Maybe it's the wonderful touch screen or the bright colors or my need to impress everybody around me (so I can fit in as a cool-hip-kinda-of-guy). Never the less my new toy is a beauty to behold. After a couple of days playing around with it I saw a few things that I like and some that I don't like.
1.) My iPod was the version 1-point-something. So I couldn't use all those nice applications that everybody is raving about, and jailbreaking right-left and centre to make it work. I didn't want to stuff-up my iPod so I decided to pay and download the new update 2.0. So far so good. The update costs about 10 USD and you can buy with credit card or a iTunes voucher. The size of the download was about 225 MB! I had to wait about 2 hours to download. AND IT CRASHED ! TWICE! I'm not sure if it was my connection or not, but the Apple server was timing out.
2.) Installing the update. IT CRASHED WITH A GENERIC ERROR! I was petrified from fear that my new toy was destroyed. But thankfully every time you connect to iTunes, a backup is been performed automatically. So I was able to revert back and try again. Second time lucky. But Apple should have been more careful about things like that. A generic error report is absolutely no help what so ever.
3.) After the update to version 2 I was able to download and install some applications. To tell you the truth there are some gems out there, and others, well let say they need some more polish. Installation was easy and quick. Most of the files are less than 5 MB (The free ones. The ones you buy they might be that size). No problems here.
4.) Itunes. Well it's a piece of software that you will love to hate. I really do not like it. Yes OK it's sync very easy with your iPod, backs it up etc, but you can use your iPod only with 5 authenticated computers. Each time you connected to one you need to authenticate that computer if you want to do something meaningful with your toy. And if you are one of the people that reformat their hard drives quite often, then remember this: UN-AUTHANTICATE BEFORE REFORMAT. That way you retain the “tokens” to use again. LAME! Why is that? Are Apple getting a leaf out of M$ book how to be obnoxious and idiotic? What they don't listen to any of the news? I hate to break the news but people, they want FREEDOM (Que a very famous blue painted actor barging in with a long sword) when it comes to their computers. And if you have two computers and connect the iPod in both, only one of the two will sync at any time with it. One will overwrite the contents of it at any sync. From the other point of view its back up facility did save my iPod.......
5.) NO BLUETOOTH? N-O B-L-U-E-T-O-O-T-H???? WTH? ARE YOU INSANE? ARE YOU LIVING IN A CAVE? WOKE UP ONE MORNING AND YOU HEAD WAS THE OTHER WAY? WHAT'S GOING ON? Well yes iPod touch does not have bluetooth. My last PDA from HP had it. My previous from Pilot had at least infrared. The iPod doesn't have it? That, to my humble opinion is crap! Why? Wifi is NOT always something you want to use. I am missing out in all those things that my PDA was allowing me to do. Foldable keyboard, wireless headphones, BLUETOOTH PRINTNG god damn it! We can't ALL have a wireless network that includes a printer too. And that means you can't exchange ANYTHING with friends. Nope! Forget it son, you are alone. Even the Zune was doing that. (The ony good thing I guess). Shame. Oh well maybe NEXT model? Hmmmmm I see a re-occuring pattern here. The apple looks like more and more with a half-opened window........Hmmmm.
6.) Battery. Well in the tradition of Apple, the battery is NOT user replaceable. And it will cost you extra to take it for a replacement. Well to some people that would be OK, if you don't want to bother, to others will not. If you live away from a dedicated Apple centre then good luck to you my friend. Enjoy your new toy. Oh and by the way. Good luck to me too! Battery life is descent, didn't actually measured it, but I did a recharge after three days while the player was going in sleep mode and playing mp3s and movies every few hours. I only once shut it down to see how that feels like. Having the wifi on lasted for about a day or so.
7.) Using Safari. It's a pleasure to surf with it. The screen renders so nice that I was able to see details in words ever with such small scale. But unfortunately no FLASH support. It's a pity because more and more sites are using flash to present information. Some site are just a big flash covering the whole screen. Maybe next version will support flash.
8.) After a restart I got something very funny. All of a sudden I got NO WIFI as a indication under the settings? WTH? Were is my bloody Wifi? I had to restart for the wifi to come on again! Talking about similarities with Windows. SCARY! The thought is still haunts me right now and I'm going to double check. (After a minute or so......) It's there. Pheeeeewwww. That's a relief.
9.) Design. It's top class. Very user friendly and the Aqua-like interface (that reminds me a song that I saw in YouTube. Go and see it. I think it's called Mac VS Pc. Lots of fun.) is very crisp and clear. That's why I transformed my Linux interface to look like the leopard. LOL. Seriously it's a very lovely thing to look at. Silver backing with glass top. Excellent.
10.) Extras. Can you spell “We-will-grab-your-backside-and squeeze-out-of-you-the-last-nickel-you've-got”? Yep nothing but the basics comes with it. Even the recharger you have to buy. I really hate to turn on the computer to recharge it. And NO I WILL NOT spend more money for something that everybody else includes. Well I guess they have to make money from somewhere. I mean the price of the iPod it's a steal.(For those you don't get me by now, I'M BEEN SARCASTIC!). On the other hand they have a truck-load of accessories, some ugly as hell, some very good (especially from top companies like Bose and Altec Lansing).
11.) Push email. Well it does that too. Just as long as you are in a free Wifi area. If you are not then WHAT PUSH EMAIL? Go and buy the iPhone then, and leave us alone. I tried with a gmail account and it worked excellent. You can even connect with an Exchange account. Haven't try that yet. Ohh and a small secret. If you have problems syncing your Outlook contacts, as I did, upgrade you iTunes software to the latest version. It will fix the problem.
12.) Audio. Video. Well I'm not a audio Engineer, so I can say that the sound, emmm well for a lack of a better word, sounds nice. Same for the video too. Crisp and clear, just as long you have done a good encoding of your video. Supplied earphone are OK nothing great here. Oh and something that was puzzling me for a bit. The iPod DOESN'T have speakers. It has one just for the beeps and blips of system sounds. Nothing else. No external audio at all. If you need something to listen your music, buy one of the over-priced docks available. Most of them will recharge your iPod too.
All and all the iPod touch is a great new toy to enjoy your music, video and, ahem, portable lifestyle. Don't get fooled though. It's over hyped for it's abilities. For it to be 100% as the marketing department says you need your own wireless network connected to your body AT ALL TIMES. It's not definite 100% value but, if Apple listens (here to hope I guess) it will. Just like my EeePC I would buy one more if I had the money.
