Tim Gideon says so at pcmag.com:
When the iPhone came out in June, many people (including me) loved it, but wanted it without the phone—and that pesky two-year contract with AT&T Wireless. I’m no Luddite, but I don’t want my personal media player to ring in the middle of a song. That said, the multitouch glass display was beautiful, Cover Flow was a great way to navigate tracks, and the Web browser was better than any other portable player’s before it. The touch is a thing of beauty.
Now let’s talk about the really good stuff. How long have we been waiting for an iPod that not only has Wi-Fi but lets us buy music wirelessly and quickly? It’s here, and it is awesome.
Tap the 99-cent icon next to a song and it becomes a Buy Now button; tap it again and the button appears to jump into the lower right-hand corner tab, Downloads. If you click on Downloads, you can monitor the progress of your purchases. If your Wi-Fi signal is strong, the whole process, per song, does not take longer than about 15 seconds. When the signal is weak, the player may inform you that it couldn’t complete the download. No worries; it’ll save the progress it made and download the rest when a strong enough signal returns.
Browsing the Internet on the touch is a glorious experience. The “pinch and expand” motion for the multitouch screen is more useful here than anywhere else on the player, as it quickly zooms in on the headline you want to read or photo you want to see in detail. Web sites can be viewed in vertical or horizontal mode, and the switch happens automatically when you turn the player sideways. Safari comes preloaded with a bunch of useful bookmarks, organized into sections such as Sports and News. Of course, you can easily add your own bookmarks or edit the ones that come with the player.
iPods have been evolving quickly in their short existence on this Earth. The iPhone and the iPod touch, however, seem to be several leaps ahead of the excellent iPod nano or, for that matter, any other player on the market. These are not cheap devices, especially considering the storage limitations. Still, when you factor in the slick interface, the elegant Web browser, the beautiful glass display, and the seamless integration of the Wi-Fi music store, the Apple iPod touch is worth the price. No portable media player has ever done this much so easily, or looked so good doing it.
Shouldn’t the newest top-of-the-line from a company leading the genre ALWAYS be the best ever made? What am I missing here?
I will wait for the cheaper Chinese version. Hopefully it wont have any lead based paint on it.
#2,
You are gonna lick it?
Wasn’t there something a while back about reviews of products from a publication’s sponsor being manipulated so it was positive review? I’m a little hazy on the details, but after reading this article, I think that may be what you’re missing, John. To me this reads as if it belongs in an advertisement or press-kit more than a product review.
Do you have to use your computer to sync music from your hard drive, or can you simply use the iPod Touch and your home wi-fi to access your iTunes Music folder?
unfortunately its only the best cause everyone else gave up.
It needs BT. And 16gb for a video player is pathetic. it doesnt need the massive space of the classic, but needs 30-40 gb. some peoples music collection by itself is bigger than that.
All these features + a cell phone = iPhone.
Here’s the real John Dvorak on that subject:
http://tinyurl.com/2mds2j
Funny how tides turn…
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
#7
Yeah as a video player 16 gb is pathetic. I doesn’t matter how cool coverflow is if you can only have 14 movies) on it.
16 gb is enough for me for an mp3 player, but then you don’t need a costly music player that has a landscape 3.5 inch screen to flip through your music. I agree this thing needs to have 30-40 gb.
Ok, it’s cool, I have one on order. But, what’s next? how would you improve it? A Tb of storage? voice control? bluetooth? Plug in a 50″ display? GPS? I’m really looking forward to using the WiFi functionality.
But, can you run Vista on it? Ha Ha Ha Ha! Does it have a “terminal/telnet” program? Try telnet in Safati… does it work?
I have a cool FM radio thingie that I plug into my iPod… I guess it should work. right?
Actually 16GB isn’t bad – even for video – especially if you do what Apple wants you to do: buy the video from iTunes through Wi-Fi, then watch it.
And when you get home, it would be nice if iTunes on your home PC would simply download any video/audio that you purchased online automatically.
Apple’s next step should be: a slightly larger device with maybe an 8″ screen with WiFi and web-browser that can run web-based apps. You could still download videos and music, but that would be secondary to the main app: a portable wireless web-browser.
Yes, I know devices like this exist, and others have tried this before, but that was true of mp3 players before Apple developed the iPod. It takes Apple to show how to do it right. Or at least better.
And, no, I am not a mac fanboy. Macs suck.
#7 and #9
Its obvious that you don’t have a clue about engineering considerations when designing a device like the iPod touch. If you look at the hardware in the device that you want, it would include: a large display, a wifi interface, a hard drive, and bluetooth.
Sounds kind of like a laptop, doesn’t it?
And your laptop IPod would need a laptop size battery to power it, wouldn’t it?
Oh wait, so your ipod touch has now transformed into an iPod Brick.
Enjoy carrying a 2-3 lb device in your pocket!
#9,
Wow, I don’t get the complaints about it being only 16gb… and 14 movies… So you go on a week long business trip and you are too cheap to buy the ppv movies in your hotel room. That is 2 movies a night… More than I would consume… But then I typically think Atlanta for a week long business trip and I would be spending the evenings freak dancing with the young hotties in Buckhead. Um, what was your point again? Oh the portable device can’t store your entire movie collection… Does iTunes let you redownload your purchased television episdodes the way XBMC and Unbox do? It seems that would go a long way to making that meager 16gb more usable to you.
Am I getting old that I watch a movie once, then Ive had my fill of it? I saw 300 in the theater, then a few weeks ago my wife rented it, and I could barely sit through it a second time…
#10,
Apple could improve it quite a lot from this point, but for their frenemy relationship with microsoft(woo hoo i managed to use a blog term in a sentence!). They could pretty easily put a media center entender in it then you would watch live tv with the nicest PVR available. Or they could cozy up with sling media and you could place shift your tv anywhere you want. Or they could work with VMWare then you could get to your enterprise virtualized Vista desktop with it. Plus microsoft has all those great RDP stream extension that work flawlessly over remote desktop. But for some reason apple locks out all the hacks with each update…
Don’t worry though the next version of the iPhone will be unable to run unsigned code, then you will be totally locked into the way Apple does things. Apple just inked a deal with a DRM chipset provider.
I had a PDA almost… 10 years ago that did these sorts of things. I am sure the Apple zombies will buy these things by the truck loads… But I still remain uncertain what the value of portable media players is. Maybe I am getting old…
#13 I agree, Apple shouldn’t put a hard drive in the Touch because of the battery issues. But isn’t a 32gb flash drive possible?
#15. Yes, any flash memory upgrade should work with the current battery/footprint. You will only pay the price for the additional memory. Probably another $50-150 more i would imagine.
I understand the design considerations just fine. I’m an engineer myself. I didn’t say it would be easy.
Its just that this seems a step backward. Apples been trying to convince everyone for years that having your whole music collection ready on a whim is the thing to do. They finally release a player with a screen *made* for video and it has less capacity that some folks music collections.
I’m not saying it should have space for all your movies. It doesn’t even need to be as big as the largest capacity “classic.” But such a small size seems inconsistent with their approach in this market.
#17
Apple is doing what is technically possible right now.
If you need more than 16gb for your daily usage requirements, then wait a year or two until technology catches up or buy an iPod classic.
Just a wee comment on something our engineering geeks may not sync with. Successful companies don’t try to sell people down to a single solution. It’s dumb enough having politicians who believe in a magic bullet.
Even Porsche has a few models. The several models of iPod are aimed at broadly differing demographics.
now.. if they would sell one that let me use mp3/ogg and didnt force itunes down my throat.. i might raise an eyebrow..
a USB memory stick player w/a headphone jack works just fine for me.. (call me crusty)
-s
Funny. This thing is being touted as a revolutionary media player (or the iPhone, is…..whatever), and yet it doesn’t have any value added over my 4 year old Palm Tungsten T3. I have a media player on it that plays videos in realtime 16:9 format with sync’ed audio (I’ve watched movies and TV shows on car and plane trips). It’ll play any format, thanks to upgradeable codec packs, and it’ll play a wide range of music formats, too. All without DRM. Oh, and did I mention it is infinitely expandable through the use of external cards? And it’s a fairly powerful little pocket computer, to boot! Oh yeah….. And it cost half as much, too.
screw the iTouch
I still like the Archos. Its a full fledged DVR and has wifi.
If you’re satisfied with 214x480x16 bits, at maybe half the brightness, with a mono soundtrack – I say ‘enjoy’…
#23
OR you could be one of the early adopters who bought it first and one or two months later got suckered when Apple slashes $200 off the original price for its crippled iPhone.
me, I wonder if it was battery issues that kept a HD out of the Touch, or this obsessive desire for thinness that Steverino seems to have developed. the best video iPod should probably have the capacity to hold lots of video. 32gb of flash would probably push the price point up into (original) iPhone range.
#26. read again, a bit more carefully – that is “a” HD. as in “a” Hard Drive.
I may be nuts, but not about hi-def on that small a screen, pedro.
I am viewing this blog right now with my new iPod touch and it works very well. There are only a few issues so far. One is the screen contrast ratio. The blacks take on a washed negative look. I hope the is a firmware fix that will allow contrast control. The other is a small bug. Some videos take the icon from other videos and use them as their own.
Not a perfect product but still pretty dam close.
Oh and I like the keyboard. I can type much better than on my dash.
http://tinyurl.com/3dhh93
FULL DVR and player.
Photo viewer***: JPEG, BMP, PNG
PDF Viewer: Reads PDF documents (may not implement all PDF features)
Video Recording6: Via the optional DVR Station/ DVR Travel Adapter. Records NTSC/PAL/SECAM in MPEG-4 AVI format with stereo sound, VGA resolution (640 x 480) @ 30 or 25 f/s
Audio Recording: Via the optional DVR Station/ DVR Travel Adapter: Stereo line-in, WAV (IMA ADPCM or PCM) format
Interfaces: USB 2.0 High-Speed Device (compatible USB 1.1): Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Media Transport Protocol (MTP)
USB 2.0 Host: Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) with optional Mini Dock, Battery Dock and DVR stations
Connections: WiFi (802.11g) connection. Optional Internet plug-in (Opera® Web browser and Adobe Flash® Player) for Web browsing (for purchase on http://www.archos.com)
3.5 mm mini jack for headphones
Docking connectors to connect DVR Station and other ARCHOS accessories
>>are you nuts? HD on a 3″ screen? what the hell are you
>>talking about!!!!!!
Hey, I’ll bet it would look great in case you wanted to watch the movies under a microscope. You just never know when you might want to do that….
#29. I agree that the Archos has an impressive feature set. Probably the thing to have on a long airline flight, especially since it includes a kickstand, which most PMPs are conspicuously lacking.
32,
AND archos has been focusing on 1 style of product…
THIS is the top.
SCREW Iphone and such…
For the price it has ALL the options.
Looks like a great excuse to get mugged for. I mean, unless you have the luxury of playing with it at work, unobserved. You’re probably going to want to use it on the bus, or train, or in the park. And wham, someone mugs you and takes it. You’d probably be safe on a jetliner. But they wouldn’t let you use it because the WiFI might interfere with the plane’s navigation.
I think the reason for the cover art display of albums/CDs is this. This encourages only paid music on the thing. Because P2P music probably isn’t going to come with cover art. At least not for some time. But it’s just so much eye candy after a while. And you’ll be back to list mode, which is quicker than fingering albums by their covers. It only comes in handy when you can’t remember the song or band by name, to save you. But you can spot the cover art.
As for playing movies. Hopefully this thing has a plug for adding a battery pack to keep it running all the way thru “Ben-Hur”.