With the price drop, I finally decided to get a 32GB iPod Touch, and I have to admit, Apple has done a really nice job. Its decisions about which applications it decides to arbitrarily blacklist from its AppStore (either now or without warning in the future) is evil, of course, but I don’t plan to develop on a locked-in platform such iPod/iPhone, so that’s not a problem. And of course, given AT&T’s evil customer service, I won’t be getting an iPhone any time soon (life’s too short to play cat and mouse with Apple’s cell phone locking games), this was probably my only opportunity in the short time to play with the iPhone/iPod touch’s e-mail application.
My reaction? Apple’s programmers and UI designers are very, very, good. As Jim Zemlin has pointed out, if Apple’s locked-down platform is a prison, it’s a velvet lined one. And I’m not one to like living in prisons, even if they are gorgeously appointed with 50 inch flat panel TV screens and an ocean view. But still, I’m happy with the iPod Touch; it’s relatively cheap for its functionality as an mp3 player, with web and e-mail access via wifi as a bonus. The only thing that is important is that I not harbor any illusions that this is not an open device, but a locked down platform. So that means I won’t invest any time in developing for it; nor will I invest any money in any for-pay applications (after all, Apple has the right to disable them at any time, for any reason they deem good and proper). And if any one really thinks Apple wouldn’t do anything like this, remember, they’re the company that just filed a patent on implementing DRM on clothing and sneakers!
Still, it would be nice if an open platform, such as the Nokia N800 had the functionality and usability of the iPod touch. One day, perhaps…
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