,712,270.5005 Zimbabwe dollars?)…SitorSquat, which lists available public toilets, when you need to go, you need to go, right?…The Weather Channel… Bloomberg, for detailed stock news and reports for markets, countries, commodities…Yelp!, which is a guide to everything local, and local, like most of the apps, is where you specify……Google, for maps, Google Earth, news, mail…Translator, so I can translate from my native English to one of over 30 other languages, or vice versa…CReports, so I can read the latest Consumer Reports…why, these are just a few of my favorite things!
Like an iPod, I have photos, videos, music loaded… pretty cool, to my way of thinking. For business, I have mSecure, an app that stores confidential data, encrypted of course… what I love is the “Push technology”, that pushes my Yahoo email to the device, available in seconds… no wait for computer boot-up time. It also has the Safari browser for web surfing…
I’ll talk more about some of the apps later. You can review the apps through iTunes, which you may have loaded on your computer. Apps can be loaded directly onto the iTouch or via iTunes. I spent $229 for the iTouch, best money spent in a very long time. I’m sorry that I didn’t buy it through my friend Chris, who is a merchandiser in the LA area, but I was in the mall at Christmas time and got lured into the Apple store. A powerful magnet for one desperately seeking computing power on a budget. Now, one of the few times I need a computer is to edit photos or write a long letter, and some business functions like doing taxes with Tax Cut, that sort of thing. So long, carpel tunnel…