Random Thoughts on New iPod Lineup

Go to Apple if you want the basics on the new iPod lineup and to oggle the goods. Here's some reactions that I've had to the new gear.

I'm glad that the new iPod Touch has WiFi. I'd like to see Apple do more with it. Granted, the Safari mobile browser is awesome and trumps any other lame WiFi application that any other portable media player has tried. I was hoping for live MP3 streams, i.e., internet radio over WiFi. Too much of a battery drain, maybe? I've heard a complaint about how quickly WiFi drains the iPhone battery.

Also I was hoping for podcast downloading over WiFi. For me, I try to download Democracy Now every morning before I go into work, but sometimes they're late or, or even more rare, I leave early. If I could download over WiFi then I could get the podcast at work and still listen to the news on the way home.

The only thing that can be downloaded on the iPod Touch over WiFi is music through the Store--which means that except for one song a week, you gotta pay. Instead of working on their partnership with Starbuck's, I wish Apple was opening up downloads of free podcasts.

iPod Touch has the same YouTube application that the iPhone has. I played around with YouTube on an iPhone at the Apple Store. I found Mosaic on it, but the interface was too tiny for me to figure out which date it was. Also WiFi doesn't seem as good a platform for spending downtime browsing the web or YouTube as high-speed cellular is--if you are in an area with WiFi then mostly likely you can get on a computer. I had my hopes for city-wide WiFi in San Francisco, but that's collapsed now after EarthLink pulled out. It sounds like the Starbuck's deal only allows you to browse the iTunes Store, not the web or YouTube.

I guess it's too much to ask to be able to be able to share songs with other iPod's and computers over WiFi--the record labels would freak out about that. "Hey buddy have you heard this song? No? Well then I'll just zap it to you over WiFi!" I hope someone comes up with a hack to do that. Even better, transfers from an iPod to your friend's computer--"Hey buddy, can I get all of the music in your iPod?" (Although with a sync cable and software, you can already do that without WiFi.) I'm guessing that the iPod Touch runs on OS X, like the iPhone. Seems like there's already a big group of folks hacking into the iPhone, and I hope to see some similar work done on the iPod Touch.

I also really want to see Flash on the iPhone, iPod Touch. Apple shows the New York Times homepage on their demo--oh, ignore the blank spot in the lower-left corner please. That's just where The NYT streams Flash videos. What's the holdup? Is Flash video too processer-intensive? Do Adobe and Apple have to reach some agreement?

Big price drops on the iPhone. Get a 4GB iPhone on clearance for $299, while supplies last. In the future, it's only the 8GB iPhone for $399.