New toys
Last week I got an iPod Touch. In retrospect I should have gotten the 16GB one, but instead I stuck with the 8GB model. So far I am liking it very much.
The user interface and responsiveness of the touch screen is impressive. I'm not yet very competent with the screen keyboard; I don't know if that will get better or not. The auto-correct helps me out about 75% of the time but isn't good enough that I can just ignore typos.
The utility of the AIM client and web browser is impressive, and with the recent 2.0 software upgrade I've been able to synchronize my Exchange email account with it as well, which is a huge win. Less of a win is that the Exchange calendar sync loses all the calendar category information, so all my calendars come mashed together overlapping in one color. To solve this requires a rather ridiculous path of syncing Exchange with Gcal (via oggsync), then Gcal with iCal (via spanningsync), then syncing the iPod with iCal. THEN all my separate calendars are preserved. This kind of sucks because it means my iPod calendar is only synchronized when plugged in to my home machine, but it's still better than nothing.
Contact sync seems to be working fine; I'll probably leave that turned on and then back-fill to GMail via oggsync (although the last time I tried that it erased many of my contacts completely, so I haven't dared try it again).
I don't have information about battery life with the wireless network turned on constantly; I've been turning the WiFi off when not actually in use.
All in all a really handy device. Ironically, I can use it from anyplace I have access to a wireless network EXCEPT my office... they installed new Meru AP311's as a test in our building, and something about them prevents iPhones and iPod Touches from joining the network. It's unclear whose fault this is, I'm sure Apple and Meru will be pointing fingers at each other and who knows when it will be fixed.