That's a good question.
I went out and bought myself an iPod Touch... yeah, about a year ago, and I've strictly used it as a PDA with enhanced multimedia capabilities. It's been a great tool. It has its problems and it has its limitations... most of which are listed here in this thread. It IS frustrating dealing with some of the Apple imposed lockdowns, but it was a tradeoff I was willing to make. If I think about them for too long though, i get irked at apples lack of customer voiced innovation.
These are my main uses, and what I think about them.
1. Calendar:
I use Google Calendar with my wife. The built in auto sync whenever I walk into a Wi-Fi area is absolutely wonderful. I have Wi-Fi at home, so our calendars are very up to date. I've never run into a problem where I wished I had a 3G calendar sync, it's just not been that important. In GCal, I have reminders sent to me via text message. That's been a good workaround for event reminders. The reminders and alarms on the iPod are not very good. No vibrate, and volume affected.
As mentioned above (I think... didn't re-read the thread) the calendar input is slow and somewhat non-intuitive. The scroll wheels work, but I'd love to be able to click and drag to create an event, like in iCal or GCal, or even Outlook for that matter. One of Apples silly problems I guess. I know it'll not change, so I don't fuss about it. One of the reasons I'm looking at Android, now that it's becoming a formidable OS.
2. Contacts:
Nearly perfect. Syncs with my Google Contacts. Only complaint is I don't have my groups synced from Google Contacts to the iPod.
3. Internet:
As much as I agree with Apple that Flash is outdated and should die soon, it's still very common. Having support would be nice. The screen is too small to make browsing really intuitive, but it works in a pinch (pun intended).
4. Music:
I don't listen to music, but I do listen to CDs for personal growth. My collection is quite huge, so my entire library is in iTunes. Since I have more CDs than iPod space, I made a smart playlist that only syncs about 5 gigs of CDs onto my iPod at once, and makes sure that the track has never been listened to before. If it's been listened to more than once, when I sync my iPod, it replaces that track with one that I haven't heard yet. This has been a great system, always having new content on the go. As far as audio goes, I can't imagine it getting much better than this. Great system.
5. Maps:
Here's where I really wish I had 3G.
Basically, I search for directions before I leave the house. I switch it to list mode, and refer to it like I printed them off of google maps. It works well, but not my favorite. The program itself is very well made though, with street view, bookmarking, and in larger cities has a comprehensive public transit directions system. Very well made... but somewhat crippled in the iPod.
6. Everything else:
Third party apps are the way to go with a lot of things. The main things I use are as follows. Voxie recorder for lectures and seminars. Docs To Go for word editing and creation, especially with Google Docs... I actually use GDocs now. Scriptures for on the go reference or reading. FCTasks (needs help, but does what it does well). PDFReader. Speed Test to see how well I'm actually getting a Wi-Fi signal. And iStake for all you LDS folks out there.
That's the main stuff that I keep using. I use it 98% as a tool for business, and 2% for the occasional free game I download for when I'm bored. It's served me well. I'm considering switching to the EVO for awesome PDA smartphone action, but haven't locked it in yet. Personally I wouldn't go out of my way to switch carriers to get the iPhone. The advantages are not great enough when compared to what the iPod can do already.
That's my year long experience with the iPod as a PDA. I guess the one thing I've never been able to do well with any electronic device is plan out my day. Yes I can schedule stuff in my calendar, but I have not yet found a way to quickly plan out every hour with backup plans etc. My old franklin day had notes all over the scheduling section.
