tankPOD Touch: A new generation.

tankPOD Touch: A new generation.

As I mentioned earlier, my company gave every employee an iPod Touch for the holidays. Aside from this being a really generous gift, it was one that made total sense for our company. The future of the web will probably mostly be viewed on mobile devices, and right now I'm pretty sure the iPod Touch is leading the way as far as setting the standard everyone will end up having to adhere to.

So how is it? Well, first my gripes, because they are few and far between as far as my initial experience goes. I'd really like syncing options available for calendar and contacts functions outside of Outlook, say, perhaps, um, Google Calendar? Yes you can view it online through the Touch's browser, but I'd love to have it available offline and on the device. My other gripe is the disk size, since for me 16GB just seems so tiny for an iPod. However that is tempered by the fact that, at least with this Touch, I plan on making it more of a mobile PDA than a media player.

And the positives? First, the touchscreen! Really, really amazing. Even Photogal, not one to really go agog over technical interfaces, couldn't stop playing with the screen. Navigation truly is instinctual and I figured out just about every application immediately. It's size is amazing too. it's actually thinner than my phone, and I don't know how they did that. Viewing video and photos on it is truly a pleasure, and the graphics are just knock-out gorgeous. Another fun addition is the QWERTY keyboard touchscreen and the way it accurately figures out what our big huge fingers are trying to type.

But the really great thing is the Wi-Fi and mobile browser. Websites come up looking the way they're supposed to look, easily navigable, and easily readable as you zoom in and out. It's the first concrete example I've experienced that envisions the way that web-on-the-go should really function. This was the main thing the iPhone had that made me jealous, but until the iPhone improves it's network (um, 3G?) and vastly improves its storage space, the tankPOD Touch is just absolutely perfect for what I want to use it for.

And what about the iPod music portion? (Remember what these things were originally created for? O.K., they were probably always intended for this outcome but you know what I mean.) Well, aside from the fact that it has so little room for songs, I do like the interface. Unfortunately I've never been that worried about including album artwork when I rip or download albums, so the cover flow feature doesn't work all that well. Anyone know of an easy way to snag cover art and associate it with songs on your iPod / iPod Touch? I tried the "Get Album Artwork" function in iTunes, but it never seems to really do anything. I'm probably missing something obvious, but...

So there you have it. Anyone else out there have one of these and want to share thoughts? Keep in mind I just got it so I might be missing features, or foibles, that will become apparent after more playtime. Chime in with your thoughts!