I’ve been toying around with my new iPod Touch for the past two weeks and I’ve got to say that I absolutely LOVE it. My main reason in getting it was to have a smart device I could use to bring around music/movies/TV/Podcasts/News and use various other useful apps. I’ll just get a POS phone and use my iPod for everything other than calling/texting in Korea. I even got a Skype subscription so I can make unlimited US calls for $30 for one year from my iPod or my computer. I was thinking about my other options, but in the end the decision came down to buying a good piece of hardware with the best application support. Microsoft’s Zune has some very tempting features, but you can’t fight Apple’s app store.
Here are my personal recommendations so far for anyone using an iPod Touch or iPhone. Feel free to post your favorites in the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Settings
I just want to say, the international support on the iPod/iPhone is amazing. You can easily enable any foreign keyboards easily and while typing can click one button to switch keyboards. I’ve found this to be a SUPER handy feature which I use a ton.
I’ve also changed the interface to be in Korean, mostly for practice.
Video Podcasts
TEDTalks: VERY insightful and smart talks given at the world’s best educational conferences
Around the net: 5 best internet videos of the day
Best of YouTube: Best YouTube video of the day
CH Originals – CollegeHumor Original Videos : Always good for a larf
CNN Daily Video: Quick update on the latest news, though it seems too short
Onion News Network: Funny fake news reports
Audio Podcasts
SeoulPodcast: Great commentary on the latest in Korea
The Ricky Gervais Podcast: Just some funny guys talking
The Onion Radio News: Super short fake hilarious news
The Korea Society: Great talks about Korea, not updated very often but very good.
General Applications
All of the built in applications are extremely useful, I use it to check my mail, watch YouTube videos, surf the net, get maps, and check my calendar.
GoodReader: Great PDF reader, easy to transfer from computer
MobileRSS Free: Free app for reading all my RSS subscriptions
Skype: Free calls to Skype users, I paid $30 for unlimited US/Canada calls to real phones for one year
Facebook: Easy to check on what friends are up to
iReddit Free: I’m a die-hard Redditer …
AP Mobile, NYTimes, USA TODAY, NPR News: Yeah, I’m a news nut
TED: Watch over 300 GREAT TED talks
AppVault Pro: Seems better than AppBox Pro, you get a lot of utilities (unit converter, translator, etc.). The only problem is that it was just pulled from the app store, good thing I got it while it was there 
Korea-related Applications
Britannica Encyclopedia Korea: Look up subjects quickly about Korea or anything else (in Korean)
YBM English Korean English Dictionary: I’ve heard some complaints, but this works perfectly for me for just looking up words. I also bought the other one people rave about, Korean English Dictionary by Cole Zhu, but I found that app to be very cumbersome. One example is that the Cole Zhu app often thinks I click on a word when I just want to scroll. The YBM dictionary doesn’t have this annoying problem.
Naver Maps, Daum Maps: Great for looking for addresses around Korea, the Daum Maps app even has street view like Google’s.
Subway applications are a MUST. You can easily get directions from anywhere to anywhere and see maps of the subway exists and the immediate surrounding area.
iKorway: Great app, except for the fact that 교대역 and 서초 are switched. I told the author about it so hopefully he fixes that. I like this interface the most out of all the subway applications. This also seems like the most complete app. It will even tell you the buses that leave the stations, the times, and where the stops are.
nSubway: Just subway info (but free and pretty good)
Seoul Bus: My favorite bus app, though I use iKorway most of the time
Bugs: Listen to the top 100 songs in Korea for free.
Games
Doodle Jump: Very fun and very addictive.
Need For Speed Shift: Really shows how great the graphics are
Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars: Another great full-feature game showing how great the iPhone/iPod platform is
Better get the Naver video app and Kumyoung noraebang app!
@qklilx
That looks like a need noraebang app, does that work at all the noraebangs? Are song numbers always the same no matter what noraebang machine it has?
It works on any noraebang machine that runs Kumyoung. You can search for any song and it will fetch the code number for you. That way you don’t need to use the book! You might be able to get it off the Kumyoung website. My friend found it and uses it on his iPod Touch. Not all noraebangs use Kumyoung but it is the most common one.
You might also want to check out the Yonhap News app, just came out a few weeks ago. English news service here in Korea, usually original news articles.
Generally the same news as found at:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/
In another article you mentioned using a subway app (and linked here), but you don’t mention it here. Which subway program are you using? For the moment I’m just using a high-res picture or a PDF of the subway …
@MikeInSeoul
Sorry, I thought I did it. I think I was waiting until I got to Korea to talk about those. I’ll go ahead and add it now … Thx for telling me about that.
for a free app for city Metro in Seoul,
I find Jihachul very useful. It has time schedule what platform to take for an easy transfer.
and it’s FREE.
@Dae
The only thing that sucks is that the latest version starts to open then goes back to the springboard. Hopefully the author fixes it … it looks like a lot of other people are getting the same thing.