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iPod Touch Tips is a new section on JimsTips.com to provide Tips, reviews, and other information about Apple’s iPod Touch . The iPod Touch, originally marketed as media player, is capable of so much more. With WiFi, Web Browsing, and the addition of a few new applications, the iPod Touch is much improved with some new and extended capabilities.

The domain iPTTips.com redirects to this page, so you can always get to iPod Touch Tips by pointing your browser to http://iPTTips.com.

Apple’s AppStore has hundreds of applications for the iPhone & iPod Touch, so stay tuned as I give my thoughts and reviews of my favorite apps!

Having quick and easy access to information is one of the strong points of the iPhone and the iPod Touch. With their online capabilities, the Internet is at your fingertips, and just about any piece of information is just a few taps away. One group of applications that provides news information is the “RSS Reader” category. These programs provide news feeds in a (typically) organized and concise manner, allowing you to catch up news from your favorite sites wherever you are. But what if you are not online? What if an iPhone user is on a subway or in an area that has marginal or no coverage. What about an iPod Touch user who is not within range of a WiFi connection? Providing offline access to RSS feeds is a worthy endeavor, and AppStore has a dozen or so RSS readers that may fit your needs, however they all currently miss the mark in providing a complete offline reading experience. Read on to find out why….

I’m always looking for decent cases for the devices I carry, and I have found another case for the iPod Touch that I just love. The Belkin Silicone Skin Case is a molded case made of silicone rubber that stretches to fit snugly around the iPod Touch. It provides cut-outs for the screen, top power button, brightness sensor, Universal Connector, and headphones. There is also a recessed portion over the front Home button giving it a great look and nice tactile feel. The case nicely protects the chrome back from scratches, and it provides the iPod Touch with a great grip. It only adds just a fraction of an inch to the overall size, so your iPod Touch remains slim and sleek.

This case is simple, yet elegant in design, but like similar “skin” cases it does not provide any protection for the screen, so a modest screen protector is included. (I personally use some left-over Palm PDA screen protectors, though the supplied protector will work just fine.) This setup makes the iPodtTouch very “front-pocketeble”, and I am much more likely to regularly carry it with me because of the small size and confidence in the protection. After all, what’s the point of having a device that contains your favorite content if it is too bulky to take with you? Currently, this is my case of choice.

Text entry on the iPod Touch's on-screen keyboard is surprisingly easy, but sometimes, it can be tedious to enter numbers, symbols, or special characters. But did you know that there are a few "shortcuts" that you can use to make this kind of entry quicker and easier? Read on for some tips on "shifting" letters, inserting numbers, symbols, and International characters, and making a quick entry correction….

Arguably, one of the greatest current contributions to the Internet is Wikipedia, a solid encyclopedic resource for general knowledge of topics spanning literally millions of articles. Though the accuracy of some of its articles is questionable, overall, Wikipedia does an excellent job of presenting generally reliable content. A point of note that any researcher, student, or general Internet user should know, is that because of its susceptibility to error and vandalism, Wikipedia, should not be used as a difinitive research resource, it should be considered a great starting point for researching a topic.)

Like searching on Google, Wikipedia is fast and intuitive to use. On the iPod Touch, the Safari Web browser renders Wikipedia pages very well. But accessing Wikipedia from the iPod Touch has one major drawback: you must be online. Recently, however, there have been several sfforts to provide Wikipedia content in an offline format. This article covers two such offerings:

Wikipedia.app

Wiki2Touch  (My Pick!)

I review what I like about them, what I dislike, and which I like best, so read on for a full review of these two applications….

Web Clips on your iPod Touch's Home Page are very handy, but if you accidentally delete one, how do you get it back? Well, you can't. When you create a Web Clip, consider also creating a corresponding Bookmark in Safari. This way, should you ever accidentally delete your Web Clip, you will have an easy way to get it back. Bookmarks can also be optionally synced through iTunes providing additional backup.

To create a Bookmark from a Web Clip, simply launch your Web Clip, tap the "+" button and select "Add Bookmark".

To create a Web Clip from a Bookmark, launch Safari, select the Bookmark, let the page load, and then tap the "+" button and select "Save to Home page".

An added benefit of maintaining Web Clips as Bookmarks is that you now have access to Web Clip pages right from within Safari instead of having to exit Safari to the Home page and selecting the Web Clip. I like to store these Web Clip Bookmarks in a "Web Clips" folder in my Bookmarks, but you can organize them however you want.

Here's a simple, yet not always intuitive tip. Have you ever been using Safari while lying down in bed or on a couch? You get comfortable, and as you tilt your iPod Touch, does the screen auto-rotate the wrong way? You then go through the delecate balancing act of finding that "sweet spot" just before it rotates, then you cock your head uncomfortably, just to view Safari in widescreen mode? Well, the solution is so simple, if you follow Apple's intuitive UD design. Because the iPod Touch only rotates 90° in either direction, once it is rotated, it will not rotate further. So when rotating yout iPod Touch, simply rotate it in direction you are lying. For example, if you lye down on your right side, rotate it clockwise. If you turn over to your left side, rotate it counter-clockwise.

Like any PDA or pocket-sized electronic device, the iPod Touch is prone to scratches and dings, so on eof the first accessories you should consider is a case to protect it. Cases come in all sizes and shapes, so what is best for you is a very personal and subjective decision. I found the Griffin Elan Convertible case at my local Circuit City, and I find it to be a solid choice for the money. Read on for a full review….

The Google Maps application included in the "January Update" apps has a very nice offline feature: Routing. While connected to WiFi, Tap the "Directions" button, and enter the starting location and then the ending location of your desired route. Maps will then download the route data and store it for offline use. All route-point information including zoomed-in maps immediately surrounding each route point is downloaded. Once completed (ie: the progress "spinner" stops) you can shut off WiFi, and the route information will be retained to use offline. Read on for more details on how to use this useful feature….

Apple announced that in February 2008, they would release a Software Development Kit (SDK) enabling third-party developers to create applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Many people are placing a lot of hope into this tool. As of this writing, it appears that its release will be delayed until March, 2008. Read on to see my take on what the SDK may or may not bring….