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I've been reading a lot of reviews on the iPod touch. They approach it as if it is another iPod; I'm going to take a slightly different stance on this. The touch (yes, I am not capitalizing "touch" on purpose) is, in my opinion, more of a PMP (Portable Media Player) meets PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). I'll start with the preferred review format of pros and cons, and will have a much more detailed write up toward the end.
Apple iPod Touch
Apple says this on their Features page for the touch
Its a pretty good summary, if putting more focus on the "neat" new bits unique to the touch screen display. I just say its a PMP that also has a wifi, and, because of the wifi, Safari, e-mail, Google maps, Yahoo! weather, and Youtube. It becomes quite a bit more when you Jailbreak it, but I'll go into that later.
Price
Pros
Cons
Conclusion: Its expensive; this is something that anyone will say. The iPod Classic has larger capacity and better battery life; the Nano has better battery life and is smaller. Both are cheaper. But if you look at this as a mobile wifi device with decent capacity, an excellent interface, and good media playback, its pretty unique on the market. Still, you could get an nice EeePC for this price. So it is for the people that want the option to check their e-mail, surf a bit, and want to keep it in their pocket. Just don't get it if you are looking to have just an MP3 player, or a video player. There are better devices on the market for less money in those categories.
In-Depth review
Anyone that knows me around here will also know I seethe Apple resentment, cringe at the thought of iTunes, and generally avoid using anything Apple at any cost. So, knowing that, one would also know how serious what I am going to say is. The iPod touch is excellent.
However, this is not blind love for Apple, or a feeling that everyone should have one. It is excellent, provided your needs include its unique offerings. Which are a superb web browsing experience (for so small a device), e-mail, the option to take quick notes, and other PDA applications; all in a device that fits in your pocket. If you don't care about that, or if you'd rather have it on a laptop, the iPod touch is not for you; better deals can be had elsewhere.
First impressions of the touch generally go along "oh wow, this is really neat. Hey come here and look!" The touch display, combined with Coverflow, the web, videos, and the soft keyboard are quite novel at first. This wears off in about a week, and you are use to this once "revolutionary" elements. Still, the thinness of the device is impressive (0.31 inches/8mm) and the easy of using the touch screen to browse is much nicer than a click wheel. I will admit the virtual keyboard works fairly well, even with my fat fingers. Apple did a very good job making it fix often typos that occur on it, though this can be annoying at times when it auto-corrects things like "Doh" or "haha." Still, it beats not having a keyboard at all, and the extra screen space from when it is hiding is well worth the lack of tactile feedback.
So, on with the features of the touch.
Safari: This is the main reason I bought the touch - mobile web. Thus, its first on my list of things to talk about. No, it does not have flash support. Yes, this is a problem in today's web. Luckily, major sites realize this and have designed flash free versions for the iPhone, which means the touch can browse them. Most have seen the interface, with the drag to scroll, double tap or pinch to zoom, and such. It works very well overall, but some of the smaller links, at least with my fat fingers, require extra zooming in to hit at times. This issues is only amplified when you have lots of small links next to each; for example, the page numbers on the forum. Aside from that and the flash, its the full web.
YouTube: While not something I use alot, it makes sharing videos very easy. Build a favorites list and you can bring up stuff you'd like to share easily. Regrettably, the videos cannot be saved to the touch's memory, so you will need wifi to view them at anytime. And don't use ear canal headphones if you like other people to hear what they are watching on it; no one wants to put things that have been in your ears in theirs.
Mail: Works with any IMAP or POP3 account. Links open in Safari in a seperate tab when you click them, pictures load, and emails can be saved to the touch's memory for reading off the wifi. You can set it automatically check for messages at regular intervals as well. All around, a decent little mail client. The only thing I do not understand is why Apple refuses to let you use the virtual keyboard in landscape outside of Safari. Composing larger messages on the smaller, portrait mode virtual keyboard can be a bit tedious at times.
Widgets (wifi): Weather, Notes, Stocks. Weathers and notes I use quite a bit... stocks I really don't care about, but its neat at times. Weather can be setup to grab for multiple cities from Yahoo!, giving you a 6 day forecast, along with displaying the current situation outside. As of now, I have 7 places stored for weather; and its handy to check how things are for my friends, my house I am not at, and what not. Notes I use all the time for shopping lists, random ideas, and other bits I want to remember or keep track of. Again, it suffers from only using the keyboard in portrait mode.
Widgets (wifiless): Calender, Contacts, Calculator, Clock. They all do exactly what they say. Not alot of detail to go into. Calender can be edited now; Clock has a world clock that you save multiple areas to; Calculator is a basic 4 function calculator; Contacts is much like a contact list on a phone. The only thing that stands out here is if you tap an email address in contacts, it will open up the Mail composer with that email in the address bar.
Maps: Google maps in your pocket, basically. You can set pins, look up stores, get directions, and so on. The GPS like feature rarely works with wifi hotspots because they rarely have enough information to place you accurately. That aside, you should generally know where you are, and if you don't, you are probably driving and shouldn't be looking at the screen anyhow. While maps does require wifi to get information, if you look something up in advance and then leave Maps, it will stay in the touch's cache for some time. This means you can bring the map up later, but you will not be able to scroll much beyond the on screen area, nor can you zoom in. Regardless, it is helpful for when you can't get wifi.
Music: Standard iPod fair; sort by several criteria (artist, album, genre, composer) or browse with Coverflow. Playback controls can be accessed at any time by hitting the home button twice; nice for when you want to skip that annoying song when on Safari.
Video: The larger screen makes watching videos with subtitles possible. The playback controls are also nice, as it remembers where you stopped a video, along with letting you jump around by dragging a play position knob around. Video looks good, no choppiness. The only real complaint is you cannot sort with folders or anything, so if you have several TV shows on it, you had best make sure they have consistent naming to group them. Well, that and the imperfections in displaying large areas of white or black, but I think it is mostly artifacts from the compression algorithms.
Photos: Not a lot to say here. View photos, run a slide show, and thats about it. The zoom feature is worthless I feel, as iTunes resizes all the pictures you load so they are about 480 by 320. This means if you zoom in, you get greeted with pixels. Still, nice if you have snapshots and random pictures; not nice if you want to look at detailed diagrams or scans of books.
iTunes wifi store: Honestly, I haven't used this once. I have no interest in buying music from iTunes. What I do know is you can only buy music through it at the moment, and it syncs with the iTunes account you have on your computer.
Now, those are the basic, included features. You can go beyond this with Jailbreak, a 3rd party utility that can be hacked onto the touch. I could write pages on this, so I'll keep it simple. Jailbreaking an iPod touch allows you to install a variety of 3rd party applications, from NES emulators to PDF viewers, AIM clients to customization tools. However, using Jailbreak comes with risks, and becomes more complex the newer the firmware gets for the touch. In short, do not Jailbreak unless you are patient and somewhat computer savvy. For me, Jailbreak makes the touch a solid enough device that I do not feel the need for a laptop most of the time.
Also note this - Jailbreak will likely be irrelevant once the SDK is released. This will allow developers to create programs you can then download through iTunes, thus removing the need for hacking the touch.
What would I like to see in the touch later on? SDHC slot would be nice, though the 32GB model will meet the needs of most people. The option to use the keyboard in landscape mode anywhere would also be appreciated. And do away with that chrome back, Apple. That, or at least give us an option for brushed aluminum or flat black... anything but that chrome that scratches from being looked at funny.
My comment on iTunes - I hate iTunes. Some people love it. It was a huge con on my list when I considered buying the touch, and yes, I got over it. I still feel there are several pieces of software that are vastly superior to iTunes overall, but if I have to use iTunes to get a touch, I will. That how much I like the touch.
Last word, honest. The touch, in my mind, is a modern day PDA with decent media features. What sets it apart for the other iPods is the fact that is runs OS X and its applications that do many PDA style functions. I just think Apple knows something called the "PDA touch" will not sell well in this day and age
Apple iPod Touch
Apple says this on their Features page for the touch
Flick through album covers and find your music. Download and watch your favorite movies, rentals, TV shows, and more from the iTunes Store. Tap into thousands of photos. All using incredible Multi-Touch on a beautiful 3.5-inch display.
Its a pretty good summary, if putting more focus on the "neat" new bits unique to the touch screen display. I just say its a PMP that also has a wifi, and, because of the wifi, Safari, e-mail, Google maps, Yahoo! weather, and Youtube. It becomes quite a bit more when you Jailbreak it, but I'll go into that later.
Price
- $299 for 8 GB
- $399 for 16 GB
- $499 for 32 GB
Pros
- Touch display makes use very natural and easy to pick-up. It also makes navigation of web pages easy and intuitive.
- Large display is good for videos; I can read subtitles for anime on it.
- Coverflow is a nice way to find an album (if you are a visual person)
- The widgets (Weather, Notes, Stock) are very handy.
- Google maps on a device this size can save you a lot trouble (as long as you can find wifi)
- Thin design makes it easy to pocket.
- Glass display is nearly impossible to scratch.
- Mail works with IMAP and POP3, and Safari can open Hotmail.com
- iTunes (for some)
Cons
- Capacity; For its price and use as a video player, it has somewhat low capacity
- Price; greater capacity can be had for much less, and the 32GB is the price of many entry level laptops.
- The chrome finish back was designed to be scratched it seems.
- Fingerprints; touch screen means you will always have smudges.
- Battery life; 25 hours for music, 5 for video; these are even less if you run the wifi frequently.
- Lack of external speakers makes sharing YouTube clips annoying (gross if you use canal headphones)
- Pure blacks and Whites display odd (I've only noticed this in videos, so I think it has more to do with the Mp4 compression than the display)
- iTunes (for some)
Conclusion: Its expensive; this is something that anyone will say. The iPod Classic has larger capacity and better battery life; the Nano has better battery life and is smaller. Both are cheaper. But if you look at this as a mobile wifi device with decent capacity, an excellent interface, and good media playback, its pretty unique on the market. Still, you could get an nice EeePC for this price. So it is for the people that want the option to check their e-mail, surf a bit, and want to keep it in their pocket. Just don't get it if you are looking to have just an MP3 player, or a video player. There are better devices on the market for less money in those categories.
In-Depth review
Anyone that knows me around here will also know I seethe Apple resentment, cringe at the thought of iTunes, and generally avoid using anything Apple at any cost. So, knowing that, one would also know how serious what I am going to say is. The iPod touch is excellent.
However, this is not blind love for Apple, or a feeling that everyone should have one. It is excellent, provided your needs include its unique offerings. Which are a superb web browsing experience (for so small a device), e-mail, the option to take quick notes, and other PDA applications; all in a device that fits in your pocket. If you don't care about that, or if you'd rather have it on a laptop, the iPod touch is not for you; better deals can be had elsewhere.
First impressions of the touch generally go along "oh wow, this is really neat. Hey come here and look!" The touch display, combined with Coverflow, the web, videos, and the soft keyboard are quite novel at first. This wears off in about a week, and you are use to this once "revolutionary" elements. Still, the thinness of the device is impressive (0.31 inches/8mm) and the easy of using the touch screen to browse is much nicer than a click wheel. I will admit the virtual keyboard works fairly well, even with my fat fingers. Apple did a very good job making it fix often typos that occur on it, though this can be annoying at times when it auto-corrects things like "Doh" or "haha." Still, it beats not having a keyboard at all, and the extra screen space from when it is hiding is well worth the lack of tactile feedback.
So, on with the features of the touch.
Safari: This is the main reason I bought the touch - mobile web. Thus, its first on my list of things to talk about. No, it does not have flash support. Yes, this is a problem in today's web. Luckily, major sites realize this and have designed flash free versions for the iPhone, which means the touch can browse them. Most have seen the interface, with the drag to scroll, double tap or pinch to zoom, and such. It works very well overall, but some of the smaller links, at least with my fat fingers, require extra zooming in to hit at times. This issues is only amplified when you have lots of small links next to each; for example, the page numbers on the forum. Aside from that and the flash, its the full web.
YouTube: While not something I use alot, it makes sharing videos very easy. Build a favorites list and you can bring up stuff you'd like to share easily. Regrettably, the videos cannot be saved to the touch's memory, so you will need wifi to view them at anytime. And don't use ear canal headphones if you like other people to hear what they are watching on it; no one wants to put things that have been in your ears in theirs.
Mail: Works with any IMAP or POP3 account. Links open in Safari in a seperate tab when you click them, pictures load, and emails can be saved to the touch's memory for reading off the wifi. You can set it automatically check for messages at regular intervals as well. All around, a decent little mail client. The only thing I do not understand is why Apple refuses to let you use the virtual keyboard in landscape outside of Safari. Composing larger messages on the smaller, portrait mode virtual keyboard can be a bit tedious at times.
Widgets (wifi): Weather, Notes, Stocks. Weathers and notes I use quite a bit... stocks I really don't care about, but its neat at times. Weather can be setup to grab for multiple cities from Yahoo!, giving you a 6 day forecast, along with displaying the current situation outside. As of now, I have 7 places stored for weather; and its handy to check how things are for my friends, my house I am not at, and what not. Notes I use all the time for shopping lists, random ideas, and other bits I want to remember or keep track of. Again, it suffers from only using the keyboard in portrait mode.
Widgets (wifiless): Calender, Contacts, Calculator, Clock. They all do exactly what they say. Not alot of detail to go into. Calender can be edited now; Clock has a world clock that you save multiple areas to; Calculator is a basic 4 function calculator; Contacts is much like a contact list on a phone. The only thing that stands out here is if you tap an email address in contacts, it will open up the Mail composer with that email in the address bar.
Maps: Google maps in your pocket, basically. You can set pins, look up stores, get directions, and so on. The GPS like feature rarely works with wifi hotspots because they rarely have enough information to place you accurately. That aside, you should generally know where you are, and if you don't, you are probably driving and shouldn't be looking at the screen anyhow. While maps does require wifi to get information, if you look something up in advance and then leave Maps, it will stay in the touch's cache for some time. This means you can bring the map up later, but you will not be able to scroll much beyond the on screen area, nor can you zoom in. Regardless, it is helpful for when you can't get wifi.
Music: Standard iPod fair; sort by several criteria (artist, album, genre, composer) or browse with Coverflow. Playback controls can be accessed at any time by hitting the home button twice; nice for when you want to skip that annoying song when on Safari.
Video: The larger screen makes watching videos with subtitles possible. The playback controls are also nice, as it remembers where you stopped a video, along with letting you jump around by dragging a play position knob around. Video looks good, no choppiness. The only real complaint is you cannot sort with folders or anything, so if you have several TV shows on it, you had best make sure they have consistent naming to group them. Well, that and the imperfections in displaying large areas of white or black, but I think it is mostly artifacts from the compression algorithms.
Photos: Not a lot to say here. View photos, run a slide show, and thats about it. The zoom feature is worthless I feel, as iTunes resizes all the pictures you load so they are about 480 by 320. This means if you zoom in, you get greeted with pixels. Still, nice if you have snapshots and random pictures; not nice if you want to look at detailed diagrams or scans of books.
iTunes wifi store: Honestly, I haven't used this once. I have no interest in buying music from iTunes. What I do know is you can only buy music through it at the moment, and it syncs with the iTunes account you have on your computer.
Now, those are the basic, included features. You can go beyond this with Jailbreak, a 3rd party utility that can be hacked onto the touch. I could write pages on this, so I'll keep it simple. Jailbreaking an iPod touch allows you to install a variety of 3rd party applications, from NES emulators to PDF viewers, AIM clients to customization tools. However, using Jailbreak comes with risks, and becomes more complex the newer the firmware gets for the touch. In short, do not Jailbreak unless you are patient and somewhat computer savvy. For me, Jailbreak makes the touch a solid enough device that I do not feel the need for a laptop most of the time.
Also note this - Jailbreak will likely be irrelevant once the SDK is released. This will allow developers to create programs you can then download through iTunes, thus removing the need for hacking the touch.
What would I like to see in the touch later on? SDHC slot would be nice, though the 32GB model will meet the needs of most people. The option to use the keyboard in landscape mode anywhere would also be appreciated. And do away with that chrome back, Apple. That, or at least give us an option for brushed aluminum or flat black... anything but that chrome that scratches from being looked at funny.
My comment on iTunes - I hate iTunes. Some people love it. It was a huge con on my list when I considered buying the touch, and yes, I got over it. I still feel there are several pieces of software that are vastly superior to iTunes overall, but if I have to use iTunes to get a touch, I will. That how much I like the touch.
Last word, honest. The touch, in my mind, is a modern day PDA with decent media features. What sets it apart for the other iPods is the fact that is runs OS X and its applications that do many PDA style functions. I just think Apple knows something called the "PDA touch" will not sell well in this day and age
4G. Mine still runs perfectly. They just dont build them like they used to
👍 At some point my 4G will need a replacement...
