New iPod Touch 4G first impressions - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by me7 

If they had used the same camera they would have needed to make the device a lot thicker, almost as thick as the iPhone, to fit it in. Optics need a certain amount of space and volume.

I would've been just fine with that. I don't place much importance on aesthetics when choosing a portable media player like the iPod Touch and seeing as the iPhone 4 isn't exactly a massive brick of a phone, I would've been perfectly fine if Apple had bumped up the size to include a better camera sensor.

I would be very interested to learn how the new touch sounds compared with the best Sony players.

Anyone compared cowon s9 with ipod 4g? If ipod sounds better im gonna go and get it

I highly doubt the new 4g would touch the sound quality of cowon s9. (but maybe thats' just me.)

I am no Apple lover and I do not love iTunes, but a few things:

1. You can just delete the directory with the music you want to remove. iTunes will report the missing files as broken links, and you can delete them manually. It's a PITA, give me manual control over my folders any day, but not a 3 hour process like you are making it out to be

2. You can tell iTunes not to spider and dump all your music into its folder. Check the options, its there.

3. Your USB port issues.... are probably an issue with your PC. I've never had USB port issues with my iPods, Windows Mobile is by far a worse offender with ActiveSync.

Hopefully this will make life easier for you. If not... use Media Monkey or something, syncs with iPods fine. There are tons of alternatives to iTunes for syncing with iPods. 
 

My real big issue with iTunes is that you can't save how your iTunes library is setup... or at least I haven't figured out yet. Say I buy a new PC or Mac have to do a reinstall, the way iTunes is set up with your song ratings, play lists, etc is gone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 

You would think in the last 10 years Apple would figure out that you need to be able to add AND REMOVE directories in which music is stored right? They still haven't done it. In Zune software you can add AND REMOVE folders in mere seconds. To do this with iTunes you have to wipe the program off your computer, wipe your iPod, move the files to where you want them to be, then reinstall everything. It was a 3 hour process from me starting to try to find where you can remove folders in iTunes to actually having it setup the way I wanted it.

 

3 hours versus 10-20 seconds?

 

Also it seems iPod and iTunes is EXTREMELY picky about the USB port you use. I was getting massive lag and sync time-outs. I moved the USB to another port 1 slot below (on the same internal USB hardware) and it magically worked like it should have. In a year with my Zune I never had a single problem syncing even using a low speed USB 1.1 port sometimes.

 

One of the main problems with iTunes that I have, personally, is it tries to become your only source for music. It tries to pull in your library, hack it to pieces, and then glue it together within it's proprietary storage system. At this point you are stuck with it. I will never download a song from iTunes because of this. If I want to be free of it, I'd likely lose the songs I paid for. Zune doesn't do this, but it also doesn't allow you to sync backwards, which is troubling, but not as bad. Drag and drop portable players are definitely the best, unfortunately the hardware and software of these players is often far far behind.

It was a 3 hour ordeal because as a new iTunes user I had to search for answers to each problem I had along the way. Combine that with the USB issues (which are not limited to myself, according to searches I did) and you get a 3 hour restart for someone who doesn't know how to use iTunes. Also, don't apologize for Apple not having simple BASIC folder control. It's idiotic.

And yes I know you can disable iTunes from pulling all your media together. I have it set that way. It's set by default to do it, though, which bothers me.

Also, I did delete one of the folders I had music in. iTunes didn't report anything. It assumed everything was still there. This was the main reason I had to do a full wipe in the first place.

I didn't know you could sync with media monkey, I'll have to give that a try. I expected an Apple product to only work with iTunes since they are so ultra controlling in everything else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hockey_magnet 

No offense but so what? Many people, myself included like the iPhone 4's build. It seems sturdier than the Touch and is not exactly massive compared to other similar devices. I don't think Apple sees this as a size issue. They still want to differentiate the 2 devices by more than just one's a phone the other isn't. Also, a 32 GB unlocked iphone 4 is  $779 versus $319 for the Touch (Canadian) which couldn't be justified for just the phone being included, so while I understand their marketing perfectly well, I'm still disappointed that they chose to downgrade the Touch re camera, processor, screen. I would have paid more $ to get a real "iphone without the phone".

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGame21x 

I would've been just fine with that. I don't place much importance on aesthetics when choosing a portable media player like the iPod Touch and seeing as the iPhone 4 isn't exactly a massive brick of a phone, I would've been perfectly fine if Apple had bumped up the size to include a better camera sensor.

Interesting how people's views of DAPs differ. I would have prefered a touch without any camera at all if it was 5€ cheaper

would you think that the sound quality of a 4g ipod touch is much worse than cowon j3´s? are the differences very noticiable with a pair of alessandro ms1s?

I could buy a cowon j3 but it would cost me like 40% more expensive than the ipod (I live in Argentina and they are very hard to find, and very expensive), do you think it´s worth the difference?

^^ I want to know too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by alvaroa 

would you think that the sound quality of a 4g ipod touch is much worse than cowon j3´s? are the differences very noticiable with a pair of alessandro ms1s?

Between my S9 and any iPod I have ever heard, external amp or not, My S9 EQing ability completely trounces the Ipod. 'bass boost' on the iPod sounds like crackling rice crispies in the background on my PortaPros, wheras X-bass and Mach3 Bass on my Cowon S9 actually improve the low end on the 'phones, with no distortion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by me7 

Interesting how people's views of DAPs differ. I would have prefered a touch without any camera at all if it was 5€ cheaper

You're right in a way but most Touch users (myself included) do not buy them just for DAP functions but more as a multi purpose device. If I wanted DAP only I probably wouldn't buy a Touch but they can't be beat as a general purpose device with very good DAP capability. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by hockey_magnet 

 

You're right in a way but most Touch users (myself included) do not buy them just for DAP functions but more as a multi purpose device. If I wanted DAP only I probably wouldn't buy a Touch but they can't be beat as a general purpose device with very good DAP capability. 

This ^

If I were buying a DAP only I'd probably go Sony or Cowon instead of the Touch 4G I bought.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevenswall 

Between my S9 and any iPod I have ever heard, external amp or not, My S9 EQing ability completely trounces the Ipod. 'bass boost' on the iPod sounds like crackling rice crispies in the background on my PortaPros, wheras X-bass and Mach3 Bass on my Cowon S9 actually improve the low end on the 'phones, with no distortion.

what external amps have you used or heard with ipod? just curious how the S9 would trounce ipod+lod+ (protector, Pico, TTVJ etc..) in SQ.
or are you comparing EQing ability only?

Just let iTunes organize your music for you. Personally, I have it set so that it whenever I play/add a song, it copies it magically somewhere into the iTunes folder (under the correct artist, album etc.). Then I can just delete the original file.

If I need to copy the file somewhere, it's as easy as highlighting the song in iTunes and going ctrl + c and pasting it wherever, or dragging it somewhere. If you want to delete a file, delete it in iTunes and select "Move to Trash". There's really no need to handle any of the music files through Windows Explorer or Finder anymore. Just do it entirely through iTunes. 

Migrating libraries from computer to computer is super easy too. You just copy the entire iTunes folder from one computer to another (even if its from Windows to OSX or vice versa), and all your settings, playlists, music, podcasts etc. are kept the way they were.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 

It was a 3 hour ordeal because as a new iTunes user I had to search for answers to each problem I had along the way. Combine that with the USB issues (which are not limited to myself, according to searches I did) and you get a 3 hour restart for someone who doesn't know how to use iTunes. Also, don't apologize for Apple not having simple BASIC folder control. It's idiotic.

 

And yes I know you can disable iTunes from pulling all your media together. I have it set that way. It's set by default to do it, though, which bothers me.

 

Also, I did delete one of the folders I had music in. iTunes didn't report anything. It assumed everything was still there. This was the main reason I had to do a full wipe in the first place.

 

I didn't know you could sync with media monkey, I'll have to give that a try. I expected an Apple product to only work with iTunes since they are so ultra controlling in everything else.