I went to a seminar last week at the University of Sussex. For the first time in my life I did not take a pen, nor a notebook. I took my iPod Touch. I sat there listening to the seminar and when anything of interest came along I picked up the iPod Touch and thumbed in the notes. I felt a bit self-conscious about it. Everyone was sitting around a large circle of desks, I guess there were about thirty people there. When I picked up the iPod Touch I felt that maybe other people thought I was playing a little game or texting a friend or something.
I had changed the settings on the iPod Touch so that it wouldn’t make any sound whatsoever when, for example, an email arrives or if an alarm goes off from the calendar. Also because the iPod Touch has, well, a touch screen, then it is completely silent, there is no risk of clicking or anything that maybe could be possible with a Blackberry.
For the actual business of note taking I found it to be very good. I used the standard notepad application that comes with the iPod Touch and then just emailed the notes to myself when the seminar was over. I found it rather liberating not having to hang onto a piece of paper or worry about a pen leaking in my jacket pocket. You could say, I guess, that I have the iPod Touch to worry about but I think one reason why mobile devices are so successful is that we rather like worrying about them.
I’m getting into the way of thumbing which, of course, Blackberry users have been doing for ages. Once you get used to it it is pretty fast. I don’t take copious notes (funny how lots of notes is always copious) but rather I just take down a few things that I want to remember.
Oddly enough while I think I’m okay with using the iPod Touch in a seminar I don’t think I could use it in a meeting with, say one or two people. I don’t know and when I next have one I might try this out. I guess it might be okay if I was having a meeting with Steve Jobs. The funny thing is that while I feel that people give you the space to write notes in a notebook, they will sort of slow down speaking for you in a small group, I would wonder if they’d do the same if you were thumbing into an iPod Touch or a Blackberry?
When I arrived at the seminar all prepared to use my iPod Touch for the first time I sat down and the person right beside me got out what was either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I thought maybe I wasn’t going to be the only one taking notes on my iPod, but in fact my neighbour just put the iPhone or iPod Touch on the desk face down, then got out a sheet of paper and started writing notes on that. Thinking about it all later I wondered if it was an iPhone and she was recording the seminar? I sort of doubt it though.
So true. The keyboard is very easy to type on once you get used to it, and unlike a physical keyboard, it is very easy on your fingers. I was a big security conference this week, and almost everyone one had a Blackberry device of one sort or another, and pen and paper. I just took notes in the Notepad, and by the end of the conference I was amazed at the amount of text I had written, and yes the main convenience is that you just email it to your self and it’s already typed up ready for formatting into a report. Real progress, fewer trees felled, something nice in the pocket. What’s not to like?
Hi Chris
I agree entirely with you. I’ve now got into the way of always using my iPod Touch for taking notes at seminars and meetings. I only use pen and paper now when I’m having a one-on-one meeting. Best way for me to have a one-on-one meeting now is by iChat or Skype. Then I can just sit and type straight into my computer at home
I’m quite interested in the upcoming tablet/netbook like thing that Apple are rumoured to be creating at the moment. I’m hoping they do a tablet-like thing myself.
I’ve just got myself an iPod Touch, by virtue of the Apple education offer
)) however, although I’ve got small-to-medium hands/fingers, I find the touch qwerty keyboard quite hard to use. I often touch the wrong letter, and find the lack of navigation keys a pain. They would be useful to navigate back to mistakes, instead I think you have to delete letters all the way back to the incorrectly keyed letter – do you guys know something I don’t??
Hi Simon
If you put your finger over the text you’ve been typing then you will see a magnifying glass of the text immediately where the finger is. In the magnifying glass you will see that you can put the insertion point where you like.
It does take a bit of time to get used to the iPod Touch