iPod touch me

Author's Rating:

Pros: Touch screen interface
Wi-fi
Slim and sleek
Simple, good, and clean interface
Does what it does very well

Cons: Battery life
Needs more space
Screen sometimes either too sensitive or non-responsive
Only 11 pages to put applications
Flash

The Bottom Line: 
Awesome device and another kudos to Apple.

Author's Review
It was a long time coming for me, but it's time to finally review the 2nd Gen iPod Touch 8 GB from Apple.

Mind you I've had a fair share of iPod's from Apple's lineup so I'm not new to the scene nor am I an Apple "aficionado". I've had a 2nd Gen iPod, 4th Gen iPod, 4th Gen iPod shuffle, and now the 2nd Gen iPod touch.

Well let's just get right into it. I like the touch, very much so. Apple has made something that already was popular into something more popular. I'm a guy and i love to press buttons and play with toys, and yes the touch does appease my appetite.

I'm not going to go into the details on why it's awesome, other people have already done so, but at least I will provide some overview on what the iPod is and why it's AWESOME.

What is an iPod touch? Well if you haven't heard about it or seen it then I 1) applaud you for not being a gadget freak 2) but disdain you from living in a cave (j/k). Well the iPod touch is a gadget from Apple, Inc. that allows the consumer to play music, video, play games, surf the web, create/edit documents, make appointments on the calender, and so much more depending on what applications you download onto the touch.

Right out of the screaming white box that Apple is renowned for you are able to simply hook up this gadget to your computer or even start it up right away without one.  Once started the gadget already has preloaded applications such as calendar, iTunes Store, photo, stocks, Google maps, weather, and a couple of others. One thing to note though is because the iPod is limited in what it can do some of the applications, such as photo, is also limited such that you cannot edit/change/save/etc as you would if you had the same application on your computer. However there are other applications that are available from the iTunes store that enable you to do this, you will only have to do some searching and you may have to pay for these applications.

So in order to use the iPod touch you must have something to touch the screen with, like fingers. It gets its response through electrical charge from your fingers, but make sure you don't stick your fingers in an electrical socket and then touch the iPod ok? So with multi-touch technology you swipe, pinch, expand, or poke at the screen with your fingers to either go to another page, zoom in, zoom out, or select. The touch also features an accelerometer which allows you to view the touch at different positions, set at 90 degrees. Think of it as viewing the screen in either portrait or landscape format. So the gist of it is, when you want to go to another page swipe with your fingers on the screen and if you want to see the iPod in a different position just reposition the iPod by 90 degrees.

As stated above to get more applications such as games, music, videos, word editors, how-to recipes, how-to survival tips, and the list goes on and on, you must go to the iTunes store. It is expansive and the list keeps growing and growing.

To select an application just touch it and it will open up. Depending on what the application is you will have to figure out what actions do what but the basic commands that are similar to most applications is zoom in, zoom out, next page (pinch, pinch out, swipe in that order).

One thing I found frustrating though is that Apple only allows 11 pages for applications on your touch. I have more that 60 applications but I cannot see all of them because of this limitation, but they are on the computer. So if you have more than 11 pages worth of apps, they will be most likely on your computer and you can sync the ones that you want and remove from the iPod the ones that you don't. You still keep the ones that you don't on your computer unless you opt for to remove it permanently.

The touch also has wi-fi capability to connect to the Internet. Yes it can, but you must remember that that the antenna isn't as strong as real wi-fi devices that are on computers so you may get a weaker signal even if you are the same distance from another computer towards the wi-fi source. Otherwise get the surfing going. However as a warning, you will not be able to view video embedded with Flash. If you haven't heard the story you can look it up on the internet with your touch (lol). Basically as a security measure and increase battery life Apple opted not to allow the touch to view videos embedded in Flash. I guess it's both a bane or joy to users depending on your stance.

The other features of the device are awesome, but let's not forget what the iPod was originally intended for, to play music. Yes it still does it well after all these years and this one is no exception. You can fast forward, skip, go back, pause, make louder, add different sound qualities to the song, shuffl, etc. The 32 GB and 64 GB models have the VoiceOver command that allows the user to "ask" the iPod what song is currently playing, go to next song, go back one song, etc. The 8 GB model does not have this feature. Also the 8 GB model lacks a microphone that the 32 and 64 GB models have. You can get one for the 8 GB model though.

Another major point about the iPod touch is the ability to play movies. Yeah it sometimes suck to see it on a tiny screen, but the iPod is portable you can't deny that. So for a quick fix for video buffs you can see them on your touch.

And last but not least for all you gamers out there the iPod touch brings on a new dimension for gaming. First off let me tell you that the experiences for playing games on the touch is not quite the same as playing on the computer or gaming console such as PS3. It's an iPod touch for sake so "it can't do as much" as games on the aforementioned devices. So playing a game such as Call of Duty will be a different experience than playing on an Xbox. You are only limited to having the touch screen as your controller and the graphics may not be as impressive that seen on a computer. But the games are FUN. A lot of them are free too on the iTunes store, it will allow you to pass through those boring days of school.

In all I am very pleased with the touch, the only gripes i have with it are the ones that I mentioned above, only 11 pages to put applications and the inability to play video embedded in Flash and the fact that the touch screen is sometimes either too sensitive or non-responsive. The other gripes i have with it is the battery life and storage space. Yeah you can't have too much battery life or too much storage but common, 8 GB? The minimum should be 16 GB and the battery power should last more than 10 hours when playing video. right now it's spec'd at 6 hours for video playback which is decent but i hoped it could be better since i travel a lot to overseas where the trips are long.

But these don't detract from one of the most awesomness devices ever created. Buy it, use it, love it. iPod Touch me