Review: iPod Touch

I was able to snag an iPod Touch early last month before the “official” release date. Now that I’ve had the device for a while, here’s my review of the iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch is a unique device. Not only is it an iPod, but it’s also a mobile Internet tablet. The device isn’t perfect, but, with hacks enabled, it is truly a wonderful Apple product. It has its fair share of unfavorable quirks, and I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. I’ll start with the Touch’s apps.

Safari

Browsing the Internet on the iPod Touch and the iPhone is truly a unique experience, which is unfamiliarly smooth. I say “unfamiliarly” because I’ve never had such a great web browsing experience on a mobile device.

Each web page loads entirely onto the device although, many times, it’s unusable in its “stock” state as the text is too small too read. The iPod implements a zoom-in feature, allowing you to pan-and-scan across web pages not designed for mobile devices. This becomes incredibly handy, and, if you’ve browsed the Internet on previous devices, the feature is quickly appreciated. Other devices, through the Opera mobile web browser, have implemented similar features but it’s never been done so smoothly.

The web browser can play the few Quicktime-compatible formats including MP3, AAC, and Quicktime format videos. When you find a Quicktime compatible file online, the Touch will open a new window to play the file.

That’s not to say the browsing experience is perfect. The browser lacks a flash plug-in, something very doable on the Touch, limiting your web experience when you visit flash enabled sites.

Unfortunately, another feature I constantly find lacking is the ability to save passwords and usernames for various sites. Although it’s easy to grow fond of the on-screen keyboard, I would really like to avoid the need to type in my username and password for every site that I visit, but, if you’re not one to visit many password enabled sites, this shouldn’t bother you.

YouTube

Like the iPhone, the iPod Touch comes with a YouTube application. It allows you to search, browse, and watch various YouTube videos. This app is necessary as the browser lacks a flash plug-in, a necessary component in experiencing YouTube.com.

An interesting and handy feature of watching any kind of video on the Touch is the ability to zoom in, allowing you to zoom in past any black bars on screen. I tend to not use this feature as I like to enjoy my video in its “stock” form, but it’s there if you need and/or want it.

The YouTube app does exactly what it’s meant to do, and I’ve never found the video selection different or limiting in comparison to what’s available through the traditional site.

Calendar

The Calendar app is unfortunately very limited. It will sync with Calendar on your Mac but will not allow you to add entries on the go. The only way you can add entries to Calendar is to add them on the Touch’s corresponding “home” computer. Otherwise, Calendar is very basic and allows you to view an overall month or a single day.

Fortunately, the hacking community has released a “patch” for Calendar, adding the ability to create new Calendar entries on the go. Those on the go entries should sync with your Computer, like the iPhone, and be added to Calendar on your Mac.

Contacts

Contacts does exactly what it’s meant to do. It essentially syncs with with Address Book on your computer, allowing you to browse your various contacts on the Touch. Contacts allows you display and insert various types of information for each entry such as phone numbers, email address, physical address, URL, and various custom fields. You can sort the various entries by “first name, last name” or vice versa.

Clock

Clock is a very basic app. It allows you to display the times of various time zones on an eye-friendly interface. It also has alarm, stopwatch, and timer capabilities.

Clock does what it’s supposed to do and you really can’t ask more from it. Although it can easily come off as a gimmick, some will find it useful and others won’t.

Calculator

Calculator is an app that allows for very basic calculations. It’s not different than a typical desktop calculator and is exactly the same as Apple’s dashboard widget Calculator.

If you want something more advanced out of a calculator, you won’t find it here, but Texas Instruments could serve you well.

Music

Finally, we’ve arrived to the meat-component of any iPod. It’s main purpose, to play music, is both surprisingly and unsurprisingly pleasant.

What I find surprising about the iPod Touch is the omission of a constant gripe that I’ve had with the previous generation iPods. Essentially, previous iPods featured terrible sound quality, but the iPod Touch features surprisingly great sound quality. Bass is no longer distorted but feels full and satisfying. If you’re a bass addict, the iPod Touch should not disappoint.

The iPod Touch features the typical iPod preset EQ settings such as “Bass Boost” or “Small Speakers”. While some will find the preset EQs limiting, many should find them satisfying enough.

As for browsing your music, all the basic features you’d expect in an iPod are there. You can browse by artist, songs, albums, audiobooks, compilations, composers, genres, or podcasts. The on-the-go playlist feature is still there and just as useful as ever.

Videos

Just like with the previous generation iPod Video, you can sync iPod compatible videos to the iTouch, a nickname of the iPod Touch. Video will play those videos, and, like I stated before, you can zoom into any video on the iTouch. It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: Video looks wonderful on the iTouch’s relatively large, hi-res screen.

Video is a very basic app, which does exactly what it’s meant to do: Allow you to browse your videos and play them. It’d be nice to see more codec support such as Divx/Xvid, but, knowing Apple, this won’t happen.

As a result, I would recommend iSquint for those of you that don’t like to buy your video via iTunes. iSquint is a Mac application that converts pretty much any video format into an iPod compatible format, and, if you check the “optimize for TV” box, the video is also playable on the PS3.

Photos

Another unsurprising app, photos allows you to browse and view your various photos. You really can’t ask more from Photos unless you’d like photo editing on the go, but that’s a quite a task for a mobile device.

The Wi-Fi iTunes Store

The Wi-Fi iTunes store provides for a pleasant on the go music buying experience. Everything you buy on the iTouch should sync back to the home computer.

You can browse by new releases, “What’s Hot”, genres, or “Top Tens”. You can also perform a basic search for music. Downloading tracks isn’t super fast but it also isn’t slow.

If you like to buy your music strapped with DRM in AAC format it’s great, but, personally, I like to have freedom when it comes to my music. Don’t buy your music through iTunes if you want to keep your music past the life of 5 computers. Also, if you ever want to play your music on a non-iPod or an application other than iTunes, anything you buy through iTunes will be incompatible.

As a result, I recommend the Amazon MP3 Download Store or eMusic, which don’t allow you to download tracks on the go but provide DRM-free MP3 tracks. You can read my review on the Amazon’s MP3 download store here.

Web Apps

Web apps are very basic “iPhonified” web sites that serve a purpose normally suited for a native, installable application. Web apps are very limited but can be useful if you have access to a decent Wi-Fi connection.

To discover various web apps, simply point your browser to AppSafari.

Web apps do not do a great job of replacing installable, native applications, but they’re better than nothing. While web apps increase the functionality of the iPod Touch, they don’t really allow the device to reach its full potential. That’s where hacks come in handy.

Hacks

When the iPod Touch was first released, it was very unhackable. Thankfully, hackers around the world collaborated to penetrate the device past its chastity belt.

As a result, the iPod Touch can do almost anything. Everything from serving as a proxy server to instant messaging is possible on the iTouch despite Apple’s attempts to purposely hinder its “masterpiece”.

Now, you and I can play Super Mario bros, read ebooks, play minesweeper, respond to emails, and search for driving directions via the iPhone’s Maps.app on the go. You can also customize the layout of the iTouch and its various icons.

What makes all of this better is that most of these hacks and 3rd party native apps are free. To learn more about hacking your iPod Touch on Windows, click here, and, for Mac, go here.

The overall iPod Touch experience

Battery life is acceptable, and, while I don’t have scientific numbers on hand, I frequently use my iTouch all day and only charge it at night. As an on the go college student, blogger, and writer, I don’t find the battery life lacking.

Personally, I prefer a physical keyboard, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice for the iPod Touch as it’s a beautiful, slim device. The on-screen keyboard takes a some getting used to, and it’s not something I particularly looked forward to. It takes a few days, but, once you get the hang of it, it works and that’s all you can ask of it.

An interesting and very useful feature that Apple also implements on the iPhone is the locked screen. If you turn off the screen, wake the iPod up from sleep mode, or wait a minute or two, the screen will lock up requiring you to slide your finger across the bottom to unlock it. This keeps the iPod Touch from going crazy in your pocket and is only a minor detail, but it’s those minor details that give the iPod Touch its special, well, touch (pun intended).

Just like with any other iPod, iTunes syncs and automatically updates the media on your iPod to the media registered in your iTunes’ library. This is expected from any Apple media player but is worth mentioning as no other media player can sync so easily and effortlessly as an Apple media player.

Overall, the iPod Touch experience is unlike anything… ever (unless you consider the iPhone). It’s not a PDA but can serve as such, and it’s not a dedicated Internet tablet but can also serve as one. It’s much more than an iPod and is much closer to a basic ultra-mobile PC.

I don’t have a ratings system for reviewed gadgets as everyone needs/wants something different, so I can’t really give this a thumbs-up or a “high score”. I would, if I that’s how things worked around here, but they don’t.

Essentially, if you want a portable media player that can also function as a very basic UMPC and 16GB of memory is enough, this is the product for you. Yes, it’s pricey, and so is everything else that’s great, but, if you hack it, the value of the iTouch soars.

Now, if you want a phone mixed into this device, get an iPhone (obviously), but, currently, the iPhone only features 8GB of memory.

If 16GB is not enough for you, I would recommend getting yourself (also?) a dedicated media player. You can look to the iPod Classic with a maximum memory of 160GB or the Zune with a maximum memory of 80GB. Whether or not the those dedicated media players are for you is, well, up to you, but, if, you’re looking for a high capacity music player, you won’t find it in the iTouch or the iPhone. So choose wisely, but chances are you won’t go wrong with the iPod Touch.

Related Posts:

• iPod Touch 1.1.2 update enables calendar events, iTunes battery status
• Will Apple update the iPod nano and iPod touch soon?
• Apple furtively withholds iCal entries from iPod Touch
• iPod buying guide: which iPod fits me best?
• iPod Touch / iPhone 1.1.1 jailbreak released