Apple or Android? You don't have to choose. You can have both.

You don't have to choose between Apple and Android. Android's open-ness makes it possible for you to have both at the same time. A relatively cheap iPod Touch 8GB, combined with an Android phone on a data plan acting as your WiFi access point, is a cheap way to have simultaneous access to the best both Apple and Android have to offer wherever you go.

I got my Apple iPod Touch (2nd gen) last December and very quickly saw iPod Touch / iPhone  would change the face of not just mobile telephony but also personal computing. I got right into it - installing loads of apps (free and paid), buying a few songs, and generally replacing most of the functions I used to use my laptop for.

But, as I have already blogged, iTunes annoyed me. I can't even delete a song or video without without using iTunes. In the end, Apple's restrictions were enough to make me think twice, three (and the rest) times about "upgrading" to an iPhone.  That isn't to say Apple doesn't offer a lot that is good and useful and fun.

At the same time, I had been watching the progress of Google's Android OS for mobile phones. It looked to me like Android's more open platform had the potential to give me most, if not all, the advantages of the Apple-verse while avoiding the annoyances implicit in using iTunes. Maybe I would even have the ability to actually use my iPod Touch together with an Android phone. Something Apple would never allow in reverse.

If such a thing were possible, then I would not have to choose at all. I could use both side-by-side.

With this in mind, I bought my android-based HTC Magic from Vodafone NZ back in July....and today I finally made it.

Yesterday, I rooted my 'spare' HTC Magic phone (I have two), loaded Cyanogen android, and then installed tetherWiFi. This app only works if you have gained root access to your phone.

I now have my  Apple iPod Touch talking to the Internet, tethered via WiFi to my Android phone, sharing the phone's 3G connection. My HTC Magic is now an ad hoc WiFi access point, protected by MAC filtering so only those systems / devices I choose to allow to connect are able to.

It took me a few months to collect the pieces together. Once I had them (iPod Touch and spare "sandobx" HTC Magic phone) in hand, within 2 days I was able to set this up. It was worth the wait. Now I've done it once, I realise how easy it is, thanks to guys like Steve Kondin / "Cyanogen".