On Thursday, I got an iPod Touch 64 GB. I didn't have much time on Friday to play with it but yesterday, woo hoo, whenever I had to take a break from Hild I went to play in the app store. I downloaded all the mail and calendar wotsits, picked a nifty photo for my lock screen, got the digital Economist app, iGoogle, and uploaded my Janes Plane videos. (Oh, yes, I have edited those. Yes, I'm tormenting you again. Ha ha ha.) I played with the camera a bit--just enough to determine that it doesn't suck, and just enough to make me fear the notion of Face Time video calls--then I downloaded Scanner, the scan-barcode-get-comparison-prices app.
Then I lost time.
I got obsessed with scanning the bar codes of things I already own to torment myself with how much cheaper I could have got them if I'd had Scanner my whole life. Thankfully, the urge wore off. Still, it's forty minutes of my life I'll never get back. There again, I'm pretty sure I'll save a zillion dollars over the next year or so.
Then I downloaded the Kindle app. Bloody hell. More lost time. Books look utterly splendid on that jewel of a screen. And popping to the index or footnotes (I'm currently reading Schiff's Cleopatra: A life) is a delight compared to my Original Lumbering First Batch Kindle. (It's so old the battery only holds a charge for three or four days. It makes a horrible clunking sound when I hit the menu button.) I still prefer reading fiction on the Kindle; epaper is easier on the eyes than a back-lit screen. (Just downloaded McKinley's Pegasus, FYI.) But non-fiction, oh yep, iTouch 'r' us.
Speaking of the Kindle, the other day I saw that Dear Author had posted a just-in-time-for-the-holidays shopping comparison guide for ereaders. If you're not sure whether the Sony or Nook or Kindle or iPad is for you, read their guide. All the info you could possibly need.
But back to my current device: the iPod Touch rocks the thunderdome. I can't imagine how I got along without checking email from the sofa. Next on my wishlist? The newest Kindle, of course. And then a TV that will let me cut the Comcast cord. And then a car. And then--well, I have a list...
