GPS Advisor

Next, I added the Maps app. While it is of little use in the car without AT&T's EDGE Network -- which is what the iPhone uses when a Wi-Fi connection isn't available -- Maps is great for plotting out trips beforehand and works just as well as it does on the iPhone. Think of it as Google Earth in your pocket.

The most important thing for me is having an offline mail client. What better than Apple's mobile Mail app for the iPhone? It works fantastically well on the iPod with four concurrent IMAP clients. My only gripe is that you can't set the frequency for checking the e-mail servers to less than five minutes. However, because you can write offline and sync when you hit a wireless access point, it is a natural fit. Why Apple chose not to include it is beyond me, unless it wants to upsell users to the iPhone.

The Weather app -- another iPhone fav of mine -- is great for quickly checking forecasts in your favorite destinations. It also caches this information for offline use, making it another good fit.

Apple's iPhone applications aren't the only ones that work well with the iPod Touch; hacked third-party apps work pretty well, too.

The first one I tried was VNSea.app, a VNC remote desktop client. The installation was painless, it connected to my Mac OS X and Windows servers quickly, and the remote functionality worked well.

The only downside is the obviously small screen, which doesn't have the ability to pan. That means you only control the upper 320-by-480-pixel portion of your screen. I found that if I put my important apps up top, I was in pretty good shape. It also makes a great Wi-Fi remote control for your Mac Mini media center.

Next, I added the Apollo IM client. Although I prefer the interface of another mobile application,MobileChat, Apollo lets me connect to my corporate MSN network as well. So for my purposes, it gets the nod. This is a perfect example of an application the iPod Touch needs. If Apple won't add it, then it should at least let others do so.

Another biggie for me is RSS feeds. Google Reader on mobile Safari is great, but again, it's not very helpful when offline. Thankfully, the hacker community has stepped in with RSS.app. It works exactly as an offline RSS reader should. Add in the feeds you want, and it polls them at regular intervals. Whenever you have a little downtime on the road, use it to catch up on your favorite news.