I’ve always been an iPod Nano person. I had the first gen Nano, a long, blocky, black thing, with a small and grainy screen, and enormous body. I skipped the second generation in preference for the third, although I was initially wary of the squat little thing. From a taller, more elegant solution, the third gen was a bit of a handful. It’s no surprise to me that they returned to the elongated shape for version four.

I never wanted to upgrade to a bigger iPod, aside from storage space, because I liked the compact nature, and it was perfect for transcribing. When I had the time to complete Sidepodcast transcripts, it was a great way of listening, pausing, typing, repeat until complete. Now, though, I have no time for transcribing, and more time for playing with apps.

Mr C has had the iPod Touch for ages now, and I’ve been allowed peeks at it every now and again. Oh, who am I kidding? I totally comandeered it and bought games I wanted to play, to the point that Mr C was aghast at the things Genius was recommending him. “Farm Frenzy 2?” he would say, eyebrows raised.

After writing about our experiences with the teleprompting app ProPrompter, we were informed that a new version was out, that allowed remote control from one iPod Touch to another. That’s two, in the same house. Cue an order with Apple. Yes!

So, now I am the proud owner of an iPod Touch. I have only been using it for about two days and already, I am in love with the iPod experience all over again. Here are five things that have been revolutionary to me:

1. The skip back thirty seconds feature. I spend every spare waking moment I can with my ears plugged in and people are always trying to grab my attention. I naturally lose focus on what I’m listening to, but the scrub functions are so inaccurate. Skip back 30 seconds, and keep on listening. Genius.
2. Podcasts in the same order as iTunes. I’m not sure there is any adequate expression of frustration I could use to demonstrate my feelings about the Nano. The Archers is listed under A in the iTunes podcast list, but falls under T once it’s loaded onto the Nano. Suffice it to say, this is no longer a problem.
3. x2 speed playback. I can listen to double the output in the same amount of time? Sold.
4. Podcasts listed in date order, earliest first. I could never quite figure out why sometimes the Nano would go from one podcast to the next and sometimes it would stop dead at the end of a file. Nevertheless, if it did play straight through, I wouldn’t want it to because the podcasts are listed from most recent backwards, meaning listening to things out of order. Not really an option, and thank goodness it’s fixed.
5. Erm, did I mention the x2 speed? I don’t actually have a fifth, but I really do enjoy listening to half hour shows in 15 minutes. I have to pay slightly more attention when they’re talking fast, but it is very worth it.

I get the feeling I might be talking about apps a little bit more on this here blog, which makes me feel guilty towards Android. I’ll try and share the love.