Thursday - February 07, 2008

Cool Factor: iPod Touch

Back in September Apple introduced us to the one of their newest inventions in the iPod line, the iPod Touch. Well, for Christmas I picked one up for myself. After using it for a month, I have been able to use all it’s features and test its durability. I have a lot of good things (and some bad) to say about this cool slick iPod, so lets get started!

Now in most reviews, everyone compares the iPod Touch to the iPhone, I’m not going to do that. First off, I haven’t used an iPhone and second, this review would be just like all the others if I did. The iPod Touch is a beautifully crafted piece of electronics. From its chrome back to its slick black front and gorgeous 3.5 inch touch screen, this baby pulls your eye right in. There is a home button on the front panel and another button on the top to put it to sleep or turn it off. The dock connector and headphone jack are on the bottom. Also, there is a black square at the top in the back, this for the Wi-Fi antenna, which is built into the device.

Operation of the iPod Touch is pretty much flawless. Apple sure put a lot of thought and time into perfecting this. All you need is your trusty finger for everything from zooming to typing. When I typed for the first time I was very skeptical because I had heard a lot of rumors of the keyboard being unreliable. Well I had no problem with it. Typing comes so natural and if you make a mistake most of the time spell check with recognize it and automatically correct the error. The multi-touch commands are also amazing. To zoom you do the pinch method, and pull apart to zoom out. Scrolling is one of the coolest features. To scroll fast on a webpage or a list of songs just flick your finger. To the scroll slowly just move your finger slowly on the screen. I had no problems with both of these features; they are very intuitive.

 Next, I want to cover the iPod Touch’s Internet capabilities. Yes, the Touch has a built-in Internet browser. The device works on Wi-Fi and sees when you are in a wireless hot spot. If that network is open, the device will automatically connect to it. When you are connected to a broadband network, loading of websites is very quick and everything shows up just like on your computer at home. Finding a website is easy to you can ether type the web address into the address bar at the top of the browser or you can use the google search feature (that is also at the top of the screen). The Internet browsing capabilities are great, but there is one problem that I found with it. Say you are on a page that has a link, you click on it, and it opens in a new page. Then, you get done looking at the second page and you close it. Safari then goes back to the previous page but gets caught in a loop. It loads the page you just looked at automatically in the first browser window, and displays it, but then you can’t go back to the first page. This makes you feel stuck in the page. You then have to restart Safari, and go back to the first page by typing it again. There will probably be an update coming out for this down the road, if Apple finds the bug.

 Next, I’d like to talk about Pictures. You can sync your pictures to your iPod Touch just like the iPod Classic through iTunes. When displaying your pictures on the Touch you can surf through them by just flicking your finger like you would on a list of songs or Internet pages. Another real cool thing about picture browsing is the horizontal/vertical switching. If you are holding the iPod Touch upright and you come to a horizontal picture, you just turn the unit and the pictures automatically flip. This is done by Touch’s accelerometers, they sense when the Touch is being turned and adjust the screen to match the viewing angle.

On to Music… we all have our iPods for one main reason, and that is music. It’s a big part of our lives, and Apple made it easier for all of us to enjoy when they introduced the original iPod back in 2001. Well they have taken it to the next level with the iPod Touch. To sync your music just hook it up to a Mac (or PC) like a regular iPod, and the music will sync right to it. When it’s all finished syncing, and you what to listen to your music, just turn iPod Touch on and press the Music tab at the bottom of the screen. It then goes to a selected list. Say it’s set on playlists, but you what it on Albums. Well, at the bottom of the screen are five options: playlists, artists, songs, albums, and more. Press the desired one and it goes to that list. Now, let’s say you’re in Albums but want to see your album cover close up just turn the Touch sideways and the list then converts into cover flow, just like iTunes. To scroll through cover flow, just flick your finger. Once you have found the right album, but want to listen to a certain song in that album, just tap on the album and it flips displaying a list of songs. You can now find that right song and listen to it. Another nice feature about the iPod Touch is the ability to turn the screen off when listening to music to conserve power. To do that, just press the button on the top of the iPod Touch.

I have covered the iPod Touch’s main features except Video. The reason why I haven’t reviewed this function is because the video feature is well… pretty straightforward. Just find the movie or TV show you want to watch, tap it, and there you go. The construction of the iPod Touch is the best I’ve seen yet for an iPod. It appears to be very durable. Yes, the back plastic does get scratched very easy but the screen is virtually scratch resistant, I haven’t had anything yet that has left a mark on it. I do recommend getting a case (or skin) for the device. This will keep the back from getting scratched. I purchased the Incase skin with mine and I love it. One more question some of you may have is: does it mess up your Wi-Fi connection? The answer is no, not at all. However, if you put you finger over the antenna area you will see the signal drop.

 The iPod Touch is just amazingly brilliant in every way. From all its features to its innovative design, this is one device that will not be left behind. In a way, it’s sort of like a Palm Pilot, and that has become even more evident after the latest software release (from MWSF). The latest upgrade gives the iPod Touch the ability to write notes, check stocks, look up weather forecasts, search Google maps, and, of course, check your email. Ok, I will say it… it’s like the iPhone without the phone. 

 I didn’t cover all the features of the iPod Touch in this article, but if you have any questions, I would love to answer them for you. You can either email them to me at jhammerle1@mac.com or ask right on the AMP forums. Thanks for reading my review, and I hope to get some more posted. Thanks again for reading.

-Justin (AKA Appleman76 on the forums