iPod touch Contacts is way better than Notes anyways... (for notes!)

[madmaxmedia]

One of the things I was looking forward with the Touch to was replacing my little memo pad I jot down notes and ideas in. I was originally disappointed to learn that the Notes app was gimped from the Touch. On top of that, the read-only notes in other iPods was also left out.

But in retrospect, using the Contacts app is actually better anyways than the native Notes app-

1. Notes has no synchronization (maybe this will eventually change, who knows.)
2. The Notes database is completely flat-file- no groups/tags, folders, etc.

The Contacts app actually gives you these 2 capabilities back. Just create a couple of groups on your Mac that you want to use for organizing notes, and these will sync over to your Touch (even if they are empty groups.) Browsing through groups in the Touch Contacts app is pretty easy.

The only think I wish is that you didn't have to hit 'New Field', and then select the notes field when creating a contact/note. Just a minor annoyance though. Once you create a contact with a note, all you have to do is tap on the note text to immediately start editing it.

For read-only notes, I use FilemarkMaker which allows me to easily sync over TXT, DOC, HTML, and even JPG files as Safari bookmarks. This is better than the other iPod's read only notes, which must be in TXT format.

I'm hopeful for a 1.1.1 jailbreak at some point, but it's not actually necessary for me to get pretty much all I want out of my Touch (Mail app would be nice, but is not critical for me.)

 

[SirithX]

It's a good workaround, but I'm still looking forward to a good standalone app. I've been doing this too, and I just note things to add to the calendar in it so when I get back to my Mac I can update iCal and then sync it with the iPod.

 

[clevin]

i would prefer I can take note with one tap, not 3 or 4.

 

[madmaxmedia]

A good standalone app would obviously be better, as it would sync, offer some method of organization, and not require 3-4 extra taps.

But...the unfortunate thing is that the current Notes app on the iPhone isn't that good standalone app. I realized that even if I had it on my Touch, I would use Contacts for the reasons I mentioned- syncing and organization. (syncing being the most important.)

Since 3rd-party development is currently not allowed, all we can do is wait for Apple to offer a solution/improvement (or a 1.1.1 jailbreak, that's what I really want.)

 

[clevin]

Since 3rd-party development is currently not allowed, all we can do is wait for Apple to offer a solution/improvement (or a 1.1.1 jailbreak, that's what I really want.)

SJ is such a control freak, its scary. if someone can come up with a ROM that can run an Linux on iPT, I would do it right away.

 

[fishcube]

Is there a way to select a group of txt to delete or move? I noticed I can move the cursor (though its quite hard to get it where you want it) because of using a finger instead of a stylus.

Can I sync txt without using bookmarks? Since I don't want all bookmarks moved over...just a couple text docs.

 

[madmaxmedia]

No, you can't. At least the deletion goes faster if you hold down the delete button (it jumps to deleting entire words at a time at one point.) Definitely suboptimal, but at the same time I would never type in a lot of text on my iPod anyway.

The only other way you could sync text over is pasting it into contacts or maybe date events.

I have a ton of bookmarks, but they don't seem to hinder Safari too much. You may want to try syncing them over, just to see if it works. I have a folder where I store all the bookmarks I intend to use on my Touch, so I don't really see the other ones anyway.

Is there a way to select a group of txt to delete or move? I noticed I can move the cursor (though its quite hard to get it where you want it) because of using a finger instead of a stylus.

Can I sync txt without using bookmarks? Since I don't want all bookmarks moved over...just a couple text docs.

 

[Arisian]

thought on sans mail ipod

what does everything think about the fact that your ipod will last 4 hours (if lucky) while your wifi is on being the reason they didnt give us mail? I realize that everyone can turn the wifi on when they want, much like I do now. However, since the iphone has the edge network, you arent running your battery down as much, what do you guys think about that? Not enough battery to make wifi dependant apps worth it. would it point out other problems with the ipt?

I have no real opinion on this, just wanted to see what you thought

 

[madmaxmedia]

what does everything think about the fact that your ipod will last 4 hours (if lucky) while your wifi is on being the reason they didnt give us mail? I realize that everyone can turn the wifi on when they want, much like I do now. However, since the iphone has the edge network, you arent running your battery down as much, what do you guys think about that? Not enough battery to make wifi dependant apps worth it. would it point out other problems with the ipt?

I have no real opinion on this, just wanted to see what you thought

Well, one of the things people want Mail for is offline access, being able to download email to read at your own leisure (even if you only check a couple of times a day), rather than having to be wifi-connected to a web interface. Also being able to compose replies and save as drafts, while being offline.

Mail is not a big deal to me. But I would say all your arguments are actually good reasons to INCLUDE Mail on the Touch, and not to leave it out. Having Mail would allow you to use email in a way that saved power (vs. web based email), rather than consuming more.

 

[fishcube]

One of the things I was looking forward with the Touch to was replacing my little memo pad I jot down notes and ideas in. I was originally disappointed to learn that the Notes app was gimped from the Touch. On top of that, the read-only notes in other iPods was also left out.

But in retrospect, using the Contacts app is actually better anyways than the native Notes app-

1. Notes has no synchronization (maybe this will eventually change, who knows.)
2. The Notes database is completely flat-file- no groups/tags, folders, etc.

The Contacts app actually gives you these 2 capabilities back. Just create a couple of groups on your Mac that you want to use for organizing notes, and these will sync over to your Touch (even if they are empty groups.) Browsing through groups in the Touch Contacts app is pretty easy.

The only think I wish is that you didn't have to hit 'New Field', and then select the notes field when creating a contact/note. Just a minor annoyance though. Once you create a contact with a note, all you have to do is tap on the note text to immediately start editing it.

For read-only notes, I use FilemarkMaker which allows me to easily sync over TXT, DOC, HTML, and even JPG files as Safari bookmarks. This is better than the other iPod's read only notes, which must be in TXT format.

I'm hopeful for a 1.1.1 jailbreak at some point, but it's not actually necessary for me to get pretty much all I want out of my Touch (Mail app would be nice, but is not critical for me.)

Where does one get this FilemarkMaker? and does it work with Windows? Also, how does one get the file synced with the touch?

 

[madmaxmedia]

The app is for Mac, I don't know if there's a Windows equivalent floating around-

http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=51

Actually, now that I think about it, there is an online equivalent-

http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/cgi/data/data (you upload a file for conversion)
http://www.somewhere.com/url2iphone.html (converts a web page)

Basically they all use the same trick- embed the actual data/file into a Safari bookmark. You sync over the bookmark to your Touch, and then when you click on the bookmark you actually view your PDF/DOC/TXT/etc.

I don't know how bookmark synchronization works on Windows, but I assume you can sync bookmarks from Windows Safari to your Touch?

 

[fishcube]

The app is for Mac, I don't know if there's a Windows equivalent floating around-

http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=51

Actually, now that I think about it, there is an online equivalent-

http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/cgi/data/data (you upload a file for conversion)
http://www.somewhere.com/url2iphone.html (converts a web page)

Basically they all use the same trick- embed the actual data/file into a Safari bookmark. You sync over the bookmark to your Touch, and then when you click on the bookmark you actually view your PDF/DOC/TXT/etc.

I don't know how bookmark synchronization works on Windows, but I assume you can sync bookmarks from Windows Safari to your Touch?

Ok, used first program and it made a link, and when I try and use it on the second link above, it says url to long ??

I need it to sync from IE.

 

[madmaxmedia]

You should only need the first link, on that page you upload the file and it will generate a link that you can bookmark.

Then you sync that bookmark to your Touch. I have no idea how bookmarks get synchronized to an Touch in Windows, whether it is through IE or Safari, etc.

(the second link is just if you want to save a web page to your Touch.)

 

[fishcube]

You should only need the first link, on that page you upload the file and it will generate a link that you can bookmark.

Then you sync that bookmark to your Touch. I have no idea how bookmarks get synchronized to an Touch in Windows, whether it is through IE or Safari, etc.

(the second link is just if you want to save a web page to your Touch.)

Ok, I got the bookmark synced to my touch using IE. But, when I click on the bookmark in Safari, it says "Safari can't open the page because it can't find the server" ?? I thought I could read bookmarks without wifi connection?

 

[madmaxmedia]

That's odd, it should've worked.

The only thing I can think of, is maybe IE isn't compatible with this type of bookmark. So it's getting screwed up when you bookmark it, and thus isn't correct even after you sync it to your Touch.

Perhaps you can try it with Safari, just to see what happens.

 

[fishcube]

That's odd, it should've worked.

The only thing I can think of, is maybe IE isn't compatible with this type of bookmark. So it's getting screwed up when you bookmark it, and thus isn't correct even after you sync it to your Touch.

Perhaps you can try it with Safari, just to see what happens.

Ok, I downloaded Safari for Windows and tried the same bookmark in Safari and synced with itunes to touch. But, when I click on the bookmark I get the same message, that Safari can't open the page because it can't find the server. ??

So why isn't it working?

 

[fishcube]

I tried the bookmark in my Firefox browser on my laptop and it works great. But, when I try and open the link in Safari on my laptop, it only shows me a very small portion of the whole txt. why? I tried it through IE and IE won't even open the link. I can't seem to get Firefox to sync over.

EDIT: Ok, I got it moved over by importing the bookmark from firefox, but when I view the txt it takes forever for it to show as I'm scrolling down through the list...it shows me tiny square boxes where there's nothing then as I slowly scroll down the txt comes into view, this happens scrolling up and down... I could break my txt into segments and different bookmarks, but then I'd have to change every bookmark and then resync. The txt file is a checklist. Why can't it show me the whole txt at once?

Also when syncing bookmarks. If I delete bookmarks of my touch, will the next time I sync will it delete them off the computers bookmarks on the browser?