Don't Touch me.

January 31, 2009 11:39 AM

I'd like recommendations on an alternative to the iPod Touch.

I'd like web browsing and photo storage in a similar format. I'm not really interested in a phone package with usurious rates for data transfer, and I find Apple's policies wrt DRM and jailbreaking reprehensible.

I'm interested in wifi connectivity , basically for on-the road usage, with a small form factor, ideally pocketable.

posted by pjern to computers & internet (18 comments total)

The iPod Touch has no drm, nor usurious rates as it is a standalone wi-fi device that's free to use as you see fit. There's nothing else quite like it on the market just yet.

Apple's policies via DRM are about as slack as a major player can get. They've wink-winked at the workaround, and apparently are un-drm'ing their entire store in the near future. Apple is on record as saying that DRM was forced on them by the nature of their affiliation with the record industry, and has made pretty great strides in weakening those strictures over the last 2 years or so, almost single-handedly.

If you have other considerations that you didn't mention, then mention them already.
posted by Aquaman at 11:49 AM on January 31 [3 favorites has favorites]

People suggested the Nokia tablets to me, esp the N770 and the N800. I didn't look into them too much and wound up instead with a jailbroken iphone with no data/phone plan, but that was my runner up choice.
posted by jessamyn at 11:49 AM on January 31

Archos makes such things.
posted by kickingtheground at 12:40 PM on January 31

Just to clarify - the iPod Touch doesn't have phone capabilities, and the browser only works in places that you have wifi access already. It's more like a tiny, tiny laptop than a phone.
posted by you're a kitty! at 12:43 PM on January 31

I'll second Aquaman, it sounds like your issues are with the iPhone, not with the iPod touch. No data plan, it has wifi, jailbreak that puppy and put what you want on it. The only way Apple will find out/care is if you have to send it in for repair without reformatting to factory defaults. But that will be the case for any device under warranty.

I have not found a better device for web browsing and photo display in such a small and user-friendly package. You also have the benefit of thousands of accessories, a luxury you won't have with other brands.
posted by shinynewnick at 12:46 PM on January 31

I've got a Nokia 810, which is about $130 more than a Touch. MP3 playing is more cumbersome, video needs reencoding for the smaller size and video throughput, and battery life is on the smallish side. But you get GPS, hardware keyboard, open source hackability, and freedom from draconian software control.

I wanted the GPS and freedom from Apple's guff, but sometimes I miss having the superfriendly eye candy.
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:34 PM on January 31

I'm interested in wifi connectivity , basically for on-the road usage, with a small form factor, ideally pocketable.

Then get an ipod touch. It's hard to beat. Also nthing Aquaman.

To make things more clear, it does not require a data plan. Just hop on free wifi anywhere you can get it. I love my ipod touch because I get free wifi almost everywhere I spend my time (work/home/coffee shop/library/oil change/restaurants etc). Heck, on the commute home from work I can even check mail at every stop sign between work and the freeway.

The ipod touch requires no jail breaking.

I find Apple's policies wrt DRM

Well, then just buy music from the same sources you would if you had a non-apple device. I get all my music from emusic and use the apple store only for (free) podcasts. The added advantage here is that you can download podcasts directly to your device (great when you need to listen to something on the road).
posted by special-k at 1:39 PM on January 31

Someone pointed out to me off line that maybe what I want is a mini netbbok computer, like an eeePc or dell Mini. I basically hate traveling with a full sized laptop, dragging it out just for a few minutes' web usage in a rest area or Panera or wherever. I don't mind the lack of Photoshop, etc, but getting pix off of an SD card would be nice.

It appears that ny biggest issues are with the iphone vs the touch, but I thought you had to use itunes to put anything on/take anything off the ipod touch. Is that not the case?
posted by pjern at 1:39 PM on January 31

Oh, and in case it matters, I don't listen to much music anymore, and don't really need that functionality.
posted by pjern at 1:41 PM on January 31

I have a Nokia n810 which is pretty nice, but has some caveats.

What I like:

Wifi
800x480 pixel screen which is very nice - as pixelful as many netbooks
Can take miniSD cards so you can get photos right off your camera or copy files to a laptop
Can pair with a cell phone with a data plan (but not required)
Has a slide out keyboard but also can use an on screen touch keyboard
GPS (though it mostly sucks, I've used it in a pinch)
Real Linux so you can do some pretty cool things (progam, run full Debian and all its software)
Has Flash in the Web browser
Can run more than one program at a time
Tons of emulators (Palm, MacOS, MAME, Apple II, etc....)

Cons:
The iTouch/iPhone platform has a crapload of great software and more every day
iTouch has great integration with iTunes ( I see this as mostly a plus though I know some peoples annoyances with it)
iTouch has much better integration with real PIM software (e.g. contacts, calendar, etc..)
posted by bottlebrushtree at 2:17 PM on January 31

iTunes is the simplest, most basic way to put data on the iPod touch. There are other ways, but the thing about iTunes is that, unless you buy from the iTunes store (which you are not required to do), there is no DRM involved. Music that you yourself rip from a cd is born free, there is no DRM attached to it. You can transfer music or video just by drag it from a folder to iTunes. The only thing I've ever used the iTunes store for is buying apps for the touch.

Carrying a wafer-thin, deck of playing cards sized touch vs. carrying a (still bulky, though smaller than a laptop) netbook doesn't really compare.

You won't be able to use it to transfer photos directly, but aside from that, it's pretty simple. I'd go with the touch, as there's very little out there that can do what it does.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:22 PM on January 31

Narrowing things down, I need SDHC card (not mini!) support to upload photos on the road, so I assume that means a netbook.
posted by pjern at 3:48 PM on January 31

The N800/N810 support SDHC, but don't have built-in hard drives, so you'd have to either use an external USB drive or a large internal SDHC card for storing your photos.
posted by hades at 3:55 PM on January 31

All Asus eeePC models support SDHC cards. A few hundred dollars, 7" screen and less than a kilo, with a much better browsing experience. Sounds like it would suit you much better than a Touch. You can get it with Linux or XP, and widely varying amounts of memory.
posted by jacalata at 4:48 PM on January 31

For my n810 I carry an inline adapter for my SD card so that it fits in my digital camera(full size SD) and then also inside my n810 (miniSD).

It allows me to upload photos from flickr and copy files to/from my PC (which has full size SD slot)

My microSD card came with miniSD and Full sized SD adapter for free.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 5:54 PM on January 31

Sounds like an EeePc is more your speed then, just make sure you get enough solid state hard drive space for your photos tranferred on the road. Otherwise you'll have to carry an external hard drive or spacious USB key.

Also, I'd suggest the XP version unless you're a Linux fan or really want to get in there and tinker around. I'm a big geek, and have dabbled in a few flavors of Linux (including Ubuntu on my Eee) but I recently went to XP on it - for the second time. A slimmed down Xp runs fast, boots quickly, and just works well (though it takes up more than half of my 4 GB hard drive).
posted by shinynewnick at 11:30 PM on January 31

I've got both an iPhone (with an AT&T plan) and a Lenovo S10 IdeaPad running Ubuntu Netbook Remix. They're equally handy for different things. The iPhone comes out in the car (don't worry, I'm the Eternal Passenger, none of you should fear me on the road), gives me directions, holds a bunch of mp3s for the car stereo, and does my email. The Lenovo is for my (quite small) desk at work, where it spits out Pandora all day and holds all my distraction websites-- MeFi, Twitter, CNN, what have you. I also use it at home when I want my distractions but don't want them to own my soul, as they invariably tend to do with my MacBook Pro.

The Lenovo came with XP Home ULCPC, which I immediately took off in favor of UNR-- which was quite possibly the easiest Linux install ever, and required me to basically sit there and respirate while it handled everything from one USB key. The only quibble I have is a trackpad issue that really doesn't affect me all that much, and which will probably get patched as UNR gets wider adoption. The S10's also very easy to upgrade-- Mr. F upped mine to 2GB of RAM today in about ten minutes-- and feels very sturdy. I'm a satisfied customer.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 1:35 AM on February 1

late to the party here, but the OpenPandora might be worth checking out when they get their second production run sorted... physical size is ~ the same as a Nintendo DS...

* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life

originally designed as a handheld gaming platform, they've bumped the RAM and SSD (256MB/512MB resp.) so it'll be usable as a netbook type thing too... first production run is expected to ship in a month or so, and I have one on order...
posted by russm at 5:01 PM on February 5