Not A Blog™

Well, it appears I got my wish. Nine months ago, I wailed to teh webz of inter: “Why can’t Apple release the iPhone without the Phone part?” And so they have. Now I’m split on this, because it looks really good—but I’m still not sure if I want one yet.

Don’t get me wrong: the gadget factor here would be enough to carry me well into 2008, if not through all of next year. The iPod Touch is looking very much like certain sci fi gadgets I saw on TV growing up (the PADD from Star Trek—anyone?), and so even though it’s made with perfectly normal and understandable technology, it has this air of futuristic impossibility.

Let me readdress some of the points I brought up in my previous article about the iPhone. Time moves on; things change. First of all: Wifi. Today there are hot spots all over Lancaster County. They’re not ubiquitous, or even common, but if you know where to look, they’re there. In the short span of nine months, at least half a dozen have popped up in various environs where, previously, the aether was dark to the 2.4 ghz. To be able to tap into that mesmerizing freq—this is an ability for which I now long. [1]

Secondly, the accelerometer. I still think this is gimmicky-gadgety, although I would no longer call it useless junk. I don’t think it’s really necessary, but on the other hand, having the device recognize its orientation does allow one to make full use of its screen without thinking about it. Insomuch that the accelerometer makes the use of the device more intuitive, this is a good thing. I just wonder how much cost it adds. Perhaps not as much as I think. The 6G (8gb) iPod costs the same now as what I bought the accelerometer-less 5G for back in the day. That’s progress.

The touch screen still looks awesome. I’m not completely sold on touch screen technology in general. I don’t believe it’s going to replace keyboards, for example. The clackety clack touch response of a hunk of plastic is something touch screen technology could never, um, touch—except perhaps if each individual key were a touch screen or something. I can’t really think of a practical use for that off the top of my head, not to mention it is impractical today.

Touch screens are key (no pun intended, really!) for small devices like the iPod Touch because they eliminate the need for peripherals. Even better, the precise response of the iPod/Phone, which does not necessitate even a stylus. You can just whip the thing out and start touching it. [2] Instant data access sans undue fumbling.

But for larger things like PCs, I just don’t see the touch screen catching on in any big way. Allow me to indulge in a tangent, here. I work for a software company, if haven’t mentioned that before. One of our products supports touch screens to drive the interface, so I’ve had the chance to play with plenty of different touch screen models, and to watch other people use them. One thing that continually crops up is the “touch screen flip-off”.

Someone will start using a touch screen. After a few moments, they realize they’re hitting everything with their middle finger, inadvertently flipping off everyone who’s standing there watching them. Then they try to make a joke about it to defuse the situation. I’ve lost track of how many times a touch screen user has said to me while I’m watching them work, “I just keep flipping you off, here”—or something to that effect. Anyway, it does make people self conscious.

So I started wondering why should this be? Why is it that—not just me—but every person I’ve seen who sits down in front of a touch screen eventually starts hitting the thing with their middle finger? In order to test this out, I stepped into the lab, and ran a little informal experiment with myself.

The main reason, I’ve found, has to do with the transmission of force through the arm. You can do a little experiment without the touch screen. Hold your dominant hand out in front of you, so you can press against your fingertips with the palm of your other hand. Try to relax your dominant hand so that the position of the hand in line with the arm at the most natural point. Now take your opposite hand and push on the fingers of your dominant hand.

In its most natural extension, the middle finger is the one which transmits force straight back through the arm. If you push on your other fingers, you’ll find they will bend off to one side or the other (or just don’t feel as “solid”), but the middle finger will stay mostly in place. Now, you can adjust your hand so that, as you press on any of your fingers, it compresses straight back into the arm. But as you do this, you have to rotate your wrist and hand to an unrelaxed position in order to transmit the force properly. It’s not necessarily an unnatural position, just not the most default position. Using the default, most relaxed position of the hand, the middle finger most efficiently transmits force. It’s also the longest finger. You can touch the screen with it, even while all your other fingers are extended. All things considered, it’s the easiest finger to touch with.

This becomes less of an issue as devices shrink and touch sensitivity increases. It may be that more advanced touch screens are sensitive enough for any finger to be used without feeling like you’re pushing at all. But I don’t believe the best way to interact with large displays is by touching them.

Okay, tangent over. The point is that touch makes sense in a device like the iPod, even if it doesn’t make sense the other 95% of the time.

The biggest complaint I have with the iPod touch is—everyone say it together!—storage space! Everyone on the tubes are debating about storage space, with those not liking the 16 gigs saying they’re not going to be able to fit everything from their 5G on the 6G, and others saying, “oh, come on. How many episodes of The Office do you have, anyway?” not to mention “do you really need to carry around every single episode all the time?” and “How often do you even watch them on the iPod?”

Well, here’s my hang-up. The 16gb iPod Touch is a psychological step backwards. When you have 30gb or more of space, even if you’re not using it, it’s there. You might use it in the future. It’s kind of like money in the bank. As a roughly analogous situation, say you have an external hard drive that you keep back-ups and other non-critical data on. One day the thing dies. You know you can get it to fire up one last time by giving it a good smack on the table (or sticking it in the freezer), and then it’s just going be gone. So you run right out to Circuit Shitty, or wherever and pick up a brand new one so you can do a data dump.

In this situation, no one ever buys a smaller drive, even if they’re not using the entire capacity of the existing drive and could save money by going with less space. (Assuming money isn’t an issue.) You’re going to get at least the size of the drive you had before, but the vast majority of people, including myself, are going to buy an even bigger drive—even if we weren’t using the full capacity of the old drive. It’s that ol’ American “bigger is better but biggest is best” mentality.

The iPod Touch isn’t quite as straightforward of an example because it has other technological advances over the 5G iPod which—Apple is betting on—will more than offset the scaled back disc space. If enough 5G-ers think it’s a good trade-off, they’ll go 6G, and Apple makes money.

But from what we’ve seen on teh ‘webz, that’s not exactly what’s happening. A lot of people are complaining about the lack of disc space. In other words, there are a lot of people out there who don’t think that 15gb of hard drive space and another $300 are equivalent to: 1. a bigger screen 2. touch screen 3. wifi 4. full internet browsing ability 5. computer-like applications 6. accelerometer-induced intuitiveness 7. “impresses my friends” factor 8. slimmer form factor and 9. added shock protection from a lack of moving parts.

Logically, this makes no sense (aside from the money factor again)—especially when you consider that someone like myself is only using 17gb of my 30gb iPod anyway. How much would I have to sacrifice to fit my multimedia life on the 6G? Like a movie that I haven’t watched in twelve months? My folder of polka, perhaps? Not much, in any case. At least, not much that I’d miss.

The squeeze of going from 30gb to 16gb or 8gb is an emotional blockade. It feels like a step backwards. It’s like moving from a nice suburban home to an apartment. It’s like downgrading from a Hummer to a Hyundai.

Even worse, we know the technology exists for large storage capacities. The 6G iPod Classic comes with 80gb—for the smaller model. Apple has purposefully gone with flash memory for the Touch, which allows it to be a few millimeters slimmer at the expense of a huge emotional resistance from people who’ve already adopted older iPod models with significantly more space.

When I saw the iPod Touch being announced, I was ecstatic. Finally. Then someone reported on the specs: 16gb for the larger model. The uneasy pit of disappointment was difficult to pin down at the time, but this is exactly what it was: an emotional reaction at being forced to “downgrade” by half, the amount of floor space from an older, larger suburban home in order to get into the latest chic community of new condo units going up. Why do I suddenly have to make decisions on which bits of multimedia I’m going to carry around with me? I didn’t have to before. And the technology exists to where I shouldn’t have to now, either. But if I get the Touch, now I do. It’s more work that I previously didn’t have to do.

It’s harder to justify spending the extra money, knowing I have to make multimedia importance decisions—and also considering that my 5G works great even after 18 months. If Apple was serious about moving iPod Touches for Christmas, they should introduce a slightly bulkier model with a hard drive and 80 gigs. That would win over the 5G-ers who can’t imagine living without instant access to all their esoteric genres, from freylekhs hip-hop to opera d&b.

But the real charm of the iPod Touch is getting the thing in your hands. Apple didn’t need the Apple Stores to sell Macs. They needed them to showcase things you want to touch. I think Apple had the touch-screen on the agenda for a long time, and they knew they wouldn’t be able to sell it effectively without a retail presence where customers can hold it.

I’ve refrained from visiting the local Mac reseller for just this reason. If I touch the Touch, I’ll probably buy it—which is just as emotional of a reaction as refusing to buy it because of the small storage space. The best thing I can do is probably just stay away. At least until my 5G kicks the bucket.

-Ted

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1. The iPod touch still can’t connect to the computer via wifi—a lack of functionality which just continues to baffle me. However, I think a software update would be all that’s required to make it do this. If enough people complain about it, Apple will add it later, or someone else will hack it. Either way, it’s coming. [Back]

2. Don’t take that sentence out of context, please. [Back]