Got the Touch
It appears that one of the biggest gifts this Christmas was the iPod Touch. I’ve had a Touch for about 3 months now and I love it. There are several applications – most of them free – that I have found invaluable. Some are actual iPhone/iPod Touch apps and some are Mac apps that support my iPod habit. Here’s my list:
- TwitterFon. A very nice Twitter client giving you access to your friends and replies timelines and allowing you to post your status, send direct messages, reply to others and even search. It’s a free app and one you’ll find quite handy. (Link opens in iTunes.)
- Springnote. If you’re a Springnote user, this app gives you access on the road. You can read and edit notes, add mobile photos, even read pages offline. The app is free, as is the Springnote service.
- Boingo Wi-Fi. My local Barnes & Noble wants $3.95 for 2 hours of wi-fi access. Many hotels charge you $10 or more a day! With Boingo’s Mobile Wi-fi plan, I have unlimited access at more than 100,000 hotspots worldwide for $7.95 a month. This includes B&N, Starbucks, MacDonalds and many airport/hotel services. I just open the Boingo app on my Touch, log in to the B&N hotspot and off I go to check mail, update Twitter, cruise the Web or even listen to Internet radio. (Note: This is the Mobile plan. There is a separate Laptop plan at $9.95/month.)
- Stanza. I always keep at least one e-book on my iPod to help survive waiting rooms and other boring situations. Stanza is no Kindle, but it is a very nice reader which will read all the unrestricted eBook formats including the new epub Open eBook standard. It will also read PDF, HTML, rich text format and Microsoft Word. At their online store you can purchase the latest best-sellers or select from more than 50,000 public domain classics from sources like Gutenberg. There is a desktop version for both Windows and Mac so you can collect and organize your books on your desktop and just move the ones you’re reading to your Touch. There is no charge for both the desktop or portable reader applications.
- SnapDat. I wrote about this free application a couple of weeks ago. It is a platform for creating and sharing electronic business cards from your iPhone/Touch. (Link opens in iTunes.)
- Audiobook Builder. If you’re a fan of audiobooks, this Mac desktop app is for you. It will take the multiple MP3 files that make up a Librivox audiobook or the various confusing files from your audiobook CD and turn them into neat packages that are automatically set up in their own iTunes playlist, ready to sync with your iPod. Audiobook Builder is available at $9.95 for a single-user license or $14.95 for a family pack from Splasm Software.
Does anyone want to add to the list? Tell us about it in the comments.
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January 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Happy New Year, Denise!
I should have known you would zoom way past me in the App department. I haven’t looked at any of these so I have lots to explore. I’ve been using the Facebook App, LinkedIn, Open Table, Google Mobile (fun to use voice command when your hands are full) and I love-love-love the NY Times App. I just started playing with Grocery IQ. I haven’t decided if I will really use this instead of my non-tech lists. Time will tell! I’ve also uploaded the Evernote App to take a look. Are you using Evernote?
January 5th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I have the Yahoo Companion app which is nice, but no voice commands. Since my grocery list is a very haphazard thing, Springnote works for that. Once you open a page in Springnote, it’s cached on the Touch so I can view it even when I don’t have a wifi connection. Yes, I’m experimenting with Evernote – desktop and Touch. I especially like the voice note feature. I bought the ear buds with mic (cheap ones, not the $80 ones) and it works quite nicely.
If you’re a word games fan, you might like wurdle. I also bought a fishing game that is motion based. You cast your Touch and then jerk it back to set the hook. It’s a cute game and as you may imagine, the men in my family love it.