iPod touch Review

Welcome to my humble, oft-posted-in blog,

I've held off posting anything for a while since last post because I said I would try out the iPod touch for which I traded in my Creative ZVM. I've had a chance to explore the various nooks and crannies within the iPod touch, and this blog post will be my attempt to educate the internet world on my experience with the touch.



First off, I wanted to challenge a comment I made before getting the touch. I told some friends that I thought the iPod video was the best portable digital media player available on the market (at least for what I like in a PDMP). One friend asked what I would do if I got an iPod touch, and I said I'd sell it to get an iPod video. It's got great space (up to 80GB, or even 120GB for a premium), is Rockbox-compatible, plays video, and most importantly, is diyMod-capable. As it turned out, the opportunity presented itself, a chance to sell the iPod touch for an iPod video. The lineout on my ZVM broke, so I traded it in for warranty at Best Buy. It had a whopping value of 380 CAD, which is just perfect for an iPod touch 16GB. When told I had such a trade-in value, I asked if they had any iPod videos kicking around in the back, a mere 6 months or so after Apple released all these new toys. They didn't, so I "settled" with an iPod touch 16GB for 370 CAD+tax. I would have gotten something nice for the extra 10 bucks, but the cashier girl didn't want to bother going through the whole process of returning the iPod touch and buying it again with an additional product .

I headed home, and announced my new purchase to my family. My dad got really jealous and wanted to trade me his iPod 5G 60GB. I told him I'd consider it and proceeded to load it up with music. I had plenty of videos to upload, but they were not in MPEG4/h.264 format. I didn't want to bother converting it all, though I've since converted and uploaded a few. My music collection weighs in at a mere ~9.5GB, so the whole 16GB cap doesn't bother me just yet. What does annoy me is that I can't put all my videos and music on at the same time, so I have to juggle between videos I feel like watching. I guess that's a small taste of what 'shuffle' and 'nano' owners have to put up with.



SQ-wise, it sounds pretty decent, but not up to par with my diyMod 4G (Rubycon Black Gate NX Hi-Q 47uF). I compared both on my Millett MAX and "Grado SR60s", and bass is severely lacking on the 'touch' compared to the 4G. I like the bass to be a bit bloated, which is one reason I moved from 22uF BGs to 47uF. Despite the SQ change, I have almost completely stopped using my 4G. More on that later. I rip all my music to LAME MP3 320kbps CBR via EAC, and that helps to keep things to a minimum capacity. I know, I know, FLAC and Rockbox and everything, but until I find a compelling reason to re-rip everything (as small a collection as it is), I'll stick to the MP3s. But on to the 'touch'. Initially, I didn't want to play with it much since I had a BSE in the mail, but I did anyway. It came with a protective screen on the front anyway, so I relied on that until the skin came in.

I had always known that the iPod touch could be jailbroken because I remember it being breaking news back in the days of FW v1.1.1. Now, iPhones and iPod touches are up to 1.1.4, and apparently it makes a big difference which FW you use. Since the couple weeks that I did unlock this mother, it has become a completely painless process to unlock/jailbreak the iPhones/touches thanks to Yuri of ZiPhone renown. Quite simply, you hook up your iPod touch, click the 'Jail Break' button, and you just wait a bit. From there, you get an App on your Springboard (the main screen, app-handling program, basically the thing you get when you click the home button) called Installer, which is your portal to all those sweet programs those computer science/computer engineer/software engineer/nerds come up with. The way you get them is by adding a source in the "Source" section, then click on the "Install" button, and then you are given a list of apps that are contained within those sources. A source is a website link whose address is input into the Source section, and programmers upload their apps into those sources, or repositories. I'm not clear on the full process, but that's the skinny. The whole jail breaking community is pretty good about helping out new members, from what I've seen, and there are dozens of useful YouTube tutorial videos that can help you along the process of jailbreaking. Google can elaborate, should you really care to learn more. Anyway, my experience with jailbreaking was pretty horrible, but now that it's pretty painless, it shouldn't be a problem for any newcomers.

Anyway, I played with my 'touch' for a mere 5 days before letting it sit on the table and collect dust while USPS' and Canada Post's super slow international shipping brought in my fingerprint repellent. I really liked the multi-touch interface, as it felt really natural and the transition was almost seamless coming from my Palm Treo 680. I want to emphasize the natural aspect of the touch screen, because I think it's a really big deal how intuitive it is. It doesn't take long for the user to understand the power of the screen-throwing ability of the interface, because reading long threads on head-fi can be problematic with such a small screen. Nevertheless, after using the 'touch' for a bit, it seemed like everything I read was supposed to be thrown upward if I wanted to advance in my reading. I tried it on my Treo 680, without thinking, and all it did was select text. My phone uses a push screen, the ones where there are little thingies that respond to where you touch. What a difference there is between the capacitive multi-touch and the push screen! Surfing the interweb on Safari is surprisingly painless as one attempts to tap such tiny links. You don't even have to zoom in most of the time if you want to click the smaller links that would require a stylus on other screens. HowStuffWorks has a nice section explaining the iPod touch interface. Because of the awesome multi-touch screen, I'm currently waiting for the chance I can ditch my Treo and grab an iPhone to reduce the number of devices in my pocket, which brings me to my next section.



One purpose of smartphones is to pack a bunch of devices into a small package, like word processors, calculators, calendars, spreadsheets, et cetera. One element that places the iPod touch and iPhone above the competition is the fiercely loyal fan base, where this strange joy and energy aid in the proliferation of great applications - and it's free to boot. I could get a bunch of games and other sweet programs from Palm for my Treo, but they all cost something, and at the prices they're charging, they better be darned flawless compared to the free ones I'm getting on my 'touch'. The apps on the 'touch' can be updated, so if anything is wrong with it, I can complain to the programmer or just sit back and wait until the other complainers motivate him/her to improve it. I've never really installed much on my Treo besides a drawing program and a few games, but with the iPod touch, it seems difficult to hold oneself back from installing everything. The Wi-fi connection is sometimes faster than on my laptop at the same distance from the router, but it's a toss up depending on the time of day. Installed on my touch are

- Summerboard (applies themes to Springboard)
- MPG (keeps track of my car's fuel expenditure)
- Sketches (drawing program that makes use of the multi-touch feature)
- MxTube (downloads YouTube videos)
- NES, SNES, and Genesis emulators (obvious )
- weDict (dictionary app that allows you to select which dictionary/dictionaries you want to use)
- AcceleroLog (lets you see the accelerometer's x, y, and z values)
- Metronome (I drum, so why not?)
- iSolitaire (easier than playing in real life)
- GuitarTuner (for those odd moments when I don't have my tuning fork on me)
- BounceApp (useless app that bounces a picture around the screen depending on how you tilt the iPod)
- Marble (game where you tilt the touch and send a marble through obstacle courses)
- BBSudoku (Sudoku accessed through the internet, fitted to the iPod's screen; check out http://www.freeverse.com/iphone/sudoku/)
- AirHockey (one or two players)
- Convert (obvious and awesome)

There are way more apps, and they all have their niche markets. I'd install more and use the current ones more if I could access the university's wireless internet on my 'touch', but that's what my laptop is for (it's an encryption thing). The point is that one has "the veritable pick of the litter of [apps] that have no idea how to please you" (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones). Consider it the RockBox of the iPod touch, though they are quite different.

Basically, the touch screen and sweet apps have turned me off the diyMod 4G, which I barely have any use for anymore. I plan to diyMod the iPod touch as well, but that will have to wait as my current iPod prying tools are incapable of opening it. I could use more scratch-inducing tools, but I want to trade this for an iPhone some day, so I'm going to have to take good care of it. This time, Apple has opted to use Wolfson's WM8758 chip, the same one in the iPod video. Once I realized this, I decided I probably am not going to get the iPod video, though that storage space is mighty tempting.



You're probably wondering what gripes I have about this thing, and though I may come off as an Apple fanboy, I do have some honest reservations about this iPod. You already know how I feel about the storage capacity: I want more so I can put more videos on it. It's a bit thin, making it somewhat difficult to hold. A friend has an iPhone, which is a bit more natural in the hand. SQ is not quite what I'd like it to be; bass is lacking. There aren't any spreadsheet programs yet available to the public. That's how I keep record of my workouts (which is one of main uses of this sucker), but since the 'touch' doesn't have any spreadsheets, I have to use my phone. There's nothing like strolling through the gym and having people stare at your pockets and wonder what's inside. It's flattering, yes, but uncalled for. Aside from that, I can't really think of what else bothers me about this thing. The BSE is all nice and laced up, though there is a glaring mark on the front now (at least it wasn't on the glass right?) that won't go away. I'll report more when I actually diyMod this thing and really unleash its value. Until then.