After using a "classic" iPod for many years, I've upgraded to the new iPod Touch. This is obviously a big increment in terms of features, most importantly connectivity to the web via wifi. Calendering (via Google Calendar), email, Skype, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, news feeds, web browser, etc. are all features on this device that I previously accessed from desktop or laptop computers. And of course, it plays music and videos, downloads and plays movies from my Netflix account, and even has a rather basic camera. Many or all of these features are available on smartphones, but the iPod touch has no 2-year phone plan to subscribe to. Not a bad deal, I figured. I'll keep my old phone for now.
One feature that I found quite interesting is its ability to give my approximate location. There's no GPS chip in the device (as far as I know), but it can tell where I am, and shows me on Google Maps, by reference to local wifi hotspots. As long as the wifi transmitter is turned on, and I'm near a hotspot, it will locate me. That's pretty amazing technology when you think about it. Does it mean that Google has a map of the location of millions of wifi bases throughout the country? The world? If so, how did they collect that information? Maybe the location information was grabbed from people walking around with smartphones that have a GPS chip in addition to a wifi connection? Whatever, it's impressive.
So far, I haven't seen much that is directly relevant to the clinical labs in terms of apps for this device. Of course, any device that can connect the lab with a clinician has a lot of potential uses. If others know of useful software, I'd be interested to hear about it.
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