The iPod Touch is a music and photo player, but also a complete Internet device with
email, web browser, etc. The most exciting thing about the iPod Touch is that you
can download and install hundreds of little applications.
Albums on the iPod.
Whenever you need to type (a Web address, an email, etc.), a keyboard automatically
appears on the screen.
My favorite application is a small drawing program -- you simply draw with your finger.
You can open a picture and draw on top of it.
This is a little, calming application -- fish swimming in a pond. You can adjust the
number of fish, lily pads, etc.. If you touch the screen, there is a noise like a pebble
dropping into the pond and the fish scurry away from the place you touched.
Next, the Flip Mino -- a super-simple video recorder. It looks like a camera, so
people don't freeze up as much as they do when you point an obvious movie camera
at them.
A USB connector pops out to allow simple attachment to the computer in order to
download the videos. It comes with software so you can instantly upload the video
to YouTube.
A small tripod so you can video yourself.
There are very few controls. A big red button (under my thumb) to start or stop the
recording, and a couple of buttons to play or delete the videos on the Mino.
Next, the Sony voice recorder. Although it is not much bigger than a pack of gum, it
can hold 24 hours of recordings at the highest quality setting, and, believe it or not, 581 hours of recordings at the lowest setting. That means you could record 24 hours
a day for three weeks.
Like the Mino, you simply plug the device into a USB port to download recordings.
You can also use it as a thumb drive or a music player simply by uploading files or
songs onto it.
The controls, and a small speaker on each side so you can record in stereo.
You can create folders to store your recordings, songs, etc. To see your folders,
simply push the little menu button.
On top, jacks for attaching a higher quality microphone if you like, and for attaching
headphones or speakers.
Hardware
Here are three devices that I've played with this year. All three fit into the palm of my hand -- an iPod touch (in the middle), a Flip Mino video recorder (on the left), and a Sony voice recorder (on the right).