It’s been about a year since I posted my thoughts on the iPod Touch and my answer has since changed from a “maybe” to absolutely, even my v1.0 edition. I use it for everything from:

• emailed versions of my travel itinerary
• podcasts
• multi-day alarm clock, a wake-up call replacement
• ebook reader
• restaurant/coffee shop locator
• status updates to Facebook, Yammer and Twitter
• newspapers
• weather
• maps and even a poor man’s GPS
• flashlight/nightlight
• File sharing device (AirSharing)
• Banking
• And yes, even music though mostly streamed via Pandora

These days I’m traveling a heck-of-a lot more and I’ve found it to be an invaluable travel tool. In fact, the Touch can even function as a poor man’s GPS. To see this working you’ll need to cache some map content while connected to wifi:

1. Before embarking on your trip connect to a wifi network
2. Using the Google Map browse around the area you’ll be driving so the map will be cached. You may want to zoom in so as to capture more detailed content.
3. Start driving to the location where you’re headed while viewing the Google Maps application. If there are sufficient wifi access points in the area the little blue target locator (pictured) will occasionally update and follow you along the map.

To be sure we’re not talking real time but it does actually work. Notice in the picture that the Touch isn’t connected to wifi when it was captured as I sat at a stop light. I stumbled into this feature while on a business trip to Austin TX and while driving around looking for a Starbuck’s I noticed my location on the map changing. The screenshot here displays it working near Wilkes-Barre PA.

My current favorite application is RSS Player which makes listening to podcasts easy and enjoyable, it still needs a few features but it’s seriously a must have if you’re a podcast listener.

I’ve gone back and forth on this for awhile now and I’m wondering what you think. I’ve read a bunch of iPod Touch reviews but nothing has really swayed me either way. Most of the reviews are pre-Mac World '08 so details on the new features are scant. I did play with one while at the store and like the iPhone, it’s very slick and definitely has geek appeal. Another important question I have is whether or not the upcoming iPhone SDK will be supported? I asked two different people working at the Apple store over the weekend and didn’t get an straight yes or no answer, it was more of a "we don’t know".

The main reason I haven’t/wouldn’t go with an iPhone is the price of the contract which would significantly increase my monthly bill, not something I’m interested in.

Anyway, what’s your opinion on the iPod Touch (post Mac World '08 of course)?

Last Friday, while I was out in the desert (which btw was a blast), much to my surprise I got an email from a Public Relations person from Western Digital asking if it would be ok for someone from their Customer Relations department to contact me. I replied with my contact details and I just now got off the phone with someone from their CS department. They asked about what had happened and offered to pay for a card to replace the Firewire port which was burned out in the process of trying to hook up the MyBook Pro Edition II 1TB external drive which I think seems fair. The Customer Service rep gave me their personal number and email address and asked that I send them the invoice for the replacement card and they would get a check cut and set out directly.

To me, I think this really says something about Western Digital in that they are tuned into the blogosphere and reaching out to help. I haven't decided if I'll try another MyBook but this was certainly an unexpected but welcome exchange.

After this, then this, I headed back to CostCo to return a second dead MyBook in a week. The guy at the return counter said "Yeah, we've gotten a bunch of these back." He then looked it up and the CostCo here in Santa Cruz has sold 12 MyBook Pro Edition II's (I'm guessing that's over the last 5-6 days which is when I first saw them) and six had been returned so far. Of course, I purchased two of those but a 50% return rate? That's certainly enough to convince me to look elsewhere. I can't imagine CostCo will continue carrying these much longer if that record keeps up.

Btw, I've since found this blog post, unfortunately, I was unable to reach that site the other day nor did the cached version on Google work for me, go figure.

Ok, I believe I'm done blogging about the MyBook.

After this experience I finally made it back to CostCo to pick up another Western Digital MyBook Pro Edition II and get back to work backing up my images and video. I got the software installed (again) and plugged the MyBook into the wall then plugged the Firewire 400 cable to the MyBook then into my Dell 530. Right after making the connection I noticed a small curl of smoke rise up from the back top edge of the brick, right above where the Firewire 400 plug is located on the back of the MyBook, and that's where it ended. I immediately yanked the plug on the, now literal, Firewire cable and pulled the MyBook power cable from the wall. I guess they don't call it Firewire for nothing. Unlike last time, where I never actually saw smoke but thought I smelled that unique scent of electronic smoke, this time it was clearly visible and now I'm fairly certain something rather catastrophic must have occurred in the previous go-round and I'm guessing today's experience is probably related.

I tried powering up the MyBook again without any I/O cables attached and the circular indicator lights no longer respond. I also tried reconnecting my external Sony DVD burner into the same rear Firewire port and Windows failed to acknowledge it's existence. Switching to the front Firewire port worked just fine. Great, so now, not only do I have a second MyBook which is now toast, I'm down to one built-in Firewire port on my machine.

I'm pretty darn frustrated at this point and my confidence in the MyBook hard drive enclosure, specifically the enclosure, has taken a severe beating. This has left me wondering what if the Firewire failure had occurred at some later point when the machine was unattended (even five minutes later)? Would it have actually caught fire? The MyBook was two inches from a stack of recorded family DV tapes sitting here on my desk. Ok, I don't want to think about that anymore.

Anyway, just prior to all this MyBook stuff I had successfully copied several DV tapes from my Sony Digital HandyCam to my machine without any problems using this same Firewire port so I'm pretty sure the MyBook is somehow related to it's demise.

Ok, one last thing, I've now purchased two MyBook Pro Edition II's and upon opening each box I noticed the devices had the same odd smell which I think I'd describe as "solvent-like". It wasn't particularly strong though it did cause me to actually sniff the enclosure to ensure that's where it was coming from. The first thing that came to mind was that of airing it out before sitting in the same room with it for any extended period of time. I know PC's typically have a unique smell when first unwrapped/installed/booted but this smell distinctly stuck out to me as something I didn't want to be inhaling for any length of time.