iPod Touch Observations

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23rd September 2007
Ipod Touch Observations
So I've gotten a chance to play with the ipod Touch and jot down some thoughts. After having checked out the iPhone, I was curious how the two differed. I also wanted to see what the new iTunes Wi-Fi Store was like.
Let's start with the iPod itself. It's thinner than the iPhone by about 3 millimeters and the face is a bit flattened out. The sleep button has moved from the top right corner to the top left corner while the headphone jack, no longer recessed, moves to the bottom. Gone also are the external volume buttons as well as the ear buds that allow you to pause and advance to the next song.
The changes are not all for the better in my mind. I loved the volume keys because i was able to change the volume without even looking at the iPhone. I could just reach into my pocket and adjust the sound. With the iPod Touch, you can push the home button twice and pull up onscreen media keys, but that means you still have to look at the device. Also with the iPhone earbuds, you could advance a song just by tapping twice on the microphone. Again, this was nice to just pause a song or move ahead without pulling out the iPod.
The iPod Touch offers pretty much the same interface as the iPhone without obviously the phone feature, the camera and certain applications like stocks and weather updates. The experience felt pretty much the same, with the ability to double tap, pinch and drag pages and items.
The Touch offers pretty good sound and a great video experience. Browsing through Cover Flow with a flick of your finger is still quite enjoyable. Some people have been having problems with the black levels on the video but I had no trouble with the picture. I still love watching the Prestige on the Touch, with all its dark colors and shadows, even after I've seen it a bunch of times.
Surfing the web is one of the joys of the iPod Touch, though without cellular data access, it's Wi-Fi or nothing at all. There is still no better portable media device that allows such fun Internet viewing. The Safari web browser, however, still doesn't support flash, so no video or animation. And also now that this isn't tied to the iPhone, Safari doesn't allow you to click on e-mail addresses and phone numbers on web pages to launch the e-mail app or phone.
The best addition to the iPod Touch is the iTunes Wi-Fi music store. I love being able to buy songs while I'm out and about. You do need a Wi-Fi connection, which is why Apple signed a deal with Starbucks to soon allow iPod Touch and iPhone users the ability to shop on iTunes for free from Starbucks stores. I tried it out both at my office and at a cafe with Wi-Fi.
What's nice about this is you never know when you'll get the urge to buy and listen to new music. For me, I couldn't get that song from the iPod Nano commercial out of my head. I didn't know the singer's name but I tried tapping in what I thought was the title. I put in "1234" the first words in the song and then I pulled up the info on Feist, a Canadian singer with an intoxicating voice. I tapped on the entry and I got a 30 second preview just to make sure it's the same song. After tapping on the price tab, I was able to buy the song after a quick log-in to iTunes. About 30 seconds later, the song was mine to listen to.
That's very cool and it feeds my hunger for impulse buying. Sometimes, you just want that song you heard in the store or the one your friend just told you about. I was also able to search by top tens, which pulled up the top ten songs or albums in various genres. A featured page allows you to see new releases, what's hot and different featured songs by genre. It was through the top ten search that I came across Alicia Keys' new song "No One," a sweet diddy that I promptly bought from my seat in the cafe.
Even if you fall out of Wi-Fi coverage, the download continues when you re-establish a connection. And the song gets transferred to your PC the next time you sync your iPod.
The iPod Touch is not without its flaws. At $399 and $299, it's a little expensive as a personal video player with only 16 and 8 gigabytes of capacity respectively. It would be nice to also use the Touch as a mass storage device, something it doesn't support right now. I would have also liked the e-mail application from the iPhone as well.
But quibbles aside, I think this is a beauty of a product that addresses a real issue in the wake of the iPhone launch. Let's face it, not everyone wants to jump from their cellular carrier to get an iPhone. This way, you get the best of the iPhone without switching carriers. By keeping Wi-Fi and all that great interface and adding the iTunes store, you ensure that the iPod Touch will still be ahead of almost every other personal media player, if not by virtue of sheer specs then through the overall experience

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