Apple's iTouch, the real deal!

I got Apple's new iTouch iPod a few weeks ago but was waiting for my laptop to get to Melbourne. Been dying to use it but had no music, no movies and no internet to try the browser. I threw a few pictures on it and had a play with those but had to wait 2 weeks for the cavalry to arrive.

I got my laptop last Tuesday and been playing with it everyday since. It was a dream on the 10 hour train from Melbourne to Sydney. 300, Heroes Season I, and Family Guy Season V, as well as my music all saw daylight for the first time on my new iTouch! I'll run through a few of the details for anyone thinking of a purchase.

Interface Intuition

The interface is unbelievable. No issues to date with it at all other than the usual "fingers too fat to dial" syndrome with the keyboard. As it's not an iPhone though you don't have to type quite as much without texts but it would be nice for Apple to address the keyboard issue next time around. Flipping through your albums and creating "On The Go" playlists is now as easy as pie. Movies can be stopped and will continue playing where you left off, and this works concurrently for all videos.

The feature of rotating the iTouch to the side ,so the screen re-orientates itself to the new position, allows for increased screen use as well as new features such as navigating through albums at any time while in the music section, similar to the feature in iTunes 7. Very nice touch!

Battery life

The battery life is pretty impressive for an Apple product! Watching movies is not as draining on resources as previous models despite the increased screen size. I have yet to test long periods of browsing but all in all a big improvement in this department.

Hardware

The screen is incredible! You have the usual issues with screen scratching and smudging (it is an iTouch after all, so smudges come with the territory) but the resolution is stunning with little or no glare for movies. The dimensions are quite astounding too! The 16 gig model is so thin and fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. The screen is ample size for comfortable movie watching.

Software

The iTouch staff have produced a development guide for web developers so web applications can be created to better suit web browsing needs of the fantastic Safari browser on the new iPod. Social network sites such as Facebook have already tailored a version of their application to the iTouch with more to follow. The other OS X borrowed software are as reliable and useful as ever; Safari for web browsing, a calculator, calender and contact list can be synced from your Apple Mac.

The main additions are custom built applications for iTunes and YouTube access and browsing. Both these apps work very well and strip the periphery elements of both web services to allow users direct access to media streaming and downloading.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion is simple really - GET ONE! I am usually quite hesitant when purchasing mark I iPods but this one has surpassed my expectations in every department. Alright there is not a whole lot of Gig for your Dollar but for users that already own a previous iPod model this can be a nice addition for web browsing, video watching and selective music "playlisting" or indeed a stylish introduction to the world of iPod for any newbies.

The Microsoft Zune team has declared it's intentions of eating into Apple's grip of the MP3 market (in the "long run") but Microsoft has it's work cut on this one I fear and it may well be a very long run.

Filed under Jealous?, Technology >< 5 Comments

The new Garda Cricket website

Just wanted to know people's opinions on the new version of the cricket website I'm finishing off. This is the about page.

Post a comment, no slagging or I'll bhan hammer you!

Filed under Jealous?, BOLDBEAR >< 6 Comments

Sydney, 25 and the rest...

I haven't posted in a little while, mainly due to a lack of events of true merit. Since my last post I went to see Hard-Fi in the Prince of Wales, we have celebrated my 25th birthday (whaaahay) and visited Sydney to hook with a friend of Ian's.

Hard-Fi were class! The new album "Once Upon a Time in the West" is pretty solid, and for anyone in Melbourne if a decent band are playing The Prince check them out. Nice intimate venue, although lads watch out! The pub downstairs is "half & half", with one side of the bar catering to a gay audience. Joe and I only found out after being there a few times, haha. So don't moan and say Jonny sent you to a gay bar in Melbourne. There are a fair few bars in Melbourne like that. It is the bohemian/more fashionable version of Sydney.

The perks of being 25 are few but still by far the best is car rental in Australia. More on this later in the post but basically I can get the higher class of car/jeep here being over 25. Audi A4, Holdens (which are class) and pimped out Yutes (Aussie pickups). The birthday was a fairly Irish orientated affair. Got some of our friends over, few drinks and then on to our usual haunt of Revellers here in Melbourne. Great night, thanks to the lads (especially Joe and Frankie for looking after me) and indeed all the girlies that gave me 25 kisses... There's the second bonus! Older = More birthday kisses ;) Thanks to everyone at home for remembering me as well.

Right so onto Sydney then. Joe and Brian had headed to Perth the previous weekend to hook up with Erica/Suzie and the girls before they left Oz. They had a ball so can't wait to get to Perth eventually. Ian's friend, Nal, was heading to Sydney for a days so Ian asked would I be interested in heading up. I jumped at the chance of course, so we packed up and got a 10 hour train to Sydney. We grabbed a hostel on Pitt Street for 4 nights. A massive turn up for the books was a message on this here blog from a friend of ours Ian and Joe met in Sri Lanka, Matt from England. He was in Sydney working and was wondering where we were. On the Saturday we met both Nal and Matt and hit the town.

Sydney is a great spot, much livlier than Melbourne. We ripped it up with the two lads and I ended up staying up all night with Matt to watch the rugby final. Got to bed at 9 after 14 hours on the trot. I was back on the drink for the weekend away with Ian but did well to have 7 weeks in Melbourne (apart from the birthday) on the dry. It is possible, I can vouch for it!

Right so, what next? Well Matt had a good chat with me and Ian about coming up here for jobs. Being the sound man that he is, he had 3 agencies ringing me on Monday morning. In between "touristing" it up at the Opera House we popped in for a meeting with a recruitment agency (in our shorts and thongs... That's what flip-flops are called in Oz! I swear, no mess). So in my thongs, they went through our CVs. I rang Brian and pretty much on the spot we decided to move up here by the following weekend. The motivation for moving to Sydney after only 7 weeks in Melbourne was triple fold; (a) the jobs availability is better, (b) Sydney is far busier and more craic, and lastly (c) the accommodation situation. There is work in Melbourne but no real IT based positions. Melbourne is a tad more laid back than Sydney so we fancied getting up there to get decent accommodation and setup before the mad rush at Xmas.

Decision made then! Now the fun part. We are going for a meal this Saturday for our last days in Melbourne and then a big house party. After that we are renitng the biggest car the rental company can give us and we're going on a road trip to Sydney for two days. We arrive Monday/Tuesday with the job and appartment hunt on!

Whoa!! Big post but if you made it all the way through, I'll post after some more partying in Sydney... Oh and I'll do my best to get a job... Don't hold your the breath though! :P

Filed under Jealous?, Australia >< 5 Comments