Hardware Pick of December: iPod Touch
Poker is not my only interest, I’m a three- or four-dimensional guy after all. I also have an affinity towards technology. So my worlds will collide twice a month as I offer you my hardware pick of the month and my software pick of the month–technology as it can be used for poker.
My hardware pick for December is Apple’s new iPod Touch (aka the phoneless iPhone.) It the best device I’ve ever owned outside of my computer. It is ideal for listening to tunes at the table, valuable for most of us since I rarely sit at a live game without someone with headphones in their ears. But where the touch really stands out is its video playback. You call watch last year’s World Series of Poker (available for download on iTunes) on the go with clarity that rivals LCD TVs…only smaller.
The Touch also has a full web browser to check your email, read this blog or play games like Scenario Poker as seen below. I’ve easily hacked mine to add functionality such as Google Maps, a ToDo List and Notes application I use to jot down blog ideas or player observations, an instant messenger, a Nintendo emulator, an ebook reader and the Blackjack game also seen below. You can even watch that guy’s chip tricks on YouTube.
While it is new, the Touch has the added bonus of taking other players’ attention away from the game at hand–it’s cool just to look at. And you won’t be distracted by your life, because, unlike the iPhone, no one will call you. If you think this is a disadvantage, most of what I’ve written is also true for the iPhone, so you are in luck. Although if you want a wide variety of music for the mood swings that accompany your chip stack, you might want the 32G only the iPod Touch can give you. If you want to pick one up, you can here.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Picks of the Month. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
