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Friday, January 9, 2009

Tech / Books iPod Touch Killer?

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 5:28 PM

TeleRead suggests that this might be a competitor against the iPod Touch, and perhaps a good ebook reader, too:

It's called a Movit Mini Wifi Android Tablet and It could go for $149. It comes with a camera and microphone, which, with Skype, could make it infinitely more useful than an iPod Touch, too. I like the looks of this thing.

Comments (11) RSS

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How easy is it to transfer music and video from iTunes on that thing?

The iPod brand is so intrenched into the market that I don't think we will see a better marketed player for a very long time. And that name is way too long. Even if it's abbreviated (MMWAT?).

Nope I don't think it will be an iPod Touch Killer

Posted by Simone on January 9, 2009 at 5:44 PM

It doesn't come as a surprise to anyone that you can get a clunky, middling design with a collection of non-integrated apps that sort of do the same things as an Apple product for less money. If that were so killer, it would have killed Apple long ago.

I mean just look at that thing. Is it meant to go for some kind of 80's retro demographic?

Posted by elenchos on January 9, 2009 at 6:09 PM

iPod touch was always a bit dumb anyway, IMO. People want consolidation of devices, not specialization. I have an HTC Touch Pro for phone/sms/email/camera/video and it does music too with expandable flash memory, but I actually don't mind a separate music player (the only problem is which device gets the pocket to itself). I think I'm going to wait until high capacity iPods have no moving parts, as I've already killed three iPod Classic 80gb.

Posted by w7ngman on January 9, 2009 at 6:46 PM

A netbook doesn't cost much more and it has a full keyboard.

Plus they mostly come with Linux and full suite of OSS (open source software).

Go FLOSS!

Posted by Richard M. Stallman, Esq. on January 9, 2009 at 6:46 PM

Does it support Flash? the iPhone's lack of Flash support is the only thing keeping me from buying one. They're supposed to be working on that, though..

Posted by Damien on January 9, 2009 at 7:02 PM

iPod Touch (2nd gen) has Skype (via Fring and Nimbuzz and, hopefully soon, TruPhone + iPhone headphones with mic).

Posted by Matt in Philly on January 9, 2009 at 7:34 PM

@w7ngman,

The iPod Touch has been very successful because it fills a need for those that want a music player, but either don't want, or can't afford an iPhone. Also, given that Apple is currently selling an entry-level iPod Touch for $20 less than an entry-level iPod Classic, and a lot of people are going to buy the iPod Touch instead.

Posted by Mike on January 10, 2009 at 1:22 AM

I quite like my Touch. But this looks like it could be cool too.

Posted by j-lon on January 10, 2009 at 10:20 AM

Yes but it has no App Store (obviously) and the App Store and revolutionized the iPod touch and iphone

Posted by iPodTouchScene.com on January 10, 2009 at 11:21 AM

@5 There's no Flash version for Android yet, sadly. Though I would guess it could use the YouTube app.

@9 Android has it's own Marketplace. Currently all the apps are free. :P

Posted by Mike in Renton on January 10, 2009 at 12:04 PM

I'll never understand the resentment of Apple's success. If people didn't like the iPod Touch they wouldn't buy it. How many other devices die a slow, quiet death because they suck (uh, hello Zune?). If the iPhone was a piece of shit, it wouldn't have outsold the Blackberry. And if the Mac wasn't awesome, Windows would have squashed it long ago. I don't waste any time hoping that the next phone from HTC or the next MP3 player from Toshiba is going to kill Apple. Buy what you want. And if you like it, great. Just STFU about it.

Posted by montex on January 11, 2009 at 1:55 AM