Pages 1.4 for iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone

Yeah, I know there's an update for Keynote and Numbers. I don't care about those.

I have an 3rd Generation iPod Touch that I often use for content generation while I'm waiting in a line, leaning on a shopping cart or laying in bed just before I drift off to sleep. It goes everywhere with me. Those scant moments amount to hundreds of words toward my projects every month.

Pages being on my iPod Touch is a big deal for me.

First thing I did is have it pull down one of the novels I've written; 76,000 words worth of text. It pulled it from my iDisk account without a hitch, kicked the usual formatting it didn't like (little stuff) and rendered it on the screen.

Good Stuff:

- New file management options. Folders! Hallelujah. Create new files and import files from iTunes, iDisk and WebDAV.

- Even on the 3rd Generation (late 2009) iPod Touch it's snappy and the edit to zoom function is great.

- The usual spell check, word count, guides, rulers and document set up options you're used to with the iPad version of iWorks.

- You can share via iWorks, sent to your iTunes account, copy to iDisk, copy to WebDAV and Airprint documents (doesn't like my Brother Duplex Printer). Oh, you can email the document to someone if you want.

- Bluetooth keyboard pairs and functions fine, for those silly enough for such things.

Pretty much what you'd expect.

Bad Stuff:

The application functions in portrait orientation only. There is no landscape soft keyboard or viewing option. This is a deal breaker for me. My hands and thumbs are too large to type quickly on the soft keyboard in portrait.

Conclusions:

I'll be using PlainText to generate text with my iPod Touch. The decent text editors on my Windows Phone 7 has the same issues. Portrait editing/viewing only. Am I really the only person that uses their iPod Touch to generate odd bits of content in this way?

Maybe I am.