Can the iPod Touch...?

My brother is looking for a PDA so i wonder if this would be a good option for him at this point, after the recent upgrade the iTouch has become more interesting and useful, so let me ask you if in real life the iTouch can...

- Synchronization with Outlook or Windows. I know the answer is probably not, but i have to ask, he is a PC user and won't get a Mac in the near future, i know he can live without PIM synchronization but it would be a plus.

- eBooks, PDFs, DOCs... I understand that it can read now PDF and DOC from email attachments, but what about ebooks? can you transfer a PDF and open it without Safari or Mail being involved? is there an actual PDF/ebook reader application?

- Maps. Can you use Maps offline? maybe download/record/save a route to use without internet connection?

- Mass Storage. Can it be used as a mass storage device? (USB stick like)

Thanks for your answers!

Not yet there...

I was an HP iPAC PDA heavy user until I jailbroke my iPodTouch. I actually use my iPod Touch as a PDA more than an MP3 player. Its awsome and easy to use. Got internet, calender, contacts, dictionary, books, notes, maps, stocks, email, photos and much more.

The only thing I miss is Pocket Word and Excel and voice recording. Recently some guy discovered that the iTouch supports the mic, so by getting a plugin mic, I can record my apointments with VNotes (available for iPhone).

But this is not the problem. To get this I jailbroke my iTouch which means I cant upgrade to other versions without loosing all my data. So have to go through the trouble of backing up everything, specially settings I did when I jailbroke it and repeat everything again. Not everybody is ok with this.

Hopefully, Apple will one day support the installer and allow third party installs directly INTO the iTouch and not web-based as it is now.

Hope this info helps.

While it is possible to use the touch sort of as a PDA, especially if you jailbreak it, I would advise against it. If he has a real use for a PDA, let him get an actual PDA. The touch was designed as a media player, not as a PDA. Your brother will be much happier with a device that caters specifically to his needs, not one that needs to be jerry rigged to do what he needs.

HP just released the new ipaq 210 and it looks mighty nice... you might also check out the Nokia Nseries. I just got rid of my N800 and it was a fantastic device. It's all open source and it runs linux. The n810 was just released recently too. You might check those out.

When the SDK is released next month i think we will see alot of new programs for the Touch and iPhone and one of the first programs will be some sort of mobile office software I'm sure.
If he wants to sync his outlook then check out a proper pda, my old HTC TYTN had Windows Mobile 6 which was actually a pretty good mobile OS.
An unjailbroken Touch can't be used as a mass storage device either.

Thanks for your comments/answers.
I may still believe that the Touch is not ready, maybe after they release the SDK. Considering the size and ease of use it seems like the best answer, and to add the landscape mode plus the memory for the price makes it even better. Still, not enough apps (jailbrake is not an option).
I have a Nokia n800 and it seems a good option, but i has some key "defects" like lack of good PIM software and bad text input.
I used to use Windows CE/Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, the one thing that disappoints me from this devices is the lack of a good web browser and that Acrobat Reader used to be too slow for big files, i assume it has improved but i need to try it first. Price and screen size/resolution are also issues.
Anyway... i will keep looking.

- All iPods sync with Outlook (contacts, calendar) and the touch devices can use POP / IMAP accounts to sync your emails.

- No real PDF reader, though I'd expect we'll see one fairly quickly once the SDK launches (February).

- Maps: The maps application will cache the last route you viewed from what I've been told by a colleague, so if he looked at the route before leaving the house, he should be able to re-open Maps and view it later. (Not sure how long it stores the cache for though).

It all depends what he's after: Most people I know with PDA's use them mainly as a contact / calendar / internet / media device - for which I'd say it's almost ideal.

If he's looking for more than that, the limitations might be more than he's willing to work around.

Just wondering, have you tried OS2008 ? it has fixed a bunch of stuff and they have improved features, the whole GPE pim suite is on it now too.

mraya said:

Thanks for your comments/answers.
I may still believe that the Touch is not ready, maybe after they release the SDK. Considering the size and ease of use it seems like the best answer, and to add the landscape mode plus the memory for the price makes it even better. Still, not enough apps (jailbrake is not an option).
I have a Nokia n800 and it seems a good option, but i has some key "defects" like lack of good PIM software and bad text input.
I used to use Windows CE/Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, the one thing that disappoints me from this devices is the lack of a good web browser and that Acrobat Reader used to be too slow for big files, i assume it has improved but i need to try it first. Price and screen size/resolution are also issues.
Anyway... i will keep looking.

Click to expand...

Why exactly isn't Jailbreak an option? I had mine jailbroken until Apple released 1.1.3, and the only reason I upgraded was so that I could finally have mail and everything supported by Apple. That being said, I do miss having my iPod Touch Jailbroken because it essentially was a PDA. I am on a university campus, so having a wifi signal wasn't a problem, though.

JPerry2010 said:

Why exactly isn't Jailbreak an option?

Click to expand...

Because is not for me. My brother is good with computers at the user level, but i don't want to give him any extra problems. I have read some bad comments about Jailbraik and although i haven't done a good research about it, i would like to play safe. Besides, the official SDK is just weeks away.