Dogs and iPods

I took Ruthie and Pete to the vet this morning for their semi-annual checkup and immunizations.

They were both kind of freaked out, even though they’ve been to this vet several times before and presumably had OK experiences.

Here’s a shot of Pete cowering under my chair while Ruthie was off getting a stool sample taken. The both came away with a clean bill of health, other than needing their teeth cleaned. Ruthie goes in for dental hygiene Wednesday and it’s Pete’s turn on Thursday.

The long-awaited iPod Touch arrived at 11:55 a.m. today. It took more than twice as long to travel the 91 miles from the FedEx facilities in Memphis as it did to travel the 12,000-some miles from China to Memphis.

I am less impressed than I thought I would be. Here are the surprising/disappointing things about it:

• The 64-bit version of iTunes I installed when I got my new computer last November didn’t work right with my old iPod and it doesn’t work 100% with the Touch. Specifically, it loads music but not playlists, podcasts or videos.
• The Wifi is nice, but the touch keyboard leaves me longing for my old Treo 700p.
• The Touch is not compatible with the devices we use to play music through our car radios.
• The voice recognition software leaves a lot to be desired.

That said, it’s sleek, attractive, feather-light and oh-so elegant. I’ll like it a whole lot more when Apple and Microsoft figure out a way to make iTunes work with the 64-bit Windows 7 platform.