Opening Statement

The Original Ipod Touch first came out in 2007, shortly after the release of the Iphone in the United States. After the release of the original Ipod Touch, i felt that it was a waste of time and money to get all the goodies the Iphone has bud not the Phone itself. Therefore i immediately banished any thought of purchasing or even analyzing the touch screen device. This brought problems, as the Iphone wasn’t yet released in Canada. So i waited for over a year anticipating the release of the Iphone in Canada, which eventually happened in July 2008 with the release of the 3G Iphone. I was really getting pumped up because finally i would be able to purchase one of the most influential devices on the planet.

I would soon realize that my hopes were yet again going to be crushed by outrageous prices being implemented by Canada’s only available wireless carrier of the Iphone, Rogers Canada. With minimum data plans of 60 dollars(Canadian) a month, buying the Iphone wasn’t an option in relation to my budget. With yearly prices easily crossing the thousand dollar mark, the Iphone would creep into my pocket, and pick it out dollar by dollar.

Ok, I think it’s time i yank myself out of the past, and focus on last weekend, where i decided to purchase the second instalment of Apples Ipod Touch. So i went to a couple stores comparing prices. I also visited Apple’s website to decide and compare different sizes(in gigabytes), and also popped over to check their pricing as well. After careful observation, and comparison, i decided to purchase the 16 gigabyte for 300 dollars at our local Futureshop(Apple sold it for 20 dollars more), and that as said in the Title is what i am going to talk about today.

The Package

The Package of the Ipod Touch was very compact. I have a blog post (Ipod Touch 2nd Gen Unboxing )along with the video on the Unboxing and packaging of the Ipod Touch.

The Exterior

The Back of the Ipod consists of a stainless steal back which bends forward into about of a millimetre of the front. Including the stainless steal curved back in my opinion was an unfortunate decision by Apple, and by no means am i implying that it doesn’t protect the device. But the dirt, dust, and fingerprints it attracts is just huge. From when i first pulled it out of the box, to playing it for the first time, the steal back was flooded with by (clean hands) fingerprints. This gives it a greecy, dirty look when attempting to utilize the Ipod as a mirror. The Ipod Touch is also very venerable to scratches. Moving it minimally stamped rough, fuzzy scratches onto the back of the device. There is also the Wifi antenna imbedded behind a rubber patch on the back of the Ipod. I get occasional nerves of damaging the Wifi when unintentionally applying pressure to the patch.

The new Ipod touch also includes a built in speaker, which as Steve Jobs mentioned during his keynote is no special aspect of the Ipod Touch. The speaker is very difficult to hear from, but in it’s favour provides a decently clear sound projecting from the Ipod Touch. To give you a few examples on how quite the speaker is: If you were in a conversation with someone, you wouldn’t be able to pump the volume high enough to override the persons voice. Ok,Ok, I was going easy there…. Let’s just say you basically need to hold up to your head to hear it perfectly. As we are focused on the sound of the Touch at this moment, i should point out that the headphone jack now accepts a variety of different headphones, rather than the regular old Apple earbuds which more mandatory in previous versions. I will also mention that the earbuds haven’t changed significantly along with the USB Connector. The Front of the Ipod Touch really hasn’t changed much, except for the stainless steal bordering the screen of the Touch.  Along with that stainless steal border comes the regular old home screen, and the 480 by 320 pixel, 3.5 inch display.

The side of the Ipod Touch provides, after the increasing demand, a volume rocker. The initial reason costumers were wanting this addition is so they could control the volume without activating the screen of the Ipod(which saves battery). It took me quite a while to get used to the volume rocker as for the first portion of owning the Ipod, i didn’t use it at all. After about a week i started to feel the need to use the rocker,  and now use it very frequently. The one problem i found with the volume rocker is that i had difficulties finding the button. Occasionally i pressed the opposite button in which i intended to press, along with random pressure in different areas of the outside. I also had similar struggles with the hold button on the top of the Ipod.

The Home Screen

Turning on The Ipod Touch can sometimes be a hassle, as you need to wait for it’s start up sequence. Although this may only take around 5 seconds, it gives the illusion of an eternity when in a rush. The home screen of the ipod is basically the usual list of icons we are so used to seeing including Safari, Calendar, Mail, Contacts, Youtube, Stocks, Map, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Itunes, Settings, Music, Video, Photo’s, and of course the application store. A New warm feeling has come to the Ipod. Yes, of course i’m going to talk about the yellow tint everyone is blogging up about, and it really does have a yellow tint to it. Is it bad? No it’s not at all. It’s actually an improvement from previous versions of the Ipod Touch. In my opinion is brings a sense of warmth to the user experience, and is easier on the eyes. The previous Touch in my opinion was a bit to white and bright for my liking. The yellow tint in the current Ipod brings out the colour, and the density of those colours.

Speed and Battery Life

The Speed of the Ipod Touch was very impressive in my opinion. The speed in comparison to the earliest Ipod Touch,  definitely speeds things up. There are no sudden pauses in transition from screen to screen, the movement of application to application is seamless, and the Touch also has fantastic reaction time. The tap of a screen allows something to be triggered instantly, which in comparison to the previous Ipod Touch is a big improvement as the first Gen in certain situations was delayed, and had slow reaction time. This also leads me on in explaining the quality of the WI-FI. If you were expecting the WIFI to be junk, you were completely wrong. The Ipod Touch is very fast when it comes to browsing Safari, or checking your email. There were a few times after i disconnected myself from the Internet that i couldn’t reconnect without telling the Ipod to forget the network all together. I’m assuming Apple knows about this, and will fix it within their next software package. Not to say that the Ipod Touch isn’t great for locating the internet all together. I tried connecting to the internet while driving in a car, and had no problems at all connecting to different wireless networks during different variations of the trip.

The Battery of The Iphone was in my opinion a bit over advertised whether it be Apple, or the regular consumer. I noticed from my stats that the Ipod only lasted 3-4 hours playing video where as the manufacturer suggests that it plays for at least 5. There were other conflicts with stats as i could only play music for 34 hours, and with nothing i got over 48 hours. I am also going to recommend that if you decide to purchase the Ipod that you charge for 12 hours initially, then drain the battery, then charge it another 12 hours again. I also noticed that the battery performs better over time( or after multiple charges). This would mean for best performance that you regularly use your Ipod, or put it through a charging cycle once a month.

Conclusion

The recent release of The Google Phone has put pressure on Apple to come out with newer, and better products, and this new competition can really cause companies to drive the quality of the hardware up, while lowering the price. I think this Google Phone will also allow Apple to rethink their strategy on Open Source, or at least allowing the community to put more input onto the Iphone. They also tend to limit applications, and are now having a tough time competing with Googles version of the App Store. So If you haven’t received the Ipod Touch or Iphone yet, i don’t recommend going out and buying one just yet as i expect newer and better products to be released within the year.

If I were to rate the Ipod Touch out of 5 stars, it would be a 4. The scratching, and finger prints really made me disappointed, as we were aware of this problem in the previous instalment of this device. I also think some features could be implemented a bit more like spell check, or copy and paste. Both of which could become a huge asset to Apple if created. I also believe that the start up sequence should be fixed up a little. Time is valuable, and checking my email now more than ever is very important in my life. - I will also have future reviews on the Applications of the Iphone like Safari, Calendar, and much more. I will also attempt to write review on games and tools that are available like FS5 Touch. If you have an opinion on this, please feel free to comment below. It would be nice to get some debate as to what needs to be fixed, and what can be left alone.

Related Links

-Ipod Touch 2nd Generation Unboxing

-Review on The Touch Hockey FS5 Application

-Review on the Ipod Touch and the App Store!