Transparent Christian Magazine

Iphone – phone = iPod Touch? Almost

The new iPod product line is something to be remembered. The all new iPod nano can now play video, the classic is now only available in 80gb and 160gb sizes, and all models (except the shuffle) now have cover-flow viewing options. If you are familiar with iTunes then you already know how cool it is to have your album artwork available in you digital music collection. Now with this new lineup comes something unpresidented for apple, a touchscreen iPod dubbed, the iPod Touch.
By now I’m sure that you’ve heard of the iPhone and maybe even own one of these devices, but with all of the hype surrounding Apple’s new iPhone, the Touch got lost in the mix.

The iPod Touch has been called an iPhone minus the phone. In basic functionality, yes, if you are looking for MOST of the features of the iPhone, but don’t need a new phone or don’t want to be bonded to AT&T, the iPod Touch is for you. In fact, besides the small storage size (8 & 16gb), there really isn’t anything significant missing from this device. (I am aware of the inability to add events to the calender, but as of update 1.1.2, that has been resolved)

From this point on I will be comparing the Touch to other standard features on other music players, not other PDA’s, since it is advertised as a media player.

The Touch is by far the best iPod Apple has ever produced, but as with any device, there is always room for improvement (Thought I’d give you the bad first).

Unlike the iPhone the Touch does not have a camera. The absence of this could be devastating to some, but for me it’s a non-issue. Honestly, I have a 1.2mp camera on my phone and I use it probably once a month. Not to mention that after I take the picture, it stays on my phone. If I’m going to be somehere that I want pictures of, I’ll take a real camera. Plus, the addition of a camera might increase the size of the device. Now those of you that haven’t seen the device in person might be skeptical, but I can’t imagine that there is a lot of open air inside the case.

As far as widgets, the Touch comes with a calculator and a clock. No weather, mail, or stocks. Now I understand that the Touch doesn’t have cell phone Internet access, but it does have wifi, and any of these widgets would work fine over that. Yes you can still check all of these things through safari, but why not just include the same apps from the iPhone?

Well now that I’m done complaining, onto the positive side of things.

First thing I noticed, (and I’m sure you will too) is that the Touch is tiny, it’s even smaller then the iPhone. It fits comfortably in the hand, and for the most part, it can be controlled with one thumb. There are a few occasions when you will have to one of the top corners, but it’s tolerable. In classic iPod style it has a chrome backplate that is extremely easy to scratch. But it does have something in the top left hand corner, a wifi antenna. This is one of the coolest things about the touch. With it you can browse the web using a pocket sized version of Safari. You can open full webpages, but unfortunately you cannot view flash or watch streaming videos at this time. Also, Safari is one of the few applications that supports widescreen viewing.

The wifi antenna also allows you to access the WiFi iTunes Music Store. This is by far my favorite new edition to the iPod. IT gives you the ability to download any of the songs currently available on the standard iTunes store straight to the Touch. You can browse new releases, search for a specific artist, and even listen to 30 second clips of any song. Just tap the buy now button and within a few seconds the song is now available in your music library. Don’t worry though, every time you buy something you must first enter your iTunes account password. It may sound like it could become annoying, but it’s better then having someone accidently buy an album or two without you knowing.

I could ramble on about cover-flow mode and how awesome the photo app is, but by now you’ve at least heard of what they can do and how awesome the UI is so I’m going to talk about something that most people don’t think about…syncing. It may sound boring but it’s one of the most important operations of the Touch.

As with the rest of the iPod family, syncing is done through iTunes. Just connecting the Touch will open iTunes and begin the syncing process. It is very straightforward and setup is a breeze. Upon the first connect you will be greeted with a message asking you if you would like to sync your entire library or a selection. For me the obvious choice was a selection of my library considering I have upwards of 30GB of music and another 25GB of video. But for those of you that have less then 16GB or 8GB, depending on your model, selecting the entire library completes the setup and within 20min. your new iPod will be ready to go. After the initial sync you will have the option to sync photos, videos, podcasts, and even your contacts and appointments. There is also a new option to sync your bookmarks from Safari or Internet Explorer. And remember those songs you purchased at your friends house the other night? Well once you connect the Touch back to your home computer, all of those songs will be automatically copied to iTunes. Along with any videos and digital booklets that came along with them. And to top it all off, if you purchased a song or album but didn’t have time to wait for it to finish downloading, once you reconnet to your home computer, iTunes will finish the download, update its library, and copy the new songs onto the Touch, all without you doing anything.

All in all the new iPod Touch is a revolutionary device. If you have a small library and a couple hundred dollars, get one, you won’t regret it. If you have a massive library and don’t need everything with you all the time, get one. It may have a few flaws but I have yet to see anything come close to touching the features, UI, and shear innovation of what Apple has done with the iPod Touch.