iPod Touch

I got a cool new toy for Christmas this year. I really never thought I would succumb to the siren song of this kind of technology, but thanks to a visit with my sister and her husband, I caught a glimpse of the power of a device like the iPod Touch and I decided it would be worth the risk of getting sucked in. So far, it has been great. It has all the functionality of an iPhone without the phone - no cellular connection, just WiFi, and a cheaper microphone. Here's what I love about it.

It allows me to keep track of appointments and share calendars with my wife in a much more accessible form factor than my laptop. I can take it with me to meetings, church, anywhere, and keep myself a little more organized. I love that I can keep hundreds of songs on a single device and create playlists from multiple albums and play those songs in random order. I love music and my CDs have never been so accessible to me. I spent about three days ripping CDs to MP3s, but at least they're accessible.

My only concern with technology like this is that it can become consuming. It can make zombies out of otherwise friendly people and isolate us. I may be an introvert by nature, but I still love human contact and I'll try to avoid getting sucked in too much. So far, I think I've made a good bargain. It's pretty amazing what this thing can do!

I don't know whether I'll use this feature much, but I just figured out how to make free VoIP calls over WiFi, I've synched my calendars, contacts, email, etc from work and non-work. I have a pretty cool alarm clock that will wake me up to any songs I want. I can access various radio stations, watch movies, and probably do about a hundred other relatively useful things that I haven't figured out yet. I can access most of my accounts online, scriptures and a bunch of other documents published by my church, my Kindle books, connect to a stereo at home and play my songs with a little more volume ... I'm really impressed.

Thanks sis. I wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for you. Merry Christmas to me! :)