Tablet-Sized iPod Touch? Not as ridiculous as I first thought…
Okay, so I first started hearing rumors about a larger “tablet PC”-ish iPod Touch back in December. I remember thinking at the time that it was the most absurd thing I had heard or read in quite awhile (and remember, I work with the general public folks *wink*) . After all, we all saw how successful Tablet PCs turned out to be on the broader market.
However, I now know that I was simply not yet one of the converted. I bought myself a 32GB Touch in January, and I’m in love. I really am. The only think I don’t like about it is that its not an iPhone. (I would have gotten an iPhone, but AT&T worries and my poor track record with gadgets prevented me.) The coolest thing about it is the app store. The idea that I could find and download programs for nearly every need (often for free) was a huge deal with me, especially since I didn’t have to be at a PC to do it, could download directly to my iPod.
Its this capability that sruck a cord with me when I revisited those “Big iPod” rumors. The new iPod, it is said, will be between 5 and 7 inches in diameter, so it will have a nice sized screen without being too huge to be travel-friendly.
What do you get when you combine the flexibility and ease of use of an iPod Touch (with the App store) with a significantly bigger screen? A renaissance (you heard me, renaissance) in mobile computing, that’s what. Think of the productivity that would afford. I could actually stand to compose a long document on something that size. I managed a post on this blog on my Touch, and I imagine a larger screen would have only made the experience more pleasant. Would people really want to go without the keyboard associated with traditional notebooks? Sure! If I can handle a iPod Touch keyboard with my bloated meathooks then a larger screen would only make that better!
The main pitfall of the Tablet PCs are complexity and size. They were PCs with primitive touchscreens neither of which is conducive to real productivity. The smaller form factor implied in the rumors coupled with the super-simple interface of the iPod makes for very exciting possibilities.
A big Ipod has important entertainment ramifications as well. After all, It will be more fun to watch a movie on a bigger screen, and browsing ones library will become simpler as longer song titles can be accomodated [This is one other minor shortcoming of the Touch for me. I listen to a lot of classical music, and the titles of most works are much too long to display a useful fragment of, let alone in their entirety]. The touch certainly looks to be a possible Kindle-Killer (not that it had THAT much life in the first place) as apps like Stanza will make the big iPod an effective eBook reader.
In a library note, the “Big iPod” would also be the ultimate roving reference tool. You could search the catalog and the web and demonstrate databases and Electronic Resources right from the floor with a device large enough to view with a customer, but small enough to carry casually (rather than lug around). Here’s an idea! Add a USB port for a barcode/RFID scanner to the Big iPod and you get the Weeder’s/Shelf Reader’s best friend…
