Random touch/iphone notes
Posted on Sunday, December 28, 2008
A collection of random thoughts about the interface on my new iPod touch, typed on said iPod touch via the WordPress app (which I cannot link to because there is no copy and paste, of course). All of this is probably old news for you cool kids who got iPhone’s a year and a half ago, but hey, it’s my turn now.
Typing HTML markup on this thing is impossible, so the markdown wp plugin is a must for blogging. (Hmmm…I get errors with that plugin. Oh well: so we have paragraphs and not lists here.)
The auto-correction is often a pain in the ass, making some words practically impossible to type and turning some minor typos into complete jibberish by auto-correcting to a completely different word. However it’s also a lifesaver and on balance seems to help more than it hurts. I’ve found the best way to type quickly is to use one hand and aim only halfway carefully. (I just read a tweet exchange between @gruber and @ihnatko on this topic which normally I would link to now…but there’s no copy and paste.)
Can I refer to “iPhones” when discussing non-phone features on the touch? It’s much easier to type, sounds less awkward and they do call the OS “iPhone OS”…but talking about your “iPhone” when you “only” have a touch makes you feel like a wannabe without a “real” iPhone. Does anyone understand human status and vanity better than Steve Jobs and Apple marketing?
I wish the font sizes were adjustable. So many apps use the menu interface which uses pretty large bold fonts. That’s fine for some things, but not so much for others (In particular, I fight this on the otherwise awesome Remember the Milk app).
The finger smudges are driving me crazy…must look into the touch screen covers.
Tweetie is a great Twitter client. I wish they made a version for regular OS X.
The font sizes seem funky in mobile safari. I’m not sure if this is a problem with the css I use on my sites or if it’s just mobile safari.
Also the Shutter Reloaded javascript image viewer plugin I use doesn’t seem to work properly. It seems to work okay on single images, but goes crazy if you’ve got a gallery. (An otherwise awesome plugin btw, which I would link to if, you know, I had copy and paste. There are dozens of plugins that do this, but this one is fast and simple.)
The current podcast setup in the iTunes store has issues. They only let you read a limited number of characters in each episode title (which are frequently just restatements of the podcast name…a screenshot should show up at the bottom of this post) and the only way to get more info is to actually start to download the episode. Also, for some reason it says the plain ol' mp3s in our contexts podcast are the wrong format.
You can now sync your google calendars with iCal over caldav (true read/write two-way syncing on the mac) but when you sync these calendars to the touch/iPhone the gcal calendars are read only. Apple, please fix this.
Did I mention there’s no copy and paste yet?
Another limitation of a touch interface is that you lose the ability to hover over an item to either get a little tooltip or to glance at the status bar to peek at the url behind a link. This makes icon choice for apps important (especially since there is no “undo”!). It also makes browsing the web feel a bit like you are flying blind.
Having this thing is making me want to take another look at Minneapolis' city-wide wifi.
If ever a device needed nice wireless headphones…but no Bluetooth.
Ok, this has mostly been whining & that isn’t really representative of my experience so far. Truth is, for the most part, this thing is great and loads of fun. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the apps available yet and for just browsing the web on a mobile device, it’s great.
