Apple 2.0: Countdown to the Touchscreen iPod
Now the question is not if but when Apple (AAPL) will release it’s long-rumored 6th generation video iPod with a tiny version of OS X on the inside and a big touch-sensitive screen on the outside.
It’s sad that the concept of the PDA has lost currency over the last few years. I relied on my Newton and, later, a Palm for many years to not only provide calendars and addresses but also as a mobile information source.
As the cell phone converged with the PDA, the screens shrunk and the availability of text data on the unit receded into the background. My Palm based Kyocera phone was a much worse Palm and my Blackberry is even worse for keeping notes and reference on. Similarly, the iPhone brings phone, contacts, calendar and web to the fore, making data storage secondary.
On the Blackberry, I’ve developed a style of emailing myself reference material that I expect to need while out or traveling. It’s not my “peripheral brain” as the PDA was, but rather a portal into other data stores.
I hope that if there is a touch screen ipod, it has the iPhone’s virtual keyboard and an elegant way to create and store text files and outlines. Like the Newton did so well.