Post by Mr. G on Sept 30, 2007 1:49:05 GMT -5
16 gb iPod touch.
Yeah, bet you didn't see that one coming.
Anyway, after my iPod video mysteriously went MIA while working in NYC (read: stolen), I decided to put my next paycheck toward the new iPod touch that I heard about. Now that I've had it for a day or so, and experimented with it, I can say that this is most likely one of the best iPod's around.
First off, the huge screen and slim styling is what catches the eye. You really get some strange looks on the train when you're watching the new episodes of dl.tv. Music playback is still a little subpar for my liking (No customizable equalizer settings!?), but the battery life for music is great, because it shuts off the display. For video playback though, the sucker died at a bit past ~5 hours, which is on target, but still not as high as I would've liked. Then again, I usually carry a charger for whichever device I have on me, so that way it never dies, so battery life isn't that much of a biggie.
The greatest feature though that I've constantly been using is the built in web browser. If you're within access to a wireless network, you can...well... browse the internet. When you double tap the screen to zoom it in, it usually does a very good job, but for some things, mainly large images (such as the ones found on the comic Fuzzy Things), you'll have to manually zoom by pinching or stretching the image with your fingers to get it to fit. Not that big of a problem, considering how well it handles text.
On top of that, there's a youtube browser built in for browsing youtube videos. (Again, this is pending access to a decent wireless signal.) It does pretty much what you would expect: you enter in a search term, select the video (although the titles usually get cut off, unfortunately), wait a few moments, and the video starts playing. The quality is suprisingly well, considering that I was expecting either youtube or the device to compress the heck out of it so that it would work, but the qualities are roughly similar to what you could access with a computer.
Now for the complaints. (They're minor): The screen constantly get covered with smudges, so that you're constantly scrubbing it with the cloth that they include.
The kicker though, that suprises me to no end: There's no sleeve/sock for it, unlike the millions of iPods that came before it. What kind of decision was that. "They can afford a $400, brand new device that we'll lower the price on in a month, so how about we save us 50 cents on each and get rid of the sleeve. I mean, they can afford another $40 case, right?". Well, for the record, the little sleeve that came with mine has always been sufficient on keeping it safe and free of too many scratches and dings, even though that I constantly shove it into my pocket with a fairly substantial set of folding headphones. Now I'm afraid to take the iPod touch anywhere unless I know that there is a dedicated, secure spot that I can stash it in, because I can't put it in a backpack or pocket, because it'll get unbelievably scratched within the span of a few hours.
All that aside though, the internet browser is absolutely kickass, and the huge display is great for video. Music is still not as stellar as I would like it to be, but you can't win 'em all.
Yeah, bet you didn't see that one coming.
Anyway, after my iPod video mysteriously went MIA while working in NYC (read: stolen), I decided to put my next paycheck toward the new iPod touch that I heard about. Now that I've had it for a day or so, and experimented with it, I can say that this is most likely one of the best iPod's around.
First off, the huge screen and slim styling is what catches the eye. You really get some strange looks on the train when you're watching the new episodes of dl.tv. Music playback is still a little subpar for my liking (No customizable equalizer settings!?), but the battery life for music is great, because it shuts off the display. For video playback though, the sucker died at a bit past ~5 hours, which is on target, but still not as high as I would've liked. Then again, I usually carry a charger for whichever device I have on me, so that way it never dies, so battery life isn't that much of a biggie.
The greatest feature though that I've constantly been using is the built in web browser. If you're within access to a wireless network, you can...well... browse the internet. When you double tap the screen to zoom it in, it usually does a very good job, but for some things, mainly large images (such as the ones found on the comic Fuzzy Things), you'll have to manually zoom by pinching or stretching the image with your fingers to get it to fit. Not that big of a problem, considering how well it handles text.
On top of that, there's a youtube browser built in for browsing youtube videos. (Again, this is pending access to a decent wireless signal.) It does pretty much what you would expect: you enter in a search term, select the video (although the titles usually get cut off, unfortunately), wait a few moments, and the video starts playing. The quality is suprisingly well, considering that I was expecting either youtube or the device to compress the heck out of it so that it would work, but the qualities are roughly similar to what you could access with a computer.
Now for the complaints. (They're minor): The screen constantly get covered with smudges, so that you're constantly scrubbing it with the cloth that they include.
The kicker though, that suprises me to no end: There's no sleeve/sock for it, unlike the millions of iPods that came before it. What kind of decision was that. "They can afford a $400, brand new device that we'll lower the price on in a month, so how about we save us 50 cents on each and get rid of the sleeve. I mean, they can afford another $40 case, right?". Well, for the record, the little sleeve that came with mine has always been sufficient on keeping it safe and free of too many scratches and dings, even though that I constantly shove it into my pocket with a fairly substantial set of folding headphones. Now I'm afraid to take the iPod touch anywhere unless I know that there is a dedicated, secure spot that I can stash it in, because I can't put it in a backpack or pocket, because it'll get unbelievably scratched within the span of a few hours.
All that aside though, the internet browser is absolutely kickass, and the huge display is great for video. Music is still not as stellar as I would like it to be, but you can't win 'em all.
