First Look: Apple iPod Touch

The video here sums it all up quite nicely, if I dare say, but here's a few key points worth noting about the iPod Touch.

Standard headphone jack

It may seem like an insignificant detail, but after the iPhone threw us for a loop with its recessed headphone jack, everybody wants to know if the iPod Touch has the same issue. The answer is no. Despite the fact that the iPod Touch looks nearly identical to the iPhone, the headphone jack is a standard plug that accepts any 3.5mm stereo headphone connection. The jack also distinguishes itself from the iPhone by being located on the bottom of the player, instead of at the top.

Wi-Fi iTunes store

While most of us expected a new iPod that basically functioned as a phone-less iPhone, few of us expected Steve Jobs to give in to the demands for wireless iTunes music downloads. Alas, that's exactly what he's done, allowing both the iPod Touch and iPhone to connect directly to a mobile version of the iTunes Store where the entire iTunes music catalog can be browsed, previewed, and purchased--wirelessly. Although we haven't had much time using the Wi-Fi iTunes Store feature, at first glance, it looks like the selections are limited strictly to music selections, with no offerings for wireless video or podcast downloads. Recently we've seen products such as the Archos 605 WiFi offer wireless movie downloads over Wi-Fi, so it will be somewhat disappointing if Apple does not follow suit.

All in all, the iPod Touch looks like a beautiful product. Offered in 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) capacities, with a battery life of 22 hours for audio, and five hours for video, the iPod Touch delivers on all the features we loved about the iPhone's iPod.

[the_narc_2000]

PDA features???

I know they took away the Notes application, but did they also make the Calendar and Contacts apps read-only???

[smandley]

Does the Touch support manual mode...

...or do you have to sync with your iTunes library like the iPhone?

[t1mm0_NZ]

Wi-Fi iTunes Sync

Does the Wi-Fi capability allow you to sync with your iTunes over the air?

[dopre]

why only 8 & 16 gigs?

[dep82]

flashed based

because its flash based, and thats about the limit for an ipod sized device

[Premonition23]

A waste of money

Might as well get the Iphone, the Ipod touch is just the Iphone without calling features.

[DarkHawke]

A saving of money!

On the contrary! You'd actually SAVE somewhere north of $1500 with the iPod Touch, i.e. the minimum monthly cost of the two-year required service agreement for using the iPhone over the AT&T cell service, not counting applicable taxes and fees. If you don't need/want a phone and DO want double the memory in your portable media player, you're making out like a bandit in comparison!

[yheru85]

Not really wasting money

Ipod touch is definitely a way to get all the cool feature of the iPhone. I personally didn't like the way iPhone is set up. Why? because I don't want anyone to tell me what provider I have to use. Outside America, consumers have choices to pick any phone they like and then choose any provider they like. If i have to choose between iPhone and iPod Touch, I would rather have my freedom of using any provider I like and get iPod touch for my music. I don't mind not having the voice feature, as long as no one told me to sign up "only" with a specific provider. What a lame monopoly idea.

[HarrisNick1]

More Storage For the Touch, Please!

I wish they would have crammed more storage in the iPod Touch instead of making another iPod to further differentiate the product line. Seriously, they have two iPods aimed at the same market, do away with the Classic, keep the same form factor as the iPhone and cram more storage in it. That's the the only reason I wouldn't buy the Touch, simply because my music collection alone is 15 GB and adding videos, photos, buying music off of iTunes wirelessly, and Safari would certainly eat even more of that 16 GB. Damn you Apple, now I'm stuck with last gen tech.

[DarkHawke]

Tantalizingly close...but no cigar!

Back when the iPhone came out (two months ago?), I salivated over the revolutionary interface, but was dissuaded by the EXTREME expense of both the phone and required service package, and the paucity of its storage. I posted somewhere that I'd jump at one if they took out the phone, put in a hard drive and added in Ogg support. Well, .333 in the majors is considered pretty good, right? :D

It's still the sexiest media player around, but my, there's still one HELL of a premium for that interface and form factor! You can get TEN TIMES the storage capacity from the latest iPod "Classic" for $50 [i]less[/i] than the cost of the 16 GB iPod Touch! With the nascent trend of large-scale solid state storage in notebook computers, I'd have expected Apple to go entirely flash memory on the iPod line, drop the "classic" iPod, and put at least 32 GB on the iPod Touch. So much for the visionary bravery that eliminated the floppy drive and standardized the USB port on the first iMac!

And the Ogg support is...well, as non-existent as I'd have expected. It'll be interesting to see, however, what the next-gen iPod Touch will be like, and to see what the RockBox folks might be able to do with it. They seem to have it goin' on big-time with the "classic" iPod, though the Touch is an almost entirely different beastie. The quest goes on....

[dthurlow]

For all you itouch owners out there...a new company named mogotxt has created an application to enable free texting from the itouch. Its really cool and free! Sign up at www.mogotxt.com