1 post tagged “ipod classic”

So, as many of you probably know, I bought an iPod Classic back in December as a Christmas present. Having 80 GB of storage was really sweet. I could throw anything I wanted on to it and still have gobs of storage space left over. But in comparison to the iTouch, it really didn’t stand up. The iTouch had a superior screen, built in WiFi and on-the-fly music downloads, not to mention a forthcoming SDK for really cool applications. So although I loved my classic, I yearned for a Touch. So, for my graduation present/birthday present, I bought myself an 8 GB iTouch. It didn’t have the gobs of storage space that my Classic had, but it had several advantages. First, the 3.5” Widescreen is amazing. Compared to the 2.5” on my classic, the Touch wins hands down. Video’s looks amazing, and beat out the classic  On a related point, the Touch’s screen is made of optical quality glass, which is much tougher and scratch resistant then the plastic on the Classic. The WiFi is amazing. I’ve been wanting to get away from my main desktop for a long time and the iTouch provided an excellent way to do just that. With the built in Wi-Fi and the January Software upgrade, iTouch offers Full HTML/CSS web browsing, a Mail client with support for IMAP/POP3 as well as Google Maps.  Safari renders webpages very well, albeit without Flash support and the accelerometer built into the iTouch is excellent for both Portrait and Landscape viewing modes.  The Mail Client is decent, allowing you to receive and forward messages as well as delete messages right off the server and file messages into folders. There is support for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL Mail and any other POP3, IMAP or Exchange server based system. The Interface on the touch is easy to use and innovative. Clicking the “Home” button twice brings up a set of music controls that allow you to change the volume or skip to the next song anywhere in the Touch, even if the hold switch is on. The iTunes WiFi Music store is quite good. Downloads are fast, and the interface is simple enough. A minor pain is you musc synce your iTunes account information before you can use the store, you can’t sign in from the Touch.

So what are the pitfalls? There are a few, to say the least. First is the virtual keyboard. After using it for a few days, it’s easy enough to type on, enought to pound emails. However, for some stupid reason, the Widecreen mode is only support in Safari, leaving you to use it in Portrait Mode for most applications, like Email, Notes and others. Secondly, software, in area’s seem a little buggy. Some applications (like Safari) will crash for no reason, and go to the Home screen, even when in the middle of reading something. Sometimes, going to a particular section of the iTouch will cause to freeze momentarily, before proceeding. I’ve only experienced this on a few occasions however.  DVD chaptering seams a tad buggy. I tried to movies and, when I selected scene, it would just restart the current chapter. After 2 or 3 times, it would work, but that should work right from the get go. Flash support is needed, especially for people who watch non Youtube sites, like Veoh, SurftheChannel and others. As well, some sites don’t work well or at all, if they are entirely based on Flash. Some websites (like Revision3) have created they’re own iPhone based site and transcoded video’s into H.264 for viewing, but this really isn’t pratical and Apple should just bite the bullet and allow Flash on the iPhone. My Final gripe in syncing. Apple, for some arcane reason, only let’s you import calendars, contacts and bookmarks from Microsoft programs like Outlook and IE. No .csv file, no VCARD file, not HTML file. So I had to export my Firefox bookmarks to IE and then sync them to my iTouch. And my contacts? I had to manually input them after they wouldn’t import correctly into Outlook from Gmail. It’s stupid, it really is.

Despite it’s pitfalls, the Touch is an excellent device. I’ve been looking at a device like this for a few months now and I’ve very satisfied. While I wouldn’t say that the iTouch is better then something like an N810 or comparative smartphone, for someone looking for an all-in-one solution for your on the good needs, I would highly recommend the iTouch.