Accessories

Touch Ipod : 4,5 Star Average

Everything I wrote earlier still applies and more. I still give it a 4,5 star ranking because of the battery life. (I will call iPod touch that touch iPod)

But I’ve been using my Touch iPod as a pocket computer (came in really handy when I was in Toronto in the fall break) and (as a surprise even for myself) as an ebook reader (reading in bed) and video player more than as a music player.

There are several apps for ebooks like ‘free ebooks’ and ‘ebooks’. And I’ve been rereading Anne of Green Gables while flying to Toronto (how appropriate). Sitting somewhere with free wifi, calling people with skype all over the world, writing about the vacation on facebook so that your friends and family are up-to-date. It’s really great.

As sad as it may sound, I’d really miss my iPod if I wouldn’t have it now. It was never that way with my ipod classic. And I have my addressbook on hand all the time without having to carry around my (heavy) paper diary. I discovered a lot of really good apps, like lonely planet travel books (hate to carry around weight on vacations) and free courses on foreign languages (ever tried chinese?) etc. even bought Jamie Olivers recipes, which is a really great app btw.

Only complaint might be that Touch iPod 64 GB is not enough storage (I need 128 GB) and battery life of course. However you use your ipod btw is highly personal of course and very dependant on personal circumstances, but I think you might get addicted to it like I have.

Old review:
I’ve had my Touch iPod for almost two weeks now (played with it for days on end and as happy with it as can be). Since there are many, many reviews written about the technology etc, I won’t write about that. Let me state first that I did some reading on the subject before I bought the Touch iPod and that my main goal was to have an MP3 player with enough GB to contain all my music and some of my video’s and have a small portable ‘computerlike device’ for internet and mail (at home, at work and on vacation since most hotels have free WiFi for guests now).

I’ll write a review from a user’s point of view. And more important, I think I’m just an average user and a first time Touch iPod user, so there will be no comparisons in my review between this generation pod and older generations (I already owned an ipod classic though). This review is for the 64 GB third gen iPod Touch which i’d been waiting for, since I thought the 32 Gb had not enough storage for me.

On the very positive side:

I wasn’t looking for a cell phone or a camera (could have bought the iPhone then), since I already own fine working devices for both (who wants a 3 megapixel camera on a phone anyway if you own a credit card sized 12.1 megapixel camera, which can make video’s in HD quality at the same time and I never use the camera on my cell phone for that reason). Sure, you have to carry more devices in your bag, but that’s the choice you make for quality especially as regards the camera and video.

The problem with multi tasking small devices in my opinion is that normally you have everything in a poor to reasonable and nothing in excellent quality. Not so the Touch iPod 3rd Generation.

First I think it is a great gadget and more. I’ve had no trouble whatsoever to install and use it, without having to refer to the manual at any time. I am lucky to have WiFi everywhere I’m in a building (at home, work, hotels, my parents etc), so e-mail and internet is no problem. I installed skype, which works fine and I even free installed software for traffic news and since I live in the Netherlands, something called ‘uitzending gemist’. I can watch missed TV programmes on streaming video, which to my surprise really works great. I’ve tried everything I could ‘click’ on and while I won’t use everything on a regular basis, it all works fine except for some (minor) points you can read in my review further on.

You can listen to the music without the earphones (it has loudspeakers, though don’t ask me where they put it), which is quite nice (but don’t expect great sound quality, just good enough to listen to video’s and TV, music quality is much better with earphones).

And since I have small hands, I have no problems entering a text. But I imagine someone with bigger hands could have some problems there (but hey what do you expect, we want devices as small as this and expect them to do everything and anything??).

Loading internet pages, sending email and getting e-mail: very fast! One of the many surprises.

Compared to the iPod classic it is great to have this big screen and it is easier to use.

On the negative side:

I tried the microphone which works fine for Skype etc, but not for the use of voice control (name a musical number??). The only composer it recognizes seems to be Mozart. But if I want Verdi, all I get is some rock song. I don’t know if this works better in English, since I have the Dutch language installed on my pod. Anyway, a small negative for me since I did not intend to use it much.

But I think the problem might be in the pronunciation of words. It probably expects me to pronounce words like it is spoken in Dutch, which might be a problem if all you listen to are foreign composers and singers (but I had a blast listening to the music I have and didn’t know I had on my pod). So this is not a problem because of the quality of the mic, but just the inner workings of voice control that doesn’t seem to adjust well to languages.

The battery, that could be a more serious problem if you like to watch video’s, say on vacation (of course at home I’ll use my TV). Here is where my knowledge of technology fails, because I don’t know if it’s possible to have a longer lasting battery in a device this small. I’d have liked it though, if the battery lasted longer than it does now. Especially if you use the wireless, that seems to ’suck’ energy more than anything.

I have a radio on my iPod classic which requires no internet, just a radio accessory I bought. Why not on this pod? I can use streaming internet radio (which also works fine), but that requires internet access which I have a lot of the time, but not always.

On the whole: not sorry to have bought Touch iPod, even at these prices. There are some (minor) negative points, but then what do you expect from a device this size (and the size I definitely consider an advantage). It does have it’s limitations and to say anything else, well, I think that would not be totally honest. And I could probably have written a lot more, but I think for everyday use, it’s about the music, video’s, internet and e-mail.

Viewed from that point I think the positive sides far outweigh the negatives.

PS: I’ve used Skype for several days now and it’s really great to be able to speak to relatives on another continent via internet FOR FREE.

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