Feb
15
Can’t Touch This. Yet.
Filed Under Technology
My wife is an extremely hard worker. Recently she was awarded an iPod Touch from her company for her work on a difficult project. With this, my wife has taken a decisive lead in our household iPod arms race. My third generation iPod is getting a little long in the tooth, so I’m auditioning for replacement in the not so distant future. This little thing goes with me everywhere, making commutes and waiting rooms enjoyable. It would be nice to be able to watch video and maybe look at some pictures once in awhile. However, I seem to have trouble committing to a new model.
On one hand, I like the idea of packing up every media file I own to cart around on an 160Gb iPod. But do I need to carry everything with me all the time? Don’t I have a lot of music that I never listen to? And how often am I away from my computer for syncing anyway? Wouldn’t the sleek form factor of a new Nano much more convenient?
My wife complicated this first world problem further when she walked in the door with this new iPod Touch. To be honest, I never really considered the iPod Touch. Until I touched it, that is. I just didn’t get it. But once I started flipping through album covers on this device, something clicked. This little object had been solely a music player a few years ago. But now it’s evolving into something much more.
It’s tough at times for our analog brains to make the leap to digital. What was once a music player has evolved into a music and video player, photo viewer, email client, web surfing tool, online mapping, etc. While I was preoccupied with the device as a media player, I was missing out on the idea that devices like these are going to move into a more central role in the lives of many people. Instead of something attached to our computer, these devices become what we use instead of our computers. The relationship between our devices has changed.
What made me pause when I first ran a greasy finger across the iPod Touch’s screen was that it reminded me of something: one device to rule them all. For years, I’ve fantasized about a portable device that would become the center of our computing world. The idea of a work computer and a home computer always frustrated me. This is all my data, so I should be able to get at it anywhere, right? I was totally surprised when someone had created this device while I wasn’t paying attention.
The environment I envision looks like this:
- All your data (documents, music, pictures, etc) exists on the device.
- While on the go, you can access the data in limited ways: listen to music, view pictures, go online, edit text and spreadsheets, enter contacts and appointments, etc.
- Once you plug the device into any computer, the device becomes an attached drive. You can use the applications on the computer to do more advanced file manipulation: edit photos, advanced word processing, watch movies on the larger monitor, etc. You also back up the device while connected.
This vision appeals to me so much because it would allow one to carry one’s whole digital life in a small package. You could use any available computer without ever leaving your own little environment. What’s more, you could actually pull out the item on the bus and access the data. How very Cory Doctorow!
More classic PDAs got close to this. Very close. But not with the grace and UI of the iPod Touch. Even if you can’t edit Word documents on the Touch — or even access it as an external drive — the UI metaphor still comes closer to my vision than any PDA I’ve used in the past.
The iPod Touch isn’t the end all. There are still significant hurdles. There is no file manipulation on the Touch. And all the music is locked away in iTunes. And even 32 Gb isn’t nearly enough room for everything. Further, flash memory isn’t well-suited for lots of read/writes. Still, with the software development kit coming from Apple this month, it may not be long until we see a word processing application for the Touch. It may not be long until we truly have a device from Science Fiction in our hands.
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