Rui CarmoBeing more concerned with my (as yet non-existent) tan1 than with the iPod event, I poked despondently at Opera Mini now and then and mostly wondered what all the fuss was about.
In the end, despite the iPhone price cuts, my impressions boiled down to: So what if the iPod now has a touch screen? It’s just another somewhat crippled (albeit brilliantly engineered) device.
I mean, I’m all for getting a (moderately expensive) little webpad to read news over breakfast and catch the odd podcast (which seems a pretty good use for the iTunes store2 on the go), but in between my PSP and the E90 I’ve been living off for nearly a week now3, I think I’m set.
I will eventually update my notes on the E90, but suffice it to say that Opera Mini Beta 2 on it is nothing short of amazing (even with the limitations I complained about), and running that, the MSN IM client, an SSH session and checking my .Mac mail over SSL at the same time on it is working out great for me…
And it does video, too. If I ever needed it on the go, which is practically never.
The PSP has 480×272 pixels and the E90 a whopping 800×352, so they’re a reasonable counterpoint to the iPod’s native 480×320 in terms of both video playback and browsing (even considering dynamic zooming, etc.)
A bit more interesting for me, however, were the updates to the classic iPod line – they’re finally large enough to hold my entire music collection, and thinner, to boot. I’ve been thinking of getting one (and the camera connector) for long trips and to carry photos around, and the only reason I can see for not getting one is if the new nano happens to work with the camera connector (it would make a lot more sense for travel).
But then again, they’re just iPods. And given the lack of decent Wi-Fi coverage in the real world (compared to the glorious HSDPA throughput I’m enjoying as I type this), they’re mostly pointless.
Bring on the 3G iPhone, and then we’ll have something to talk about in earnest.
1 For those of you who dropped in out of the blue, I’m finally on vacation, and couldn’t care less about Apple right now.
2 The store also raises a few issues regarding Apple’s mobile and content strategies, since there is fundamentally zero difference between having it available via Wi-Fi or 3G – until you factor in the carriers.
3 Which, incidentally, is on loan for the duration of my vacation, so that I keep track of a few things.