Apple's iPod Touch - Updated and Enlarged! Test Drive it Today!!!!

Apple iPod touch 32 GB



Apple's 32 GB iPod Touch has finally given the mobile device market a media player with a great combination of quality features and capacity. Of course it arrived shortly after I was given the 16 GB iPod Touch that I had put off buying for so long. Still the extra capacity gives this unit the last piece of the puzzle it needed to be a must-have item for me. The awesome video sleek thin body and web capability make it stand out despite a high price and some missing features.



Pros

+ Great design with a sleek thin body!!!

+ Beautiful 320x480 pixel wide-screen provides pleasing video viewing

+ Turn to the side to view video using the full wide screen width

+ Orientation detection changes view to landscape mode automatically when turning iPod!

+ Enough capacity to finally be worth replacing some of your disk-based players in earnest

+ Brighter screen with great contrast and crisp sharp images

+ Wireless access via 802.11 b/g compliant antenna (hopefully `n' will come soon)

+ Wireless searching and video on mode can be disabled to extend battery life

+ Great interface for Safari web browsing with easy Wifi hotspot setup

+ Headphone jack compatible with standard phones unlike iPhone

+ New apps work great and give you stocks maps email notes and weather

+ Supports both NTSC and PAL video out

+ Very nice size of 32GB stores good amount of video

+ Works with some legacy iPod accessories (except standard A/V cable and some docks)

+ Diminishing price tag in terms of $ per GB of space

+ Unlike iPod classic all flash memory means less failures and breakage

+ Flash memory also awesome for running / working out though I use my nano for that ;-)

+ Coverflow actually works nicely on the Touch much better than on the iPod nano

+ Slightly better sound quality than 2nd generation iPods

+ So far seems to have lower error rate than other iPods

+ Apple reputation is highly deserved

+ Plenty of free video and audio teaser content available on iTunes

+ Easy access to iTunes right from your device over your local wireless internet!

+ Apple SDK being made available which means more apps are on the way!



Cons

- Touch design is almost too minimal without hold button or easy volume adjustment

- Very difficult to adjust or use without looking at it; some earbuds include controls that help

- Screen requires "real touch" bad for those of us in cold weather cities

- Data port seems more cramped than other models and difficult to seat on many dock ports

- The headphone jack is strangely placed right next to the data port; ok for landscape mode awkward in portrait mode

- Not backwards compatible with legacy docks and cables; Universal dock now required for video out

- Battery life still shorter than other iPods due to WiFi and video power needs

- No expandability or SD card slot like Sansa View or Creative Zen

- iTunes software with limited native formats (MP3 MPEG4 AAC) and high overhead

- Some poor interface designs such as volume control only available when upright

- PDA functions such as calendar syncing and contact management still need work

- Playlist and music groupings are lacking and need many improvements

- Still lacking some features such as built-in FM radio & voice recorder

- Missing Zune features such as the ability to share songs with other iPod Touch units

- No Bluetooth for peripherals and accessories

- No wireless synching or wireless access to iTunes WLAN libraries

- No WiFi viewing of live iTunes PodCasts

- Still no local viewing of PDF or other common document formats

- No mode to use as disk storage?!?!

- Roughly 2GB of space taken up with iPod software alone!!!!

- STRANGE Apple business practices - ie charging for software features included with the iPhone????

- While the cost is slowly coming down still quite expensive in total $ terms



Looks and Design



Aesthetics and design have always been Apple's greatest strengths along with Steve Jobs' marketing savvy. The iPod Touch is solid but light. It has a longer body than either the latest iPod nano Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Black (3rd Generation) or the iPod Classic Apple 80 GB iPod classic (Black). Yet it's slightly shorter than the iPhone. It's nice and thin though not as thin as the new Nano.



The big 320x480 pixel wide-screen is simply gorgeous and the instant landscape mode combined with high quality video resolution makes this the first truly beautiful mobile video player. The old Creative Vision W Creative Zen Vision W 60 GB Widescreen Multimedia Player (Black) had a lovely display but was MUCH thicker. The Touch blows everything else away in terms of looks and design.



The metal back common to most iPods still attracts fingerprints but you will be too busy staring at the screen to notice them. The screen too attracts smudges. I've heard it's almost impossible to scratch it but I still bought screen and body protectors before I ever touched it.



Apple did away with the hold button and the click-wheel. While I really love the touch interface it's impossible to change tracks or volume without looking at the player an awkward trait. Get a nice pair of headphones with integrated controls and you won't notice the omission as much.



Sound and Video



Sound quality is slightly improved from previous models. The included headphones are the same as other models. I actually think the included phones are fine in terms of sound but not so much in terms of comfort. Upgrade your phones only after doing a lot of research. For the Touch having phones with volume control and additional buttons is a huge plus.



This guy really showcases video but the sound is still very good and improving with the last few models. I expect this trend to continue.



Most video encoding is done at very high bitrates which has the added benefit of better sound. Use the highest quality bit-rate you can stand if sound quality is your primary desire. As for me I have been through frequent hardware upgrades to add more disk space and finally try to collect all my music and videos in one place.



Features



The features in the iPod Touch were in development for 3-4 years. I was one of those who read the rumor mills daily waiting for all those features to come out in one bang. Well they didn't.



The first Touch seemed to artificially remove some features already available in the iPhone which was very disappointing. Now with the software update at least a few of those things have been added back in. It really sucks that they charged 16GB early adopters for those features but luckily they are included with the 32GB iPod Touch.



The main improvement is of course the increased capacity. That feature alone was long overdue and far outweighs most of the cons the player still has. Even though you can't load a lot of video at once you can finally load enough to satisfy even demanding users. This is a huge plus over the 16GB model which is available with or without updates. Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates



The device's battery life is still shorter than one would want but longer than the iPhone and more than adequate for an average day's usage. Users will notice their battery indicator going down but probably won't get cut off before they get home.



Apple's software is still a weakness with very limited direct control over your device library and few file options. No external disk function no native WMA support? With key features disabled such as use as an external hard drive it makes you wonder. Hopefully some of these features will be added back into this device with time.



Coverflow works MUCH better than on the iPod nano and actually helps when scrolling through your videos. Press your selection and the cover flips over to show you which tracks are available.



It's still buggy and there are some UI features that are lacking. Elapsed time and track length aren't shown for podcasts and volume adjustment only shows up in portrait mode for some reason. Still hopefully some of these more intricate details will be added in a FREE patch as opposed to a fee update.



The Safari web browser is THE killer feature of the Touch. Most of the other widgets including the new ones are stuff that you can get through the internet. The widgets added back to the Touch which are available on the iPhone just make some of those common functions quicker. Quick stock quotes instant weather. Not bad.



The video out signal options are a nice addition and can be set to either NTSC or PAL. This is great for those who travel or have some foreign hardware like me. ;-)



Finger-based scrolling is very intuitive and you will be navigating with ease in no time. I'm less happy with the virtual keyboard and I can't wait for an alternative to appear. I have to use it very seldom so I can live with it.



The 802.11b/g built-in WiFi antenna connects to most hotspots though I hope wireless n will be included in the next version. The antenna works well though with a seemingly limited range. You can turn off wireless scanning to save battery life.



It would have been awesome to have Bluetooth for wireless headphones or other accessories. Some of those Zune-like features would also help such as wireless syncing music sharing or access to WiFi playlist libraries or live podcasts. Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation) Even basic staples like a built-in FM radio tuner voice recorder and an expansion slot are also missing.



Both the Creative Zen Creative Zen 16 GB (Black) which is much thicker and the Sansa View SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black) which is taller have some of those added components built in. Newer Archos players has many of those players plus much greater format support Archos 705 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (160 GB). Yet none of those players have the level of wireless internet capability that sets this unit apart. Even fans of competing players will agree that the iPod Touch more than makes up for missing features by utilizing the features it does have VERY VERY WELL.



Conclusion



Overall this device is an HUGE improvement. Apple's sleek design impresses once more. With time hopefully the kinks and omissions will be worked out. Despite everything it's very difficult not to give this player 5 stars. The good far outweighs the bad.



Enjoy!!!!

More detail ...

Almost perfect needs some minor improvements

I'd like to make one thing clear from the beginning: this device is the best portable media player I've held to date (I received mine on Sept 25th). *This* is how it should be done. That doesn't mean that it can't be improved (this review shows a number of misses) but in the iPod Touch so many good things come together the right way it's embarassing how clumsy suddenly all the other devices seem (other iPods included). I have extensive experience with a myriad of other players (I own(ed) *lots* of those: Nomad iRiver Zen Rio iPods Zune) and now that I'm holding it it's blindingly obvious how much better the new interface works. I am really happy with this iPod. Still there are some annoyances idiosyncracies and downright silly limitations in this device.



So let's begin:

First - unless you've recently held a new 'Nano' you won't belive how thin the Touch is. The glass surface feels different from my iPod Classic (yeah I'm a *serious* MP3 player addict and have that one too). I can't really put my finger on it (it's hard to resist puns like that) but it feels somewhat softer when tapping it with your finger nail. Surprisingly (for me at least) the Touch does not respond to finger nails - you need to touch the surface with your finger's skin. This can initially be confusing when you are used to pressure-sensitive touch-screens and can become difficult when using the virtual keyboard. The touch-sensitive font plate has (so far) proven to be scratch-resistant (i've been carrying it around in my pocket for the past three days).

In my hand it feels surprisingly hefty (sonsidering it's sleekness) and it is noticeably longer than the Classic. Like most other iPods the Touch has a polished backside that magically attract fingerprints. This backplate also holds the customized engraving that Apple applied free of charge to my iPod.



The headphone connector is on the bottom and accepts any normal headphone jack (unlike the iPhone). The position of the connector would have been annyoing if you wanted to use it upright in a gym (natch iPod nano!). But movies are viewed in landscape orientation and the iPod's interface automatically detects it's orientation. Now that's design for you. The earbuds are the same that come with other new iPods (classic). They are ok but unlikely to be your first choice. I use the those earbuds for running (with my shuffle) but third-party (B&O) earphones with the classic and touch. I'm no audiophile so sound quality usually is good for me (this holds true for all my devices). But then according to some people I'm only listening to trash anyway. I therefore recommend that you look at other reviews if you are in search for a tone perfect device. I like it.

Controlling the iPod is a strange - great when you are looking at it annoying if you can't see it (i.e. if it's in your pocket). As with all touch-interfaces that have no tactile feedback there is no way to 'blindly' control it and sadly the Touch does not have a remote nor real buttons except 'sleep' and 'home'. The Touch desperately needs some hardware volume control.



Looking at the screen I have to say that I am amazed at the clarity of the image. 3.5 inches is still too small for me to comfortably watch a lengthy movie but the 320x480 pixel wide-screen display is stunningly crisp. I re-ripped some TV shows that I originally ripped for the Classic and watched them on the Touch. The problem is that files ripped for the Touch's resolution are roughly twice as large as for the Classic - but the Touch has only a fraction of the available storage. Thus I can't envision myself using the Touch for lengthy movie watching - but it is excellent for watching shorter clips (while I'm no youTube fan I do have a lot of short clips shot with my handheld camera). The Touch's sceen is very bright - I can't confirm initial reports of 'inverse black' or other artifacts. It appears to have a light sensor built-in that dims the screen when in darker surroundings and brightens the screen when in the sun. One small annoyance though: there is no way to control a movie's contrast. The docs claim that the Touch can play 5 hours of video on a single charge. I'm prepared to take this on face value - I'm certainly not going to stare into that small screen for so long just to verify this. It's long enough for one-and-half normal movies but won't last a transatlantic. Nor would my eyes though.



Coverflow is drop-dead beautiful and a real show-off. It requires that you add artwork for all your CD-ripped tunes though. Otherwise missing covers are replaced by generic grey ones. It's a great way to browse your music if you don't know what you want to hear next. It's a silly way to look for a particular album though. For this however you can still (luckily) use the normal artist/album/song browser with the (again drop-dead intuitive) new gesture-based interface. It works reall really well.

Like all iPods the Touch can play a large variety of file formats with the (expected) exceptions of WMA (protected and otherwise) and Ogg. I don't have to add that it plays AAC protected (iTunes). It can also display an impressive array of image and movie formats even though I have the suspiction that some of the listed formats are transcoded on-the-fly by iTunes during sync.

The Touch provides video out signals that can be set to either NTSC or PAL. For Europeans like me this is very important but may be of limited use for people living in the US. What *really* annoyed me was the fact that Apple chose to change the video out cabling and thus forced me to purchase new cables to connect the Touch to TV sets or beamers. On the up side the Touch does work with my (Audi) car integration without any changes.



iTunes integration is exemplary as expected (this is the part that break most other digital music players: integration with your media library). Synching the Touch with a computer works like with any other iPod: Plug it in iTunes starts and you select the stuff you want synched. A strange relict from the 5G iPods: I found out that unlike the newer iPods the Touch can't use playlist groups. Annoying (my best playlists are built from smaller lists).

While synching the Touch I encountered my first big disappointment: no wireless synching. I would have expected this ability or at least the ability to connect to a shared iTunes library on my home network (I have a wireless access point at home). Alas no. The iPod must be physically connected to synch and cannot wirelessly connect to a shared iTunes library. When you synch you can choose to synch music movies photos contacts web bookmarks and calendars. Sadly you can't sync notes (why the heck not?). Synching is done with USB 2.0 (sadly not FireWire) using the Apple-provided USB Dock Connector (no standard USB connector).



When looking for the 'enable disk use' checkbox I was baffled to find out that the Touch can't be used as a mass storage - unlike any other iPod I own and with the exception of Zune unlike any other digital music player I own. Why? (I suspect this is to lock down the device to prohibit tinkering with it. It feels like an arbitrary spiteful limitation though).

The interface is largely similar to the iPhone. It's not as ghastly colorful as the new (G6) iPod interface but still uses a little too much colors for my taste (I *really* liked the G5 color interface). The gesture/finger-based interface is easy to learn and is even more intuitive than using a mouse (it took about one 'pinch' and one 'flick' to convince me). As I mentioned above the drawback is that there is no tactile feedback so you must always look at the screen while changing a setting (e.g. volume skip rewind). The virtual keyboard is OK to use and I'm happy to see that it automatically changed to Switzerland's 'QWERTZ' layout. So far fingerprints on the surface have been a non-issue for me (they do look ugly on the back side though). The keyboard has an optional 'clicker' that provides (very welcome) aural feedback when you press a key (as the other iPods the Touch has a small clicker built in that can produce simple sounds).

As iPods before it there are some additional applications provided updated for the touch interface: Calendar Calculator (this one is new) Contacts Settings and Clock. Calendar holds one the most unfortunate narrow-sighted and arbitrary product decisions Apple has made in a long time: you can't add new Events. The reason this is unacceptable to me is because the exact same application on the iPhone *has* this ability and it was taken out as a concious decision; it was not an oversight. Clearly this is an attempt at artificially differenciate the Touch from the iPhone. Shame on Apple - I really hope that subsequent updates will rectify this.

Another disappointment is that there is no Notes application as this would have been a natural for the gestured-based interface and virtual keyboard. Again this application exists for the iPhone but was removed. Sad sad sad. In the same vein it would have been great if I could load PDF documents for off-line viewing onto the touch -- Safari comes with an *excellent* PDF viewer (presumably the Touch's version of Preview). I'm using this feature through a work-around: convert a document to PDF publish it on my home Mac's web server and then load it in the Touch's Safari (e.g. 'http://mintel.local/myDoc.pdf'). That way I can read this document offline (did so this morning while being driven to a meeting) - but only this one PDF document can be in-memory. I tried to open a second browser window and the first document was not retained in the cache forcing a re-load. So a document viewer (and PDF management from iTunes?) would be a great addition.

Also the games that I had to re-purchase for my Classic (yes re-purchased because the Classic can't use games for the 5.5G iPod) will *NOT* run on the Touch. Arrrgh! It looks as if I'll have to re-re-purchase those games again (I'm addicted to Bejeweled and Sudoku).



Up until here the Touch has been a natural evolution of the iPod -- the first and long-awaited 'true video iPod'. But the Touch offers one more thing that I feel makes it a killer product: productive WiFi integration. I'm not talking about some half-baked song sharing feature (although that would have been welcome too) but actual useful net access.



WiFi

The Touch has 802.11b/g (but not 'n') WiFi built-in that can connect to the internet through normal hotspots. Since you can expect the iPod to be in many different locations hooking it up to hotspots is an important feature that must be easy to use. The Touch can (and will) remember hotspots it has connected to and asks when it connects to a new hotspot very much like your Laptop does. Connecting to open Hotspots is a snap: scan surroundings pick from list (enter password when protected) connect. You can turn it off for airplane travel or to conserve battery life.

You connect to protected hotspots (using the virtual keyboard for password entry). Also you can use Safari for those annoying web-page-to-enter-billing-info based hotspots that hotels seem to like (and every one else hates). Connecting to a closed and secure WLAN is a bit more complex. My WLAN is configured to require any device to be known by MAC address and looking up this info wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be (I found it in the Info tab). I then entered Network Name and Password and a few seconds later my Touch had access to my WLAN.

But what is so special about WiFi? To me having access to the Web is a killer feature. I'm not talking about music here - but access to Google (but not the Google Apps just yet) Wikipedia CNN Amazon and my web mail account. With just a little tap on the screen I can look at news check my mail track a package fire off a note to someone or answer a silly question that just entered my head. Anywhere anytime (when in range of a hotspot. In Switzerland that's practically everywhere). To repeat: this is a killer feature. It turns this digital media player into a nearly fully fledged PDA.

The Touch version of Safari is great (even though Google Docs does not yet support it and there currently is no support for Flash) and very responsive. Using the virtual keyboard takes some time to getting used to (again the missing tactile feedback is annoying). Navigating the web is quick (provided you have a good connection) and using the gestures to move the obscured parts of web pages into view becomes natural after only a few moments.

The touch also comes with a special version of iTunes the 'WiFi Music Store'. It allows you to instantly purchase a song (very very nice). Strangely once you sync songs purchased with the Touch will appear in their own 'Purchased on Touch' group (what on earth for?) in your main (iTunes) library. The WiFi store's selection does not provide access to PodCasts (lame!) nor any video content. And don't get me started on iPod games again... Still navigating the WiFi Store is natural and the design is intuitive. It's also very robust -- I purchased a 75 track (classic) compilation using the WiFi store. Of course some time during the transfer the connection dropped and I switched off the Touch. Later at home the Touch resumed download as soon as it re-connected to the net. The WiFi iTunes store is also where allegedly the 'Starbucks Thing' is happening. I'm (somewhat) sorry to say that I havn't tried out this feature beacuse a) I don't frequent Starbucks and b) even if I did Switzerland is not yet upgraded for this feature anyways.

So let's look at the remaining applications: I'm (again) seriously disappointed to see that Apple chose to cut Mail from the application list (the Touch would have been a great Blackberry replacement - and arguably might be too close a competitor to the iPhone if it had that feature) but at least I can use web mail as a work-around. Apple does include a dedicated youTube application which I have to admit I never used. I simply don't "get" youTube.



Summary:

The Touch is (currently) the best flash-based media player around with a stunning (even revolutionary) new gesture-based user interface that works. I would have welcomed a significantly larger main storage but it's very good as it is now. As a media player it's main drawback derives from the purely touch-based interface: it could have profited from a tactive rotary controller for 'blind' control. The feature that separates the Touch from the rest is the addition of another killer feature: WiFi web browsing. WiFi based music purchase is a nice bonus.

The Touch also comes with a number of (sometimes artificial) limitations that I hope will be resolved in the future. All in all I'm very very satisfied with the Touch even though the Touch experience can clearly be improved (e.g. by removing application restrictions being able to pull in shared iTunes Libraries sharing songs wirelessly syncing wirelessly etc.).



PLUS

- great "video" iPod

- WiFi web browsing with Safari (killer feature)

- wide range of supported file formats (audio video images)

- great display

- phenomenally sharp images

- drop-dead gesture/touch interface

- both NTSC and PAL video out (important for us Europeans).

- iTunes store wirelessly

- TV PAL and NTSC out



MINUS

- no playlist groups

- difficult to use 'blind'

- no contrast control for movies

- no disk mode (huh???)

- non-standard AV connector (again!)

- artificial limitations on Calendar application

- no Mail Notes Games applications

- can't access iTunes shared libraries on WLAN

- can't share songs with other Touch iPods

- no wireless synching

- 16GB can be awfully small when ripping movies for Touch's resolution

- no WiFi iTunes PodCasts



Things I'd like to see in updates

- Wireless Sync

- Access to iTunes shared Libraries

- Notes

- Off-line viewing of PDF documents

- Games

- Third-party software development kit (SDK)More detail ...

Almost perfect needs some minor improvements

I'd like to make one thing clear from the beginning: this device is the best portable media player I've held to date (I received mine on Sept 25th). *This* is how it should be done. That doesn't mean that it can't be improved (this review shows a number of misses) but in the iPod Touch so many good things come together the right way it's embarassing how clumsy suddenly all the other devices seem (other iPods included). I have extensive experience with a myriad of other players (I own(ed) *lots* of those: Nomad iRiver Zen Rio iPods Zune) and now that I'm holding it it's blindingly obvious how much better the new interface works. I am really happy with this iPod. Still there are some annoyances idiosyncracies and downright silly limitations in this device.



So let's begin:

First - unless you've recently held a new 'Nano' you won't belive how thin the Touch is. The glass surface feels different from my iPod Classic (yeah I'm a *serious* MP3 player addict and have that one too). I can't really put my finger on it (it's hard to resist puns like that) but it feels somewhat softer when tapping it with your finger nail. Surprisingly (for me at least) the Touch does not respond to finger nails - you need to touch the surface with your finger's skin. This can initially be confusing when you are used to pressure-sensitive touch-screens and can become difficult when using the virtual keyboard. The touch-sensitive font plate has (so far) proven to be scratch-resistant (i've been carrying it around in my pocket for the past three days).

In my hand it feels surprisingly hefty (sonsidering it's sleekness) and it is noticeably longer than the Classic. Like most other iPods the Touch has a polished backside that magically attract fingerprints. This backplate also holds the customized engraving that Apple applied free of charge to my iPod.



The headphone connector is on the bottom and accepts any normal headphone jack (unlike the iPhone). The position of the connector would have been annyoing if you wanted to use it upright in a gym (natch iPod nano!). But movies are viewed in landscape orientation and the iPod's interface automatically detects it's orientation. Now that's design for you. The earbuds are the same that come with other new iPods (classic). They are ok but unlikely to be your first choice. I use the those earbuds for running (with my shuffle) but third-party (B&O) earphones with the classic and touch. I'm no audiophile so sound quality usually is good for me (this holds true for all my devices). But then according to some people I'm only listening to trash anyway. I therefore recommend that you look at other reviews if you are in search for a tone perfect device. I like it.

Controlling the iPod is a strange - great when you are looking at it annoying if you can't see it (i.e. if it's in your pocket). As with all touch-interfaces that have no tactile feedback there is no way to 'blindly' control it and sadly the Touch does not have a remote nor real buttons except 'sleep' and 'home'. The Touch desperately needs some hardware volume control.



Looking at the screen I have to say that I am amazed at the clarity of the image. 3.5 inches is still too small for me to comfortably watch a lengthy movie but the 320x480 pixel wide-screen display is stunningly crisp. I re-ripped some TV shows that I originally ripped for the Classic and watched them on the Touch. The problem is that files ripped for the Touch's resolution are roughly twice as large as for the Classic - but the Touch has only a fraction of the available storage. Thus I can't envision myself using the Touch for lengthy movie watching - but it is excellent for watching shorter clips (while I'm no youTube fan I do have a lot of short clips shot with my handheld camera). The Touch's sceen is very bright - I can't confirm initial reports of 'inverse black' or other artifacts. It appears to have a light sensor built-in that dims the screen when in darker surroundings and brightens the screen when in the sun. One small annoyance though: there is no way to control a movie's contrast. The docs claim that the Touch can play 5 hours of video on a single charge. I'm prepared to take this on face value - I'm certainly not going to stare into that small screen for so long just to verify this. It's long enough for one-and-half normal movies but won't last a transatlantic. Nor would my eyes though.



Coverflow is drop-dead beautiful and a real show-off. It requires that you add artwork for all your CD-ripped tunes though. Otherwise missing covers are replaced by generic grey ones. It's a great way to browse your music if you don't know what you want to hear next. It's a silly way to look for a particular album though. For this however you can still (luckily) use the normal artist/album/song browser with the (again drop-dead intuitive) new gesture-based interface. It works reall really well.

Like all iPods the Touch can play a large variety of file formats with the (expected) exceptions of WMA (protected and otherwise) and Ogg. I don't have to add that it plays AAC protected (iTunes). It can also display an impressive array of image and movie formats even though I have the suspiction that some of the listed formats are transcoded on-the-fly by iTunes during sync.

The Touch provides video out signals that can be set to either NTSC or PAL. For Europeans like me this is very important but may be of limited use for people living in the US. What *really* annoyed me was the fact that Apple chose to change the video out cabling and thus forced me to purchase new cables to connect the Touch to TV sets or beamers. On the up side the Touch does work with my (Audi) car integration without any changes.



iTunes integration is exemplary as expected (this is the part that break most other digital music players: integration with your media library). Synching the Touch with a computer works like with any other iPod: Plug it in iTunes starts and you select the stuff you want synched. A strange relict from the 5G iPods: I found out that unlike the newer iPods the Touch can't use playlist groups. Annoying (my best playlists are built from smaller lists).

While synching the Touch I encountered my first big disappointment: no wireless synching. I would have expected this ability or at least the ability to connect to a shared iTunes library on my home network (I have a wireless access point at home). Alas no. The iPod must be physically connected to synch and cannot wirelessly connect to a shared iTunes library. When you synch you can choose to synch music movies photos contacts web bookmarks and calendars. Sadly you can't sync notes (why the heck not?). Synching is done with USB 2.0 (sadly not FireWire) using the Apple-provided USB Dock Connector (no standard USB connector).



When looking for the 'enable disk use' checkbox I was baffled to find out that the Touch can't be used as a mass storage - unlike any other iPod I own and with the exception of Zune unlike any other digital music player I own. Why? (I suspect this is to lock down the device to prohibit tinkering with it. It feels like an arbitrary spiteful limitation though).

The interface is largely similar to the iPhone. It's not as ghastly colorful as the new (G6) iPod interface but still uses a little too much colors for my taste (I *really* liked the G5 color interface). The gesture/finger-based interface is easy to learn and is even more intuitive than using a mouse (it took about one 'pinch' and one 'flick' to convince me). As I mentioned above the drawback is that there is no tactile feedback so you must always look at the screen while changing a setting (e.g. volume skip rewind). The virtual keyboard is OK to use and I'm happy to see that it automatically changed to Switzerland's 'QWERTZ' layout. So far fingerprints on the surface have been a non-issue for me (they do look ugly on the back side though). The keyboard has an optional 'clicker' that provides (very welcome) aural feedback when you press a key (as the other iPods the Touch has a small clicker built in that can produce simple sounds).

As iPods before it there are some additional applications provided updated for the touch interface: Calendar Calculator (this one is new) Contacts Settings and Clock. Calendar holds one the most unfortunate narrow-sighted and arbitrary product decisions Apple has made in a long time: you can't add new Events. The reason this is unacceptable to me is because the exact same application on the iPhone *has* this ability and it was taken out as a concious decision; it was not an oversight. Clearly this is an attempt at artificially differenciate the Touch from the iPhone. Shame on Apple - I really hope that subsequent updates will rectify this.

Another disappointment is that there is no Notes application as this would have been a natural for the gestured-based interface and virtual keyboard. Again this application exists for the iPhone but was removed. Sad sad sad. In the same vein it would have been great if I could load PDF documents for off-line viewing onto the touch -- Safari comes with an *excellent* PDF viewer (presumably the Touch's version of Preview). I'm using this feature through a work-around: convert a document to PDF publish it on my home Mac's web server and then load it in the Touch's Safari (e.g. 'http://mintel.local/myDoc.pdf'). That way I can read this document offline (did so this morning while being driven to a meeting) - but only this one PDF document can be in-memory. I tried to open a second browser window and the first document was not retained in the cache forcing a re-load. So a document viewer (and PDF management from iTunes?) would be a great addition.

Also the games that I had to re-purchase for my Classic (yes re-purchased because the Classic can't use games for the 5.5G iPod) will *NOT* run on the Touch. Arrrgh! It looks as if I'll have to re-re-purchase those games again (I'm addicted to Bejeweled and Sudoku).



Up until here the Touch has been a natural evolution of the iPod -- the first and long-awaited 'true video iPod'. But the Touch offers one more thing that I feel makes it a killer product: productive WiFi integration. I'm not talking about some half-baked song sharing feature (although that would have been welcome too) but actual useful net access.



WiFi

The Touch has 802.11b/g (but not 'n') WiFi built-in that can connect to the internet through normal hotspots. Since you can expect the iPod to be in many different locations hooking it up to hotspots is an important feature that must be easy to use. The Touch can (and will) remember hotspots it has connected to and asks when it connects to a new hotspot very much like your Laptop does. Connecting to open Hotspots is a snap: scan surroundings pick from list (enter password when protected) connect. You can turn it off for airplane travel or to conserve battery life.

You connect to protected hotspots (using the virtual keyboard for password entry). Also you can use Safari for those annoying web-page-to-enter-billing-info based hotspots that hotels seem to like (and every one else hates). Connecting to a closed and secure WLAN is a bit more complex. My WLAN is configured to require any device to be known by MAC address and looking up this info wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be (I found it in the Info tab). I then entered Network Name and Password and a few seconds later my Touch had access to my WLAN.

But what is so special about WiFi? To me having access to the Web is a killer feature. I'm not talking about music here - but access to Google (but not the Google Apps just yet) Wikipedia CNN Amazon and my web mail account. With just a little tap on the screen I can look at news check my mail track a package fire off a note to someone or answer a silly question that just entered my head. Anywhere anytime (when in range of a hotspot. In Switzerland that's practically everywhere). To repeat: this is a killer feature. It turns this digital media player into a nearly fully fledged PDA.

The Touch version of Safari is great (even though Google Docs does not yet support it and there currently is no support for Flash) and very responsive. Using the virtual keyboard takes some time to getting used to (again the missing tactile feedback is annoying). Navigating the web is quick (provided you have a good connection) and using the gestures to move the obscured parts of web pages into view becomes natural after only a few moments.

The touch also comes with a special version of iTunes the 'WiFi Music Store'. It allows you to instantly purchase a song (very very nice). Strangely once you sync songs purchased with the Touch will appear in their own 'Purchased on Touch' group (what on earth for?) in your main (iTunes) library. The WiFi store's selection does not provide access to PodCasts (lame!) nor any video content. And don't get me started on iPod games again... Still navigating the WiFi Store is natural and the design is intuitive. It's also very robust -- I purchased a 75 track (classic) compilation using the WiFi store. Of course some time during the transfer the connection dropped and I switched off the Touch. Later at home the Touch resumed download as soon as it re-connected to the net. The WiFi iTunes store is also where allegedly the 'Starbucks Thing' is happening. I'm (somewhat) sorry to say that I havn't tried out this feature beacuse a) I don't frequent Starbucks and b) even if I did Switzerland is not yet upgraded for this feature anyways.

So let's look at the remaining applications: I'm (again) seriously disappointed to see that Apple chose to cut Mail from the application list (the Touch would have been a great Blackberry replacement - and arguably might be too close a competitor to the iPhone if it had that feature) but at least I can use web mail as a work-around. Apple does include a dedicated youTube application which I have to admit I never used. I simply don't "get" youTube.



Summary:

The Touch is (currently) the best flash-based media player around with a stunning (even revolutionary) new gesture-based user interface that works. I would have welcomed a significantly larger main storage but it's very good as it is now. As a media player it's main drawback derives from the purely touch-based interface: it could have profited from a tactive rotary controller for 'blind' control. The feature that separates the Touch from the rest is the addition of another killer feature: WiFi web browsing. WiFi based music purchase is a nice bonus.

The Touch also comes with a number of (sometimes artificial) limitations that I hope will be resolved in the future. All in all I'm very very satisfied with the Touch even though the Touch experience can clearly be improved (e.g. by removing application restrictions being able to pull in shared iTunes Libraries sharing songs wirelessly syncing wirelessly etc.).



PLUS

- great "video" iPod

- WiFi web browsing with Safari (killer feature)

- wide range of supported file formats (audio video images)

- great display

- phenomenally sharp images

- drop-dead gesture/touch interface

- both NTSC and PAL video out (important for us Europeans).

- iTunes store wirelessly

- TV PAL and NTSC out



MINUS

- no playlist groups

- difficult to use 'blind'

- no contrast control for movies

- no disk mode (huh???)

- non-standard AV connector (again!)

- artificial limitations on Calendar application

- no Mail Notes Games applications

- can't access iTunes shared libraries on WLAN

- can't share songs with other Touch iPods

- no wireless synching

- 16GB can be awfully small when ripping movies for Touch's resolution

- no WiFi iTunes PodCasts



Things I'd like to see in updates

- Wireless Sync

- Access to iTunes shared Libraries

- Notes

- Off-line viewing of PDF documents

- Games

- Third-party software development kit (SDK)More detail ...

Ahhh finally enough space definitely a worthwhile upgrade from 8GB!

I bought this 16GB as an upgrade from my 8GB Touch and what a relief to finally have enough space for all my music and some videos into the bargain! I'm also very happy that this is available at what I consider to be a much more reasonable price for a 16GB Flash player (at $320 which is what I got mine for). So here's the things I love about the 16GB Touch:



1) Big beautiful screen

2) Touch screen interface

3) Wifi connectivity with Safari iTunes and YouTube built right into the main screen. Its awesome I love to watch a few YouTube clips during my lunch break at the spot with the free Wifi.

4) Changeable background finally!

5) Sleek form factor slides nicely into my pocket.

6) Don't have to use it as a cell phone (ok I'm a little biased against the iPhone I admit it so its ok).

7) Flips back and forth from landscape to portrait modes depending on how you hold it or what you are viewing.

8) Power/Sleep button thank you Apple for finally deigning to put a power-ish button on an iPod! Its nice being able to turn off the display at will with a dedicated button.

9) Automatic brightness adjustment absolute genius!

10) Seems to remember where you left off on every video on the unit awesome feature I love it!

11) iTunes: for any iPod you have to count the flawless relationship with iTunes as a big plus you just can't beat it for reliability ease of use and great features (and believe me I've tried!) And the automatic firmware updates are a big plus. I also like the way you can download calendar and email information through iTunes.

12) Great Now Playing music page the album art fills the whole screen and by tapping the middle you get immediate access to repeat and shuffle buttons. Now you can now easily shuffle just a playlist a feature that has been hard to find on previous iPods.

13) Like any other iPod accessories abound and are easily purchased just about anywhere!

14) Apple customer service is good imo they stand behind their product and will replace without much hassle as I know from experience.

15) The great new stuff Notes Mapping stocks you can customize the home page email etc.

16) Quick access to play/volume buttons even when its locked (by double-clicking on the home button)... so I can save on the battery and still have quick access while listening to music.



But of course nothing is perfect. I give this a 5 stars because it is such a great innovation for Apple and a great product but that doesn't mean that its without flaws and here's the ones I've noticed so far:



1) Touch screen can be a bit frustrating often doesn't feel me and often I miss the button I'm aiming for with my fat fingers (they feel fat when trying to hit keyboard buttons on that screen anyway!). I understand that this is a "Capacitance" screen which means you can't use a stylus or your fingernail you have to register firm contact with your flesh on the screen. I have also had occasional problems with the touch screen (or parts of it) locking up. However a reset (hold sleep and home buttons down at the same time for at least 10 seconds!) of the unit seems to fix the problem every time.

2) Screen flipping: although this is a cool concept it can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally the screen flips as I'm moving around and I didn't want it to. So I sit there twisting the thing to and fro trying to get the alignment I want. Wouldn't it be nice if you could lock it into the perspective you want and it would just stay there (is anybody at Apple listening?)

3) Hard to operate "blind" as I walk around I like to be able to pause/play or adjust volume without having to look at the screen. Very easy to do on my Classic iPod almost impossible on the Touch. I have to pull it out of my pocket almost every time I want to pause or adjust the volume. I miss having dedicated play and volume buttons I think it was a mistake to get rid of them... one thing I like about the Archos and Classic!

4) Sound quality is not quite as good as my iPod Classic or my Archos 605 I've tried it on speakers and headphones and the Video has just a little bit cleaner smoother sound especially at high volume.

5) No built in USB port!

6) Customization options for sound EQ and User Interface themes are still pretty limited when compared to a player like the iRiver Clix2.



Overall its an awesome innovative trendsetting and fun product and if you really like having the coolest mp3 playing toys (like me!) and money is not a major concern I say what are you waiting for?

More detail ...

Beyond All Expectations!

First off I ordered this on a Monday and it came on Wednesday....using free shipping. Wow! Thanks amazon.



Now onto the product....simple sleek amazing. Set up out of the box could not have been easier. Make sure you have the most updated version of itunes onyour computer plug in the USB cord and you're up and running. Give it a full 3-4 hour charge first time through. Load up your music pictures videos. The software is simplicty defined. If you can use a toaster over you can use this device. The wi-fi immediatley found my home network (and my neighbor's). Setting up email: simple. Surfing the web: simple. And oh yeah using it to listen to music (ostensibly what it is for): a lifting and beautiful experience.



Might as well buy this newer version with the new software loaded. With amazon's discount it only a few dollars more than the old version without the upgrade after you pay for it and upload it youself. Save yourself the hassle and get the new version.



So you know this thing will get fingerprinted fast. I got a Griffin leather hard shell case with a protective screen cover for about $20.00. A bit pricey but worth it to protect your investment.



I went with the 8 gig verion for a few reasons and it's more than enough space. I am a music nut...I loaded it with more music that I can digest in two weeks and there's still 3 gigs free. Sure I'll eventually fill it (I guess...) but I really don't mind swapping music out for fresh music thereby making my ipod new and fresh again. I also thought if I somehow lose the thing I'd be out a lot more money with the 16 or 32 gig version. But honestly it's more than enough space for me.



The one caveat I discovered the hard way: shut off the wi-fi connection when you're not using it. I charged it up thought I turned it off and then went to bed. In the morning the battery was fully drained. Instead of turning off I only put the unit to sleep. (To turn off you need to press and hold the sleep button until the power off slider comes on-screen and you turn it off fully.) And while it was in sleep mode with the wi-fi still on it kept checking my email etc thus draining the battery. Just turn off wi-fi when you're not using it and you're battery will keep running.



Concluding I love this thing and don't know how I got by without it.

More detail ...

Almost "Untouchable"

One year ago I purchased the 16GB original iPod Touch. At that time I found that even though it had some flaws the over-all package made it one of the best iPods available. Now one year later Apple has released the next generation Touch. I've now had it for a few days and here's what I found: the second gen iPod Touch is a marked improvement over the the first gen and comes even closer to perfection. Keeping this in mind this review will show one big and a number of smaller shortcomings. It may also be difficult to justify upgrading from the 1st to 2nd gen unless you simply must have one of the few hardware improvements and can live with the fact that you may have to re-purchase some of your accessories.



Size and Dimensions

The iPod Touch now sports a more rounded design on the back making it look slightly thinner and more like the iPhone than the original did (it is not really thinner than it's predecessor just looks that way). Unfortunately the back plate is still made from stainless steel and this plate attacts fingerprints and scratches almost magically. After one year of near-constant use the backplate of my first gen Touch looks a bit like a wild etch-a-sketch (I carry the Touch in my pocket). Interestingly the glass on the front appears (after one year of heavy use) to be absolutely scratch-resistant. It's the backside (that also carries the custom engraving) that quickly becomes blemished. I would have preferred a brushed metal/aluminium backplate. I had to look it up but the new Touch is slightly lighter (a few grams) - but it looks thinner (thanks to the tapered edge design). The rounded edges make it fit my palm slightly better making it feel just right (to be honest the original Touch was already very very good in this respect). Other than that the outside dimensions exactly match that of the original Touch. The most visible change from the front is that the steel from the backplate now frames the glass much like it did on the original iPhone.



Touch Screen and Controls

The screen is simply gorgeous. It's bright crisp has great contrast and can adapt it's brightness to the ambient light. In direct sunlight much like it's predecessor it becomes difficult to read correctly. In shade it's perfectly readable -- a feat considering how bright a display has to be to achieve that. Color temperature of the display has shifted slightly downwards (or to sound less pompuous: the display's colors have shifted slightly from a blueish to a golden tinge something you wouldn't notice unless you have the two devices side by side).



The touch screen is very responsive and as I stated before absolutely scratch-resistant. Surviving a full year in my pocket along with metallic objects such as my keys is a testament to it's durability (looking at the stainles steel backside is a constant reminder just how badly it could have been scratched). As with the original Touch the same problems occur when you try to control the device 'blind' (i.e. while it is in your pocket): without looking at it you simply can't. Fortunately Apple has addressed the most important drawback with this design: a hardware volume control. The screen's resolution remains at 480x320 which is very good (certainly better than my iPod Classic's). Interestingly I've found out that ripping videos to this resolution does not necessarily yield noticeably better results than for the iPod classic's (320x240) screen so I now rip to that resolution conserving some memory.



iPod / iTunes

After one year of owning the original Touch I have to remind myself that this device originally is an iPod -- or rather a digital music player. As it turns out although I also use it for music playing this function has more and more been relegated to a background task -- a task nontheless that it handles really well. The coverflow browsing and display functionality has evolved nicely from the original (1.0 and 2.0) versions and are still the best in the market. The interface improvements support nice touches such as displaying a song's lyrics on single tap bringing up the volume/cue controls on double-tap of the home button an alphabetic slide rule when browsing titles etc. Still missing is a search function though. And especially in light of the gorgeous display capabilities and the recent addition of a new visualitzer (in additional to the existing ones in iTunes) I would have loved to see a visualizer on the Touch as well. The biggest (and in my oppinion delibarate (as in spiteful)) omission is this: you still can't enable 'hard drive mode' i.e. use the Touch as a mass storage device. The biggest boon is improved battery life.



Video is crisp (still no contrast control though) and audio playback is just as you expect (again: I'm no audiophile. I'm absolutely happy with most player's audio capabilities). Again I'm not using the Apple-provided white and quite sub-par headphones. I'm using separately purchased ones. New for the second gen is a built-in speaker. Audio quality here is not actually terrible but close. The sound is tinny weak and just somehow comes out of the iPod (mono of course). I believe that the addition of the speaker has a specific reason different from HiFi: it makes playing games on the Touch without headphones so much more enjoyable. But for listening to music I would prefer headphones or active speakers. To be honest I prefer not listening to music from that speaker.



iTunes integration is top-notch as before. Some sort of bug-fix now has made data backup much faster and both iTunes and the Touch now sport a new kind of smart playlist that is called 'Genius'. Initially I wasn't impressed by this feature. Although iTunes 8 has had this feature I regarded it primarily as a well executed new way to sell song and hence didn't use it. On my iPod however (which only carries a subset of my library due to memory contraints) this feature literally rocks. On my first day alone it had me re-discover five songs I never knew I had (much less liked).



On the downside the Touch still does not support playlist groups which is a constant annoyance to me. I'm also disappointed to see that the Touch still can't synch wirelessly nor can it be used to access shared playlists (other than downloading them of course). An application in the App store offers this functionality albeit only for non-DRM'd titles proving the point that this is possible.



Images (from iPhoto) can also be synched to the Touch and nothing is more fun than showing off your iPod's capabilities using a nice picture and 'pinch' and 'swipe'. Interestingly (or rather: unfortunately) iTunes appears to down-sample large images to a smaller resolution probably to conserve memory. This may make sense but I would like to be able to have more control over this feature (i.e. decide myself what the image's resolution on the iPod should be).



Accessories - the Big Bad Ugly

Unfortunately Apple has changed the pin-out (*again*) for the iPod connector. As a result some 'made for iPod' accessories either don't work or don't work fully any more. For example my Altec Lansing active speakers can't charge the Touch any more (it was able to charge the 1st gen Touch). This is truly truly annoying as you don't know if your iPod works with your 'made for iPod' devices any longer and makes purchasing new accessories a game of chance. My car has a (hideously expensive) iPod integration that luckily still works (including re-charging). Still the iPod connector compatibility (or lack thereof) is becoming a big mess. Just imagine you want to buy an accessory for your kid or friend and too late find out that it does not work with it.



WiFi / Internet

A year ago I purchased an iPod and got a fully integrated web accesory kit. As it turned out the addition of WiFi and full internet access is a killer feature to me. The web browser (a mobile version of Safari) is very capable. Much has been said about the fact that Mobile Safari does not support Flash. This is annoying if you visit sites that use it. The pinch/slide gesture-based interface works so well that I regularely use the Touch for normal web surfing. The general experience has increased over the past few month no doubt in no small amounts due to the fact that many sites have beed re-designed with the iPhone in mind. Since the Touch's browser is exactly the same it inherits the benefit. WiFi speed is good (although it still uses the 802.11b/g not the n variant) - and mostly depends on the hotspot you are connected to. It remembers the hotspots it has connected to (much like a laptop would) and can also connect using WPA. There are other Web enabled applications that come with the iPod (Maps which can pinpoint your location by the position of hotspots close to you) Stocks YouTube and Weather which are nice but remarkable. WiFi reception range is average but definitely below that of some PC laptops.



Then the Touch also comes with Mail Calendar and Adressboock and these do become killer fieatures especially when coupled with an Exchange server or (as Apple would prefer) MobileMe. Mail supports 'push' technology meaning that (almost) as soon an there is an incoming mail (and your Touch is connected to a hotspot) you are notified by a little discreep 'bleep'. Reading emails including mails with rich content works very well. Composing any but the shortes emails on the other hand is bothersome verging on annoying due to the small virtual keyboard). Still simply being able to do this makes all the difference. Live Calender updates have saved my bacon a few times already as you do not have to remember to actively synch your iPod after you have made a change to the calender.





Integration with Exchange (at the point of writing) remains a tad spotty with no messages appearing for s few hours and then suddenly many appearing at once (I initially suspected a configuration issue on the Exchange Server but this appears not to be the case). Depending upon how you configure MobileMe on your Mac the results are similar to what you can expect from Exchange (with the difference of course that Apple is running the servers for you). Unfortunately MobileMe currently does not synch your Notes.



Nicely executed is the integrated iTunes store. While possibly just another mechanism to generate sales I simply love the fact that if I hear or remember a song I can almost always instantly purchase it and have it on my touch within seconds. Songs purchased on the Touch synchronize back to your main library in iTunes (into a rather silly 'Purchased on Touch' playlist). If a download has to discontinue because the network connection was lost (or for any other reasons) it will continue as soon as the connection to the Internet is restored.



Interestingly the touch sports (I'm a sucker for lame puns) the required hardware to connect to the 'Nike + iPod' sports accessories built-in (i.e. you do not have to connect the dongle). I say interestingly because these devices utilize the bluetooth frequency band yet the Touch does not support bluetooth devices (headphones mikes car integration and printers come to mind). Since I use a shuffle for work-out this is not a must-have feature for me.



Applications/App Store

If Mail Calendar and Browser are killer apps Apple has added another killer feature to the Touch (and iPhone) that expands the device's usability (and customizability) by orders of magnitude: the App store. In appearance similar to the iTunes Store here you can choose from literally hundrets of applictions (of greatly varying quality though) purchase and install them instantly. Prices run from free to roughly 10 USD (there are some more expensive titles but the majority are priced at a couple of USD). The apps are presented in three different ways ('featured' 'top' browse by category) plus you have the ability to search for keywords.



Although the 'signal to noise' ratio isn't that great (there are quite a lot of useless or awfully executed applications) there are some jaw-droppingly good apps that truly enhance your Touch. Among the first to mention is Apple's own (free) 'Remote' app which allows you to remote-control iTunes on your Mac or Apple TV - with real-time full visual feedback and full search capability (allegedly it is also a real boon for Apple TV users as it provides a virtual keyboard as input means. Not having Apple TV I can't comment on this). Then there is an application that allows you to stream all your music (well the unprotecte at least) to your Touch - over the Internet to wherever you are (interestingly this App was not produced by Apple).



Greatly enhancing the Touch's usability are eBook readers (the Touch is almost perfect for rading books giving you that 'Star Trek' info pad feeling) as well as off-line news readers. Another important category are applications that enable you to easily transfer (and view) files from your Mac/PC to the Touch. I would have expected Apple to integrate this feature into iTunes (perhaps rudimentary support for PDF) but third party providers are more than happy to bridge this gap for you. And for the geeks there are VNC and SSH clients that finally allow them to control their server cluster using an iPod.



For those who want radio there are lots of offerings for IP radios. Of course this means that your iPod must remain in range of a hotspot to use this feature. Mine does so I alos now have radio -- and re-discovered just why I never missed it. I'm simply not a radio guy I guess. I do know that many people miss it and wish apple had gone the last mile and also added an FM tuner.



Two Apps I'm sure that will arrive soon at the App store is due to another addition to the Touch: support for extenal microphones. Apple's hi-end earphones have both a remote and mike built in and are said to be compatible with the 2nd (and only 2nd) gen Touch. Audio note pads and VoIP apps (a la Skype) that allows phone functionality over WiFi are sure to follow soon (note: I have seen these apps available in the US stores; sadly they are not yet available here in Switzerland Also I interpret Apple's docs that the 2nd gen Touch supports external microphones as they have not yet shipped the combined mike/remote headphones to me).



And then there are games. They currently are the biggest category of all applications. The Touch with it's integrated accelerometer 480x320 color screen and touch interface makes a nice gaming device and developers have come up with some truly fun and innovative games ('Toy Bot' may serve as a great example). Apple may have realized that this is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the Touch: the Gen 2 device sports a speaker that makes little sense - except to improve the gaming experience (believe me: playing an accelerometer-based game with headphones on can be verry little fun when it gets exciting). And improving the experience it does. The Touch is ill suited for classic 'control pad' based games (e.g. Tetris Pac Man) and most of their Touch adaptations suffer accordingly. Other games however adapt nicely to touch/accelerometer input (Monkey Ball Crash Cart etc) or are a natural fit (Labyrinth Sudoku Solitair Othello)



Super-geeks can also download the iPhone/Touch SDK and create their own applications. This is not for the faint of heart as you first download a few gigabytes (Apple's XCode development environment) and then will have to code in Objective-C (an extension to standard C) and use the Cocoa framework. Plus you'll need a Mac to do so. The environment is actually very good and includes an iPhone simulator to test your software before deployment.



I should mention that most of the improvements (with the exception of the hardware upgrades: mike support built-in nike support volume buttons and battery life) can be had for free on your 1st gen Touch (if you have the 2.0 Update) or a couple of bucks if you havn't upgraded yet. Unless you (like me) want the larger memory (my first gen only has 16GB) the decision to upgrade to 2nd gen may be difficult.



Summary:

The 2nd generation iPod Touch is an almost perfect device. It combines top-notch video/audio world-class UI great casual gaming hundrets of apps and full access to the Internet into a single beautiful package. To sum it up neatly: Untouchable. Well -- almost. It has one big flaw if you have invested in accessories: it may not be compatible with them as Apple has changed the iPod connector pin-out (again). With those reservations I recommend the Touch to anyone. Also great: owners of the 1st gen Touch can get most of these goodies with a simple inexpensive software upgrade.





Hits

+ great display

+ good audio

+ gesture-based interface

+ accelerometer for controls

+ great integration with your music library (via iTunes)

+ long battery life

+ wireless music store

+ wireless App store (killer feature)

+ Speaker for gaming

+ Mail Calendar and Address book with Push

+ WiFi Internet (killer feature)

+ Remote App (free) for your PC/Mac's iTunes/AppleTV

+ SDK freely available for anyone

+ Microphone and remote support

+ Nike + iPod without dongle



Misses

- incompatibility with 'made for iPod' devices (bad bad bad)

- stainless steel backplate (fingerprints and scratches easily)

- no wireless synching

- no wireless playback of streamed iTunes content (an Appstore application can stream unprotected content though)

- no visualizer

- no search function

- no playlist groups (why oh why?)

- no GPS nor FM radio

- Notes not synched with MobileMe

- no hard drive mode

- no synching documents (except third party Apps)

- downsampling of photos

- currently tops out at 32GB (would have preferred 64)

- no bluetoothMore detail ...

Almost "Untouchable"

One year ago I purchased the 16GB original iPod Touch. At that time I found that even though it had some flaws the over-all package made it one of the best iPods available. Now one year later Apple has released the next generation Touch. I've now had it for a few days and here's what I found: the second gen iPod Touch is a marked improvement over the the first gen and comes even closer to perfection. Keeping this in mind this review will show one big and a number of smaller shortcomings. It may also be difficult to justify upgrading from the 1st to 2nd gen unless you simply must have one of the few hardware improvements and can live with the fact that you may have to re-purchase some of your accessories.



Size and Dimensions

The iPod Touch now sports a more rounded design on the back making it look slightly thinner and more like the iPhone than the original did (it is not really thinner than it's predecessor just looks that way). Unfortunately the back plate is still made from stainless steel and this plate attacts fingerprints and scratches almost magically. After one year of near-constant use the backplate of my first gen Touch looks a bit like a wild etch-a-sketch (I carry the Touch in my pocket). Interestingly the glass on the front appears (after one year of heavy use) to be absolutely scratch-resistant. It's the backside (that also carries the custom engraving) that quickly becomes blemished. I would have preferred a brushed metal/aluminium backplate. I had to look it up but the new Touch is slightly lighter (a few grams) - but it looks thinner (thanks to the tapered edge design). The rounded edges make it fit my palm slightly better making it feel just right (to be honest the original Touch was already very very good in this respect). Other than that the outside dimensions exactly match that of the original Touch. The most visible change from the front is that the steel from the backplate now frames the glass much like it did on the original iPhone.



Touch Screen and Controls

The screen is simply gorgeous. It's bright crisp has great contrast and can adapt it's brightness to the ambient light. In direct sunlight much like it's predecessor it becomes difficult to read correctly. In shade it's perfectly readable -- a feat considering how bright a display has to be to achieve that. Color temperature of the display has shifted slightly downwards (or to sound less pompuous: the display's colors have shifted slightly from a blueish to a golden tinge something you wouldn't notice unless you have the two devices side by side).



The touch screen is very responsive and as I stated before absolutely scratch-resistant. Surviving a full year in my pocket along with metallic objects such as my keys is a testament to it's durability (looking at the stainles steel backside is a constant reminder just how badly it could have been scratched). As with the original Touch the same problems occur when you try to control the device 'blind' (i.e. while it is in your pocket): without looking at it you simply can't. Fortunately Apple has addressed the most important drawback with this design: a hardware volume control. The screen's resolution remains at 480x320 which is very good (certainly better than my iPod Classic's). Interestingly I've found out that ripping videos to this resolution does not necessarily yield noticeably better results than for the iPod classic's (320x240) screen so I now rip to that resolution conserving some memory.



iPod / iTunes

After one year of owning the original Touch I have to remind myself that this device originally is an iPod -- or rather a digital music player. As it turns out although I also use it for music playing this function has more and more been relegated to a background task -- a task nontheless that it handles really well. The coverflow browsing and display functionality has evolved nicely from the original (1.0 and 2.0) versions and are still the best in the market. The interface improvements support nice touches such as displaying a song's lyrics on single tap bringing up the volume/cue controls on double-tap of the home button an alphabetic slide rule when browsing titles etc. Still missing is a search function though. And especially in light of the gorgeous display capabilities and the recent addition of a new visualitzer (in additional to the existing ones in iTunes) I would have loved to see a visualizer on the Touch as well. The biggest (and in my oppinion delibarate (as in spiteful)) omission is this: you still can't enable 'hard drive mode' i.e. use the Touch as a mass storage device. The biggest boon is improved battery life.



Video is crisp (still no contrast control though) and audio playback is just as you expect (again: I'm no audiophile. I'm absolutely happy with most player's audio capabilities). Again I'm not using the Apple-provided white and quite sub-par headphones. I'm using separately purchased ones. New for the second gen is a built-in speaker. Audio quality here is not actually terrible but close. The sound is tinny weak and just somehow comes out of the iPod (mono of course). I believe that the addition of the speaker has a specific reason different from HiFi: it makes playing games on the Touch without headphones so much more enjoyable. But for listening to music I would prefer headphones or active speakers. To be honest I prefer not listening to music from that speaker.



iTunes integration is top-notch as before. Some sort of bug-fix now has made data backup much faster and both iTunes and the Touch now sport a new kind of smart playlist that is called 'Genius'. Initially I wasn't impressed by this feature. Although iTunes 8 has had this feature I regarded it primarily as a well executed new way to sell song and hence didn't use it. On my iPod however (which only carries a subset of my library due to memory contraints) this feature literally rocks. On my first day alone it had me re-discover five songs I never knew I had (much less liked).



On the downside the Touch still does not support playlist groups which is a constant annoyance to me. I'm also disappointed to see that the Touch still can't synch wirelessly nor can it be used to access shared playlists (other than downloading them of course). An application in the App store offers this functionality albeit only for non-DRM'd titles proving the point that this is possible.



Images (from iPhoto) can also be synched to the Touch and nothing is more fun than showing off your iPod's capabilities using a nice picture and 'pinch' and 'swipe'. Interestingly (or rather: unfortunately) iTunes appears to down-sample large images to a smaller resolution probably to conserve memory. This may make sense but I would like to be able to have more control over this feature (i.e. decide myself what the image's resolution on the iPod should be).



Accessories - the Big Bad Ugly

Unfortunately Apple has changed the pin-out (*again*) for the iPod connector. As a result some 'made for iPod' accessories either don't work or don't work fully any more. For example my Altec Lansing active speakers can't charge the Touch any more (it was able to charge the 1st gen Touch). This is truly truly annoying as you don't know if your iPod works with your 'made for iPod' devices any longer and makes purchasing new accessories a game of chance. My car has a (hideously expensive) iPod integration that luckily still works (including re-charging). Still the iPod connector compatibility (or lack thereof) is becoming a big mess. Just imagine you want to buy an accessory for your kid or friend and too late find out that it does not work with it.



WiFi / Internet

A year ago I purchased an iPod and got a fully integrated web accesory kit. As it turned out the addition of WiFi and full internet access is a killer feature to me. The web browser (a mobile version of Safari) is very capable. Much has been said about the fact that Mobile Safari does not support Flash. This is annoying if you visit sites that use it. The pinch/slide gesture-based interface works so well that I regularely use the Touch for normal web surfing. The general experience has increased over the past few month no doubt in no small amounts due to the fact that many sites have beed re-designed with the iPhone in mind. Since the Touch's browser is exactly the same it inherits the benefit. WiFi speed is good (although it still uses the 802.11b/g not the n variant) - and mostly depends on the hotspot you are connected to. It remembers the hotspots it has connected to (much like a laptop would) and can also connect using WPA. There are other Web enabled applications that come with the iPod (Maps which can pinpoint your location by the position of hotspots close to you) Stocks YouTube and Weather which are nice but remarkable. WiFi reception range is average but definitely below that of some PC laptops.



Then the Touch also comes with Mail Calendar and Adressboock and these do become killer fieatures especially when coupled with an Exchange server or (as Apple would prefer) MobileMe. Mail supports 'push' technology meaning that (almost) as soon an there is an incoming mail (and your Touch is connected to a hotspot) you are notified by a little discreep 'bleep'. Reading emails including mails with rich content works very well. Composing any but the shortes emails on the other hand is bothersome verging on annoying due to the small virtual keyboard). Still simply being able to do this makes all the difference. Live Calender updates have saved my bacon a few times already as you do not have to remember to actively synch your iPod after you have made a change to the calender.





Integration with Exchange (at the point of writing) remains a tad spotty with no messages appearing for s few hours and then suddenly many appearing at once (I initially suspected a configuration issue on the Exchange Server but this appears not to be the case). Depending upon how you configure MobileMe on your Mac the results are similar to what you can expect from Exchange (with the difference of course that Apple is running the servers for you). Unfortunately MobileMe currently does not synch your Notes.



Nicely executed is the integrated iTunes store. While possibly just another mechanism to generate sales I simply love the fact that if I hear or remember a song I can almost always instantly purchase it and have it on my touch within seconds. Songs purchased on the Touch synchronize back to your main library in iTunes (into a rather silly 'Purchased on Touch' playlist). If a download has to discontinue because the network connection was lost (or for any other reasons) it will continue as soon as the connection to the Internet is restored.



Interestingly the touch sports (I'm a sucker for lame puns) the required hardware to connect to the 'Nike + iPod' sports accessories built-in (i.e. you do not have to connect the dongle). I say interestingly because these devices utilize the bluetooth frequency band yet the Touch does not support bluetooth devices (headphones mikes car integration and printers come to mind). Since I use a shuffle for work-out this is not a must-have feature for me.



Applications/App Store

If Mail Calendar and Browser are killer apps Apple has added another killer feature to the Touch (and iPhone) that expands the device's usability (and customizability) by orders of magnitude: the App store. In appearance similar to the iTunes Store here you can choose from literally hundrets of applictions (of greatly varying quality though) purchase and install them instantly. Prices run from free to roughly 10 USD (there are some more expensive titles but the majority are priced at a couple of USD). The apps are presented in three different ways ('featured' 'top' browse by category) plus you have the ability to search for keywords.



Although the 'signal to noise' ratio isn't that great (there are quite a lot of useless or awfully executed applications) there are some jaw-droppingly good apps that truly enhance your Touch. Among the first to mention is Apple's own (free) 'Remote' app which allows you to remote-control iTunes on your Mac or Apple TV - with real-time full visual feedback and full search capability (allegedly it is also a real boon for Apple TV users as it provides a virtual keyboard as input means. Not having Apple TV I can't comment on this). Then there is an application that allows you to stream all your music (well the unprotecte at least) to your Touch - over the Internet to wherever you are (interestingly this App was not produced by Apple).



Greatly enhancing the Touch's usability are eBook readers (the Touch is almost perfect for rading books giving you that 'Star Trek' info pad feeling) as well as off-line news readers. Another important category are applications that enable you to easily transfer (and view) files from your Mac/PC to the Touch. I would have expected Apple to integrate this feature into iTunes (perhaps rudimentary support for PDF) but third party providers are more than happy to bridge this gap for you. And for the geeks there are VNC and SSH clients that finally allow them to control their server cluster using an iPod.



For those who want radio there are lots of offerings for IP radios. Of course this means that your iPod must remain in range of a hotspot to use this feature. Mine does so I alos now have radio -- and re-discovered just why I never missed it. I'm simply not a radio guy I guess. I do know that many people miss it and wish apple had gone the last mile and also added an FM tuner.



Two Apps I'm sure that will arrive soon at the App store is due to another addition to the Touch: support for extenal microphones. Apple's hi-end earphones have both a remote and mike built in and are said to be compatible with the 2nd (and only 2nd) gen Touch. Audio note pads and VoIP apps (a la Skype) that allows phone functionality over WiFi are sure to follow soon (note: I have seen these apps available in the US stores; sadly they are not yet available here in Switzerland Also I interpret Apple's docs that the 2nd gen Touch supports external microphones as they have not yet shipped the combined mike/remote headphones to me).



And then there are games. They currently are the biggest category of all applications. The Touch with it's integrated accelerometer 480x320 color screen and touch interface makes a nice gaming device and developers have come up with some truly fun and innovative games ('Toy Bot' may serve as a great example). Apple may have realized that this is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the Touch: the Gen 2 device sports a speaker that makes little sense - except to improve the gaming experience (believe me: playing an accelerometer-based game with headphones on can be verry little fun when it gets exciting). And improving the experience it does. The Touch is ill suited for classic 'control pad' based games (e.g. Tetris Pac Man) and most of their Touch adaptations suffer accordingly. Other games however adapt nicely to touch/accelerometer input (Monkey Ball Crash Cart etc) or are a natural fit (Labyrinth Sudoku Solitair Othello)



Super-geeks can also download the iPhone/Touch SDK and create their own applications. This is not for the faint of heart as you first download a few gigabytes (Apple's XCode development environment) and then will have to code in Objective-C (an extension to standard C) and use the Cocoa framework. Plus you'll need a Mac to do so. The environment is actually very good and includes an iPhone simulator to test your software before deployment.



I should mention that most of the improvements (with the exception of the hardware upgrades: mike support built-in nike support volume buttons and battery life) can be had for free on your 1st gen Touch (if you have the 2.0 Update) or a couple of bucks if you havn't upgraded yet. Unless you (like me) want the larger memory (my first gen only has 16GB) the decision to upgrade to 2nd gen may be difficult.



Summary:

The 2nd generation iPod Touch is an almost perfect device. It combines top-notch video/audio world-class UI great casual gaming hundrets of apps and full access to the Internet into a single beautiful package. To sum it up neatly: Untouchable. Well -- almost. It has one big flaw if you have invested in accessories: it may not be compatible with them as Apple has changed the iPod connector pin-out (again). With those reservations I recommend the Touch to anyone. Also great: owners of the 1st gen Touch can get most of these goodies with a simple inexpensive software upgrade.





Hits

+ great display

+ good audio

+ gesture-based interface

+ accelerometer for controls

+ great integration with your music library (via iTunes)

+ long battery life

+ wireless music store

+ wireless App store (killer feature)

+ Speaker for gaming

+ Mail Calendar and Address book with Push

+ WiFi Internet (killer feature)

+ Remote App (free) for your PC/Mac's iTunes/AppleTV

+ SDK freely available for anyone

+ Microphone and remote support

+ Nike + iPod without dongle



Misses

- incompatibility with 'made for iPod' devices (bad bad bad)

- stainless steel backplate (fingerprints and scratches easily)

- no wireless synching

- no wireless playback of streamed iTunes content (an Appstore application can stream unprotected content though)

- no visualizer

- no search function

- no playlist groups (why oh why?)

- no GPS nor FM radio

- Notes not synched with MobileMe

- no hard drive mode

- no synching documents (except third party Apps)

- downsampling of photos

- currently tops out at 32GB (would have preferred 64)

- no bluetoothMore detail ...

WARNNING for new 8GB 3G owners and ipod touch 3G Review

Before i start let me just tell you "what's New" with the iPod touch Third generation" :



-Faster Cpu/Double the ram/Better graphic (faster Boot time/faster loading is all what i did notice)

-Double the storage for the same old price

-Voice control (I'll explain it in a second)

-Latest firmware for free

-New Earbuds with built in remote+Microphone (So you can use voice control)



And that is everything~ depends on your needs upgrading from 2G to 3G might be not worth it.



*Important Note* : only the New iPod touch 32GB/64GB are third generation ~ (8GB is repacked 2G) Details below.



About the new Voice control function if you love to take your iPod with you to the Gym the new feature "Voice control" is pretty cool it does allow you to control your music via your voice no need to get the iPod out of your pocket you can simply say "Next" to move to next song say "shuffle" for shuffle say "Pause" and music playback will stop etc that is why i recommend the iPod touch over iPod classic for gym users my friend bought an iPod classic and now he complains that the iPod classic is too heavy for him when he goes to the gym and he will have to buy another iPod "properly Nano" for his Gym for me i use my iPod touch for the gym it's so light that sometimes i forgot that it's even in my pocket.



After playing with my iPod touch 3g for a while i honestly did not notice any difference from the outside or the inside compared to my old iPod touch Second generation (It's supposed to be faster but i did not notice anything during music and video playback or the menus however browsing with safari and loading facebook was faster same thing with boot time) you properly can only notice it being faster with heavy applications since video/music playback is already fast enough with 2G.



I got the 64GB iPod 3G for [...]$ if you think of upgrading your 2G iPod touch honestly do yourself a favor and save yourself the money unless you really need that much of a storage (I do that is why i bought one) also remember that the 3G battery lasts less than 2G(3G battery = 30 Hours of music playback versus 2G 36 hours of music playback according to apple official specs)



*VERY IMPORTANT* for the people who wants the new 8GB version the new third generation 8GB iPod touch is NOT 3G it's a second generation iPod touch but apple did repack it/renamed it to 3rd generation which seems to be misleading by APPLE and it's not cool at all it is IPod Touch 2G+Updated firmware and that is it.



The iPod touch 3rd generation 32GB/64GB versions comes with a free mic+remote with the earbuds while the 8GB do not (it comes with normal earbuds) the 32GB/64GB have the New CPU+Graphic (According to apple the new cpu is twice as fast just like the iPhone 3GS) while the new 8GB use the same old CPU/Chip from the old iPod touch second generation.



Here is APPLE description on the iPod touches page about the 32/64GB versions : """Enjoy all the great features of the 8GB model along with better performance richer graphics and voice control"""



The iPod touch 3rd generation is the same awesome iPod touch second generation was.

You can play your music/watch your videos/play games even read your kindle books/etc "you can read amazon big description of what it's capable of if you do not know yet it's better than what would i say because it has pictures and everything.



The iPod touch got the best browser i have ever seen in a portable device i do not even need to carry my netbook with me anymore thanks to my iPod touch if you hated browsing with lame browsers that crash a lot or slow (many mobile phones) trust me on this one the iPod touch browser is not a toy or a gimmick it is a browser you can depends on it's super fast and smooth and after using it for like a full year it has only crashed on me once!



Short list of pros and cons about the iPod touch



Pros:

-Slicksmall and light device

-Great touch screen

-The BEST web browser on a portable device

-Amazing video/music playback

-App Store (Too many cool applications for Free)

-Display screen is clear and bright

-No bugs and annoying stuff a very reliable hardware

-64GB Flash based mp3 player



Cons:

-Not much of an upgrade over 2G (people were disappointed because they did not get upgrades like camera/OLED/etc)

-Weaker battery only lasts 30 hours for music playback versus 2G iPod touch 36 Hours music playback

-Expensive for the 64GB version

-Still no FM radio without the use of online applications

-Bluetooth is still half locked



I hope my review was helpful :)More detail ...

WARNNING for new 8GB 3G owners and ipod touch 3G Review

Before i start let me just tell you "what's New" with the iPod touch Third generation" :



-Faster Cpu/Double the ram/Better graphic (faster Boot time/faster loading is all what i did notice)

-Double the storage for the same old price

-Voice control (I'll explain it in a second)

-Latest firmware for free

-New Earbuds with built in remote+Microphone (So you can use voice control)



And that is everything~ depends on your needs upgrading from 2G to 3G might be not worth it.



*Important Note* : only the New iPod touch 32GB/64GB are third generation ~ (8GB is repacked 2G) Details below.



About the new Voice control function if you love to take your iPod with you to the Gym the new feature "Voice control" is pretty cool it does allow you to control your music via your voice no need to get the iPod out of your pocket you can simply say "Next" to move to next song say "shuffle" for shuffle say "Pause" and music playback will stop etc that is why i recommend the iPod touch over iPod classic for gym users my friend bought an iPod classic and now he complains that the iPod classic is too heavy for him when he goes to the gym and he will have to buy another iPod "properly Nano" for his Gym for me i use my iPod touch for the gym it's so light that sometimes i forgot that it's even in my pocket.



After playing with my iPod touch 3g for a while i honestly did not notice any difference from the outside or the inside compared to my old iPod touch Second generation (It's supposed to be faster but i did not notice anything during music and video playback or the menus however browsing with safari and loading facebook was faster same thing with boot time) you properly can only notice it being faster with heavy applications since video/music playback is already fast enough with 2G.



I got the 64GB iPod 3G for [...]$ if you think of upgrading your 2G iPod touch honestly do yourself a favor and save yourself the money unless you really need that much of a storage (I do that is why i bought one) also remember that the 3G battery lasts less than 2G(3G battery = 30 Hours of music playback versus 2G 36 hours of music playback according to apple official specs)



*VERY IMPORTANT* for the people who wants the new 8GB version the new third generation 8GB iPod touch is NOT 3G it's a second generation iPod touch but apple did repack it/renamed it to 3rd generation which seems to be misleading by APPLE and it's not cool at all it is IPod Touch 2G+Updated firmware and that is it.



The iPod touch 3rd generation 32GB/64GB versions comes with a free mic+remote with the earbuds while the 8GB do not (it comes with normal earbuds) the 32GB/64GB have the New CPU+Graphic (According to apple the new cpu is twice as fast just like the iPhone 3GS) while the new 8GB use the same old CPU/Chip from the old iPod touch second generation.



Here is APPLE description on the iPod touches page about the 32/64GB versions : """Enjoy all the great features of the 8GB model along with better performance richer graphics and voice control"""



The iPod touch 3rd generation is the same awesome iPod touch second generation was.

You can play your music/watch your videos/play games even read your kindle books/etc "you can read amazon big description of what it's capable of if you do not know yet it's better than what would i say because it has pictures and everything.



The iPod touch got the best browser i have ever seen in a portable device i do not even need to carry my netbook with me anymore thanks to my iPod touch if you hated browsing with lame browsers that crash a lot or slow (many mobile phones) trust me on this one the iPod touch browser is not a toy or a gimmick it is a browser you can depends on it's super fast and smooth and after using it for like a full year it has only crashed on me once!



Short list of pros and cons about the iPod touch



Pros:

-Slicksmall and light device

-Great touch screen

-The BEST web browser on a portable device

-Amazing video/music playback

-App Store (Too many cool applications for Free)

-Display screen is clear and bright

-No bugs and annoying stuff a very reliable hardware

-64GB Flash based mp3 player



Cons:

-Not much of an upgrade over 2G (people were disappointed because they did not get upgrades like camera/OLED/etc)

-Weaker battery only lasts 30 hours for music playback versus 2G iPod touch 36 Hours music playback

-Expensive for the 64GB version

-Still no FM radio without the use of online applications

-Bluetooth is still half locked



I hope my review was helpful :)More detail ...