Today my friend let me play with his iPod touch. Yes, I liked it at first. Its fun to play with, it looks good, all this smooth scrolling and such ... well.

I couldnt use it. I really, really had problems with the onscreen keyboard. Every other letter I typed was wrong, or I hit twice or whatever. Entering the password for my wireless router was a nightmare (hidden input field) - I gave up after 5 attempts and let my friend do it. (It took him almost a minute...)

I'm not saying the keyboard is bad. I know most people out there love it. It's just that my hands tremble a bit - not enough for you to notice when we meet, but too much to hit these tiny spots on the screen.

The browser was another disappointment. Yes, its very sexy. Absolutely. The way you can automatically resize it to column width, the easy zooming with 2 fingers. Great! The only problem is that you have to resize and zoom in and out all the time. It just never gets it right. Never. Not one single page.

Next thing I tried was the video playback. I started the video and - no sound? I looked at my friend (he's a real Apple type of guy, he buys literally everything they sell), he seems to have read the question from my eyes: "Yes, you may laugh now. There's no sound. We'd need earphones." - Well, actually, this isn't uncommon for multimedia devices, MP3 players etc. It's just that I got so used to this little detail in my 770 that I found it ridiculous that I couldn't watch the film without earphones if I wanted to.

So now finally I know for sure those devices (I take it the iPhone isnt different) are not for me. I hope Nokia never ever goes down that road. I want to type. I want to surf without zooming in and out all the time. Thank you, Nokia.

Maybe not regarding most usability questions.

However, the iPhone has a built-in speaker, of course,
so you can at least hear the music w/o earphones...

OTOH, none of the iPods so far had a built-in speaker,
and virtually none of the competitors has a built-in speaker,
so you could have been prepared;-)


On my Nokia 770, I used the zoom button very often,
because the default font size settings for Opera are far from optimal for me.

I don't use the zoom buttons very frequently nowadays,
since I sent my 770 to retirement...

HTH

Ray

seeing how about most web pages are 40% ads, I actually like zooming in (double tapping is easier than pinching). In fact the keyboard on 770 doesn't seem much better than what is on the iPod / iphone (when holding it horizontally)

Blaspheme! Ye've stirred up a hornet's nest lad....

Anyway... many Apple folks will disagree and flame you.

I happen to agree completely. The iPhone or iPod touch is not in the same "category" as the Internet Tablet. (The same as many "smartphones" are not in the same "category".)

Sure... they can "do" some of the same things... but it all depends on what your needs and desires are.

Going to the gym? I want my little Sandisk e280 MP3 player. The Internet tablet would be too big and bulky to use while working out. Although it would "work".

Need to read some PDF files? Some technical documents? 1200 pages? The smartphones/iPod can do that function. (So can the Sandisk MP3 player with it's 1.5" screen for that matter.) BUT... I would have to say that doing so on the small screens is "not acceptable" and as such these devices do not do this function "well". But hey... they "work".

Are you going to want to read forums on the net? The smartphones (and iPhone/iPod) can also do that function. However... they don't do it WELL because of the size of their screens. (Or lack of size/resolution.)

Want to browse sites with flash? Er.. don't bring that up... it makes some people crazy.

The problem here is that some people will chime in claiming that their favorite toy can "DO" these things as well as or better than the internet tablet.

But it's all personal opinion. You can "claim" that a smaller screen or a 320x480 resolution is just "fine". But after using the internet tablet... it is very hard to go to one of these smaller screens and have your brain "register" that using them is "okay" or "acceptable".

(This doesn't take into the flashy eye-candy and usability features which can easily change anyway. These are nice and catchy things... but not really important at the "end of the day".)

Guess ist already started

I thought I'd made it clear, though, that I was trying to describe what the device meant for me. Not everybody else has this problem hitting tiny keys with their fingers...

Anyone tried to use the N800 "stylus keyboard" with fingers? I tried once and it worked surprisingly well... But I think iPhone/Touch keyboard is still a lot smaller and I can believe your difficulties...

Hi, I've not used the Touch before, but from what I've seen on the videos, you're supposed to slide your finger on the key you want to type and if it pops the correct letter, then you lift your finger off. It's different from the N800, where you tap the letter. And I think your other finger (if the next letter is near it) can already start typing the next letter even before the other finger has lifted off. Correct me if I'm wrong...so by sliding and lifting off at the correct letter, you can be quite accurate with the iphone's keyboard.

Yea, once you figure it out (takes a week, seriously) it beats the pants off the onscreen keyboard on the N800/770. But now with the N810 coming, that will be different

Having used the iPhone and the N800 for a while now, I'd say its a toss up. Its MUCH easier to navigate pages on an iPhone/Touch, but the scrolling is a bit more intensive due to the resolution. It does depend on the site though, some are fully readable in landscape due to its superior scaling engine.

I haven't decided if I am going to go for the N810 or something slightly bigger. It won't really provide a "better" pocket browsing experience, but more of a "different" one.

I've been eyeing the EEE pc, but the 7" is killing me, I wish they stuck an 8 or 9 inch 1024x600 screen on there.

That's mainly the problem with all handheld devices. Screens are a bit too small. I was perfectly happy carrying something the size of the Newton 2100 around. Nice big screen, crappier resolution, but bigger screen. Something that size can do 1024X768 now-a-days. Though to be honest, all my pants have cargo pockets, and I wear a pretty big coat 9 months out of the year. I'd love to get my hands on one of those OLPCs. Nice big screen, almost instant on, fairly ruggedized. I'd love to replace my 4Gb nano with a 16Gb touch, just don't have the extra cash at the moment. People need to look at it like a mp3 player that does other things too. Kinda like the IT's. They are web browsers that do other things too.

Me! me! Here I am!

I use it a lot more since the Skype firmware did lost *cough* finger keyboard trigger sensitivity *cough* and yes, it is not so bad (considering how those little buttons are, related to my f*t fingers )