iPod touch for the rest of us
I have to say that I really like the new iPhones. (Interesting side note: what would you guess is the number one result for 'iphone' on google? Apple.com? No. Wikipedia.com? Nope. The answer is cnet.com. I know, that is crazy.(Update: this is not the case anymore)) Four developers have them at Airwave so far and they love them. If Verizon used gsm I would be very tempted. But they don't, and I don't think my contract is up until next year. So no iPhone for me.
However, the iPod touch is a different story. My mp3 player of choice has been a 3g iPod for the past 4 years (and before that, the riovolt sp100). The 3g has pleasantly outlived its life expectancy with a little help from a class action suit. Wait, what was I talking about. . . oh right, the ipod touch.
The biggest obstacle that keeping me from this nice piece of hardware is the lack of linux support. You see, most ipods can sync with linux software without any problem. But recent ipods now use a hashing algorithm that prevents third party apps from playing nicely with the device. I would suggest that this move only fuels the hate side of the love-hate relationship between Apple and its customers. The good news is that some of the gtkpod folks have figured out what the hashing algorithm is. This is certainly good news for me (and apple as they will likely make a sale they otherwise would not).
Its a shame that apple didn't do this in the first place. It doesn't add any benefit to ipod users and only isolates otherwise happy customers.
