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I recently starting considering whether I would upgrade my iPod to the latest version and it got me to wondering what are the issues associated with an upgrade and also what about upgrading my cell phone at the same time.

This Is What I Currently Have

First let me tell you what I have at the moment. I have an older Samsung flip phone which works well although the battery only lasts about three days before needing a charge. Other than that it works very well. I also have an iPod touch which is a year old, so it does not have the built in cameras. I purchased it with 32 G’s of memory and even with loads of pictures and music on it I am not even close to using all of the memory.

Now you may wonder why I just don’t upgrade to an iPhone. Well we live in Canada and the rates for cell service plus data service is ridiculous. That’s why with the iPod, I just use WiFi and the data does not cost me anything. Sure I have to find a WiFi site, however I have discovered that there are so many around that I always have access when I need it.

I am currently paying about $85 a month for 500 minutes of local and long distance service shared between two phones to Bell Mobility. I know this is high by USA levels, but that is what we are stuck with in Canada. This includes voice mail and text messaging. It does not include any data at all.

The best part is that I am coming to the end of my contract and I can now negotiate with Bell, my current provider and with Rogers who are the main competitors.

What Should I Upgrade to?

What I would like is a new iPhone 4 as an upgrade with data and voice at a much better price that what I am currently paying. I am used to the iPod and really like all of the current apps that I have. I would like the current configuration that I have on my iPod plus voice.

I have to wait another month for my contract to end and then we will see what kind of a deal Bell and Rogers will offer to me. Bell to keep me and Rogers to transfer me and pick me up as a new customer.

If I can get a new iPhone 4, then I will sell my iPod. I have seen them going for roughly $140 to $170 on Ebay and considering I have had it for one year and I paid $300 for it, this is not a bad deal.

Can Anyone Suggest a Better Approach?

If anyone has a better suggestion about how to get a better deal or what I should expect for a proposed offer for service, I would really like to hear your comments now. The end of May is my drop dead date for making a decision on a new phone of some kind. If they will not give me a good deal, then I might just keep what I have?

Actually it is cancel the news paper, cancel subscriptions to magazines and even cancel paper based books in favor of the iPad, the iPhone, the iPod and other smart phones and tablet computers. More and more people are purchasing smart devices which they have with them at all times and they subscribe to RSS feeds to get their news for the day. Some people will even browse web sites from news organizations to keep abreast of what is happening in the world.

Survey Results

A new survey which focused on the iPad is included in this post that supports this view:

Here’s what a team at the Missouri School of Journalism learned in a survey of 1,609 Apple (AAPL) iPad owners conducted over the past three months:

• Using the iPad to follow breaking news reports and current events is the most popular use for the device, with 84.4% of respondents saying this is one of their main uses.
• More than three quarters (78.6%) of the users spent at least 30 minutes during a typical day consuming news on their iPad.
• Nearly half (48.9%) of the respondents said they spent an hour or more during a typical day consuming news on their iPad.
• Among the 931 respondents who indicated that they currently subscribe to print newspapers, there is a statistically significant, moderately strong, positive correlation between iPad news consumption and the likelihood of canceling their print subscriptions. (emphasis ours)
• For example, more than half (58.1%) of the respondents who subscribe to printed newspapers and use their iPad at least an hour a day for news said they are very likely to cancel their print subscriptions within the next six months.
• More than three out of 10 (30.6%) respondents indicated that they do not subscribe to printed newspapers, with another one out of 10 (10.7%) saying that they had already canceled their subscriptions to printed newspapers and switched to reading digital newspapers on their iPad.

The typical iPad owner who responded to the survey was a 48-year-old man with a B.A. earning more than $100,000 a year who bought his iPad within two months of its release.

Other Smart Phones & Tablet Computers

Although the survey was focused on the iPad and probably funded by Apple (we do not know that), these results can most likely be extrapolated to other smart phone users and smart device users. If this is correct, then more and more people are forsaking the printed word and moving to the electronic word for all of their information needs.

A simple observation of people riding the bus to and from work shows that over half of the people on the bus that I ride are busy using their smart phones, a few are using iPads to keep up with their emails as well as browse various information sources. This is the beginning of a general trend that is catching on in the markets.

Newspapers and magazines need to and many have been re-inventing themselves. They are creating apps for these smart devices that make it easier to get their message out to their readers and most important display advertising as well which earns them funds to support their business.

Lets continue to watch this new emerging segment of the electronic industry as well as the old standard to see were they both end up! Comments on the survey as well as our opinion are welcome.

I bought my first iPod in March 2010. Ok, I know I am a little late getting on the bandwagon, however I really have been a PC type for all of my computer lifetime.  I bought it for $300 in the spring of 2010, and have really fell for this little piece of technology, and I haven’t bought a CD since as well.

This Generation iPod cost $300 and was the size of a half a deck deck of cards or perhaps even thinner. I purchased the 32 G model and have a huge amount of space for a lot of apps as well as pictures and music. It also apparently has a faster processor than some of the older models.

My version of this device also runs IOS 4.1 and has all of the same features as the iPhone except for the camera and of course the phone.  Apple has sold more than 260 million iPods, and its latest iterations look less like a deck of cards and more like a hand of poker.

I really like this little machine. I read most of my email at coffee shops that offer free WiFi, read the news, check on the weather, listen to my favorite radio station, check my Facebook status, even keep up on my banking. This is a really great little device and as long as there is WiFi around, I can connect and be live on the internet. I can even make phone calls over Skype! When I call other people on computers including smart phones running Skype it is a free call. No data plan and no minutes! Utterly fantastic.

Now the company’s newest generation of music players is set to be released into the wild, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the new model.

If you own the last version of the iPod touch, the design of the latest version shouldn’t come as a major surprise. Instead of aping the iPhone’s new glass-sandwich looks, the new touch hews close to its roots with a super thin profile made up of one part glass screen and one part all-metal back. The device still bears the smudge inviting chrome rear panel, and continues the trend of shrinking the thickness as far down as possible. We thought the iPhone 4 was crazy thin, but the new touch looks like a toothpick by comparison.

We especially like the latest iPods, specifically enjoying the front-facing camera of the iPod Touch, but was “less enthusiastic about Ping, Apple’s first attempt at social networking, because it didn’t do well enough with the socializing aspect. With the camera front and back, we can take pictures, take videos and hold video conference calls with our family all from the iPod Touch!

Ping’s other socially awkward characteristics include its inability to notify you when other people comment on or like something you’ve posted or commented on. Apple says these will appear in the Recent Activity page within a week — but not as easy-to-see notifications at the top of the page.

Some changes to the iPod in the past, which is updated each year, have seemed forced, but that this year’s updates are welcome. There are thousands of app’s available that cover just about any situation you can think of. More are being added everyday and the older ones are being updated to utilize 4G speeds. This is trully a great winner for Apple.

There are no design missteps this year, though, at least none as egregious. The 2010 iPod crop takes some design risks and, in some cases, subtracts some longstanding features. But in general, the trade offs are worth it. I cannot wait to get my hands on the new iPod model and put it through its paces.

If you have one, feel free to add your comments here so other readers can find out more about Apple’s latest creation. Please note that spam comments will be deleted.