Apple's iTouch, the real deal!

Posted by Jonny

Posted on October 19, 2007

I got Apple's new iTouch iPod a few weeks ago but was waiting for my laptop to get to Melbourne. Been dying to use it but had no music, no movies and no internet to try the browser. I threw a few pictures on it and had a play with those but had to wait 2 weeks for the cavalry to arrive.

I got my laptop last Tuesday and been playing with it everyday since. It was a dream on the 10 hour train from Melbourne to Sydney. 300, Heroes Season I, and Family Guy Season V, as well as my music all saw daylight for the first time on my new iTouch! I'll run through a few of the details for anyone thinking of a purchase.

Interface Intuition

The interface is unbelievable. No issues to date with it at all other than the usual "fingers too fat to dial" syndrome with the keyboard. As it's not an iPhone though you don't have to type quite as much without texts but it would be nice for Apple to address the keyboard issue next time around. Flipping through your albums and creating "On The Go" playlists is now as easy as pie. Movies can be stopped and will continue playing where you left off, and this works concurrently for all videos.

The feature of rotating the iTouch to the side ,so the screen re-orientates itself to the new position, allows for increased screen use as well as new features such as navigating through albums at any time while in the music section, similar to the feature in iTunes 7. Very nice touch!

Battery life

The battery life is pretty impressive for an Apple product! Watching movies is not as draining on resources as previous models despite the increased screen size. I have yet to test long periods of browsing but all in all a big improvement in this department.

Hardware

The screen is incredible! You have the usual issues with screen scratching and smudging (it is an iTouch after all, so smudges come with the territory) but the resolution is stunning with little or no glare for movies. The dimensions are quite astounding too! The 16 gig model is so thin and fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. The screen is ample size for comfortable movie watching.

Software

The iTouch staff have produced a development guide for web developers so web applications can be created to better suit web browsing needs of the fantastic Safari browser on the new iPod. Social network sites such as Facebook have already tailored a version of their application to the iTouch with more to follow. The other OS X borrowed software are as reliable and useful as ever; Safari for web browsing, a calculator, calender and contact list can be synced from your Apple Mac.

The main additions are custom built applications for iTunes and YouTube access and browsing. Both these apps work very well and strip the periphery elements of both web services to allow users direct access to media streaming and downloading.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion is simple really - GET ONE! I am usually quite hesitant when purchasing mark I iPods but this one has surpassed my expectations in every department. Alright there is not a whole lot of Gig for your Dollar but for users that already own a previous iPod model this can be a nice addition for web browsing, video watching and selective music "playlisting" or indeed a stylish introduction to the world of iPod for any newbies.

The Microsoft Zune team has declared it's intentions of eating into Apple's grip of the MP3 market (in the "long run") but Microsoft has it's work cut on this one I fear and it may well be a very long run.

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