Today's announcement adds the following software apps to the iPod touch:
- Mail (E-mail, including HTML formatting and some common attachment types (including PDF, Word and Excel)
- Maps (interface to Google Maps)
- Notes (a text-based note pad)
- Stocks
- Weather
With these additions, the suite is now very close to what I have on my Palm PDA (plus several extras I don't have). Here's a quick comparison (and yes, I'm aware that modern Palm OS devices have features my m515 doesn't.)
| iPod Touch feature | Palm m515 feature |
|---|---|
| Calculator | Calc |
| Calendar | Date Book |
| Clock | Clock |
| Contacts | Address |
| Mail (With HTML and attachments) | Mail (Without HTML or attachments) |
| Notes | Memo Pad |
| Settings | Prefs Security |
| iTunes Store | N/A |
| Maps | N/A |
| Music | N/A |
| Photos | N/A |
| Safari (web browser) | N/A |
| Stocks | N/A |
| Videos | N/A |
| Weather | N/A |
| YouTube | N/A |
| N/A | Card Info |
| N/A | Expense |
| N/A | HotSync |
| N/A | Note Pad (a simple paint app) |
| N/A | To Do List |
| N/A | Tutorials (Graffiti and Welcome) |
Plus, I've installed a few third-party apps on my Palm:
- A bridge game
- A hexadecimal calculator
- Mobipocket (an e-book reader)
- PalmReader (another e-book reader)
- A scientific calculator
- A vector-drawing app
- A solitaire card game
You will notice that the iPod Touch now includes equivalents to almost everything of importance on the Palm. The big exceptions to this are the Expense, Note Pad and To Do List, for which Apple has not (yet?) released their own equivalents. Plus the third-party apps.
Next month, however, Apple will be releasing their iPhone/iPod Touch SDK. With that, it will be possible for developers to write their own apps. I fully expect to see third-party software (hopefully not too expensive) to fill in this gap. When that happens, the iPod Touch will have become my ideal PDA.
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