Well, hello there. You’re still here? Yay! Sorry about the extended absence. I’ve been distracted by something shiny and new that I got for Christmas. I’m so spoiled — Beloved bought me an iPod Touch! I hadn’t even asked for it, and have to admit when I opened it my first thought was, “Wow, this is great — but what am I going to do with it?” I already have my battered iPod Nano, the one that survived in the glove-box of the flaming van, and it does me fine as a music player and for the occasional game of solitaire. (Truth be told, I have been coveting an iPhone, but just couldn’t justify the monthly cost of the data plan.)
But you know what? I love it! LOVE it. I called it the MotherPod, and I’ve loaded 50 of my favourite pictures and my entire music library and filled less than 1/4 of it. In about two clicks I’d connected my e-mail account and found my way online. I wasn’t going to put any games on it, because I knew that the moment it looked like a gaming device would be the moment that I surrendered myself to sharing it with the boys, and frankly I don’t want to share. It’s MINE!
I surfed around looking for recommendations for Apps (should I capitalize “Apps”, do you think?) and found this most excellent post on Greeblemonkey, with an annotated list of all the Apps she has on her iPhone. I downloaded a couple of freebie Apps, like Google Earth and CBC Radio. (Jian Ghomeshi on demand? Be still my heart!) Did you know that there’s an App to find the nearest Tim Hortons? Now that’s useful technology. And a word game called Moxie, which is kind of meh, but I wasn’t going to start paying for games and it was free.
And then, with a few serendipitous clicks, I began reliving my digital youth. I found — are you ready for it? — Sim City, and suddenly it was 1990 all over again. Sim City? Oh, the hours I dedicated to that game, on my very first computer with the 40 MB hard drive. (Ha, some of the photos I upload to Flickr are more than 40 MB!) My only regret is that the version for the Touch doesn’t say “reticulating splines” as it loads. I never did figure out what splines were or why they needed to be reticulated.
Not too long after that, I found Tetris and I haven’t stepped away from the device since. Tetris? Oh, how I do love Tetris. It’s even MORE addictive than Tim Horton’s coffee. I haven’t yet downloaded Rockband, but I am *this* close!
So if blogging is sparse over the next little while, you’ll know that at least I’m not doing anything productive like, say, cleaning the house. I’ll be reliving my digital youth, playing Tetris and Sim City, and roaming the ‘hood looking for wi-fi hot spots.
Got a favourite App? I’ve still got 3/4 of an iPod to fill. What else have I been missing?
Ahem. Not only am I jealous that you’re on holidays, I’m also jealous that you have way cooler technology than I do, all over your freaking house! Except, I have a way cooler TV. I’m putting that out there.
(Captcha: Lordship from – from what? PCs?)
Such a child at heart and I mean that in a very good way.
Oh cool–glad you liked the Greeblemonkey post. It’s a good one, eh?
If you want yet another addictive game, try Doodle Jump. Only 99c and worth every penny! They aren’t kidding when they say it’s the most addictive game ever, though…be warned!
Will have to check out that blog post for more ideas. I got my iPhone in mid-November and with all the holiday preparations, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to look for Apps. But I LOVE my phone! I never would have believed I could fall in love with a phone, but I have. I told my husband he’s THIS close to being replaced. 🙂
Ooooh there’s tetris? I might need to download that. omg I used to love sim city. Reticulating splines used to crack me up!
Enjoy your motherpod! 🙂
If you like Tetris, you’ll love Boxikon ! When I discovered that game, I was hooked ! Will have to check out some of the apps on the Greeblemonkey link, some look really good .
I ended up getting one too – in light of the fact that my over 60 year old mother bought her self an iPhone for Xmas. So she gave me her iPod Touch and I LOVE it. She told me all about the Tim Horton’s app – even though she doesn’t drink coffee she swears by it!! I like the Twitter apps, and just being able to check my e-mail and stuff anywhere (anywhere with WiFI, I mean!). I’ll have to go check out the Greeblemonkey post now and see what I’m missing 🙂
Congrats on your new toy!!
Lucky girl!! I’m the same, wondering what the heck I’d need one for…but hmmmm…tempting!! How do you connect to the internet? You don’t need a service plan, do you?
the hubby has one and all we seem to do now is fight over it for which games to play. these are the ones we have that are ridiculously addicting.
Boggle (yep, Boggle. And you get to shake the letters and everything!!)
Scene It
Peggle
Chuzzle (crazy addictive)
Yahtze
Animal Drums (as a fellow Muppets fan, I think you’ll love playing drums with Animal!)
Book Worm (pretty good word game)
AW Solitaire (has a bunch of different solitaire games. i personally love “golf”)
Doodle Jump (Jen is right, this has kept me up at night. No seriously, last night I was up until midnight!)
Have fun!
urbanspoon
around me
shazam
Steal my husband’s Iphone for the above all the time……
Happy New Year!
In all honesty, my ‘touch has been a very significant part of my life since I first got one in June 2008. It’s exactly not a gadget, for me, because it really is an integral part of my life. I had to spend several weeks without one and I really had to rearrange several things.
Apps are a big part of the experience, including free ones. I probably should post a rundown of my favourite apps on my own blog, at some point, but just a few notes…
Since you talked about classic games, I’m assuming you tried Civilization Revolution. In some ways, it’s more fun than the desktop versions, though it’s different from CivRev on dedicated gaming platforms.
Casual gaming is really underrated. As I commute by metro, I spend quite a bit of time playing some casual games while listen to podcasts (at double-speed). It really helps me to get my thoughts together. My two main games are Solebon Solitaire and Enjoy Sudoku.
Since you’re also on Twitter, you probably use a Twitter app of some kind. My personal fav is LaTwit. Integrates several accounts from different services, does Ping.fm, has its own clipboard, etc.
Also, if you’re not on Foursquare, you might be missing out on some location-based fun. Shows we don’t need GPS to do some geo-stuff.
You may not be a fan of the “GTD” approach to task- and life-management but I personally find the ‘touch to be the ideal platform for this kind of thing. It helps that Google Accounts are now able to push messages, calendar items, and contacts through the standard iPhone OS apps.
Otherwise, info apps like Wikipanion and IMDb are especially useful when you have to watch TV.
Anyhoo, glad I found your blog. Nice writing style!