I received my new credit card yesterday and entered that information into my iTunes account, but still got the same ‘payment method declined’ error message. It was time to contact Apple, but before I did that I checked with my credit card company to make sure that they weren’t declining Apple’s pings to my card. Sure enough, the culprit was Apple. I sent them a support ticket explaining the problem and they are now ‘working on it.’ Let’s see how long that takes. I love Apple’s products so much, but the support behind them sucks. At least, the need for support is very minimal; this is only the second time in five years that I have had to ask for help with something.

Meanwhile, reasonably tech-savvy Rae did some not so kosher manoeuvring and was able to get a couple of free apps onto her Touch. I know I’ll need to reacquire them properly once I get my iTunes account running, but for now this was enough to be able to play around for a few hours and really discover how amazing the technology is. It’s beyond Star Trek, that’s the best way I can phrase it. I can tap, pinch, flick, and swipe the screen, and more, and I have to wonder if there is anything this device can’t do!

I’d bought a cheap silicone cover for it to start, but I went to bed last night knowing that this device is going to be glued to my hip from now on. So, I went on eBay this morning and ordered a nice leather cover from the same guy in Hong Kong from whom I’d bought the nice leather cover for my iPod classic:

I don’t normally like buying from Hong Kong, but the ‘book-style’ covers are rare on this side of the ocean and Hong Kong has a better colour selection. The cover will get here when it gets here and it’ll be exactly what I want. The silicone cover will still be good for using the Touch at home; it’s definitely not going to waste.

I’ve had a hankering to reread some favourite books, so I downloaded the ‘Stanza‘ app, as per Andy‘s recommendation, and then connected to Project Gutenberg to download some tomes by Jules Vernes, Alexandre Dumas (père), and Guy de Maupassant. I spent a couple of hours reading short stories by de Maupassant and saw my desire for an ebook reader go from 150% to about 1%. Some folks find the Touch too small to be a good ebook reader while I find the size to be perfect. The Touch just sits in the palm of my hand without any fatigue at all. I might get some eye strain from reading on a computer screen, but I didn’t get any of that at all yesterday. My only disappointment was that the Gutenberg copy of Around the World in 80 days wasn’t formatted properly and was missing all the accented characters. t ws lke tryng t rd wtht vwls. 😀

I’ll need to resolve my app store issues with Apple before I can really get settled in with my iPod Touch but at least now I’ve gotten a proper taste of this device I’ve been craving for so long and I know that it will be worth the wait. This device is amazing and represents an unfathomable technological leap from the computers of my youth. I just wish Apple hadn’t spoiled my fun so soon after purchase; that breach of trust will be irreparable.