For people who use Google services and own an iPod touch, but not a cellphone
Email is my preferred mean of communication, and since I don't have a cellphone, my ipod touch became the ultimate mobile/communication device. I can get instant email notification, send/receive free text messages, and place a call when I really can't find a public phone at school.
PUSH GMAIL, INSTANT NOTIFICATION
For email, you can choose between Manual fetch, automatically fetch, and PUSH instant notification. However, you can only get auto fetch if you added your account through Gmail server. In order to get PUSH enabled, add your Gmail account through Microsoft Exchange Server instead. Enter your account info as usual and you are ready to get instant emails!
Since we are talking about an ipod touch, wifi is required for sending/receiving data. I use an app called Textplus4, you need to register for an username. If you are in US, you can actually get a real phone#. I suggest you make your real name as username so people would recognize you when they receive your msg. You can send to almost any carrier available out there. The only down side is that you have to initiate a conversation.
I barely make phone call and I just use a public phone when I do. In the extreme rare case where a public phone cannot be found, I use an app called Talkatone to rescue myself. The sound quality is not very good, but if it's not so urgent, you can wait, right?
I have all my contacts stored in Google Contacts, and I sync them on my itouch via Exchange Server. Then I can browse all contacts in the apple contact app, without wifi.
GOOGLE CALENDAR (MULTIPLE)
The "m.google.com/sync" method found on many websites is an iphone-only solution. To sync MULTIPLE calendars with ITOUCH, you need to go to Settings > Mail,Contacts,Calendar > Add > Other > CalDAV:
Server: www.google.com
User: your gmail account
Pass: your pwd
and visit: http://google.com/calendar/iphoneselect to check 1 or more calendars that you wanna sync!
There are tones of task app in the app store. If you already use many of the Google services, you should get the free GoTasks app to sync with Google Tasks. With a browser, you can make your tasks (in orange) appear on the calendar directly along with your events (in pink & blue), which makes the time management easier than ever.
