iPod touch is the best portable media player ever made
When the iPhone came out in June, many people
loved it, but wanted it without the phone...
So says Tim Gideon 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.
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.
Tim Gideon’s review offers great detail. As an important product review should.
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.
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.
Tim Gideon’s review offers great detail. As an important product review should.
Posted: Fri - September 14, 2007 at 06:37 AM