iPod virgin busts cherry with 2nd gen Touch
Written: Feb 06 '09
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Yes I guess the title gave everything away. I’m sure that most reviews for the new 2nd generation iPod touch will be coming from nerds that have been with apple from the moment the first iPod touched down. I on the other hand might be something of an oddity. For as long as I can remember I’ve wrapped myself in just about all the new tech toys as they hit the market.
I purchased a Walkman when no one else I knew owned one, first on the block to own a CD player and DVD player. I was quick to embrace high definition TV and audio. I even jumped into Sirius Satellite radio nearly 6 years ago when Sirius was just starting out. The one thing that I watched from the sidelines is the emergence of MP3 and AAC as audio formats, and the players that go hand in hand with them.
Year after year I watched digital players get better, smaller, cheaper, and more varied. Still, I had no interest in spite of my love of music. As an audiophile, I view digital music players as devices that pray at the alter of convenience, sacrificing everything else. The same goes for the people that purchase them. Years ago, high-end audio began to decline whether it be a full room rig, or headphone rig. Cheap stereo systems hocked by big box stores pulled the knife from the sheath.
Cheap CD burners, and MP3 pushed the blade into the heart of good quality sound. So why did I jump on board? Well it wasn’t for the sound. Like nearly everyone else in the country, I was impressed with Apple’s iPhone when it debuted. I was even more intrigued by the first generation iPod touch. The 1st gen touch was a kind of iPhone, without the phone. It worked in the same way for the most part but failed to make a huge splash.
Now, the iPod touch has been updated and it feels more like a device in its own right, rather than a stripped down iPhone. When I saw the new 2G iPod touch, I wanted it for the other things I could do with it. The music was just an extra. The big selling point for me when it comes to the 2G touch is the Wi-Fi. Having the ability to get on the Internet for general surfing at hot spots is pretty damn cool. I would never lug around a laptop, and I don’t feel like getting boned by AT&T for about a thousand dollars (give or take) every year just for the privilege of owning the iPhone. With the touch, having the ability to check my e-mail, carry some favorite songs, view movie trailers and have a killer picture viewer in a slim package was just too much to resist.
First let’s unbox. The iPod 2G touch comes in a very simple, very small, clear plastic box with the touch predominately displayed. In fact, the packaging looks very much like a CD jewel case. Once you open the small jewel case and remove the touch, a little hidden stash is revealed. The stash consists of a small booklet to get you started, white earbud headphones, a USB connector/charger, a warranty/user agreement booklet, two white apple decals, and a black polishing cloth. It’s good to see that Apple is saving money and the environment by eschewing a gigantic box with lots of dead space and a huge manual. You can get on-line on your PC/Mac or use Wi-Fi on the touch to connect to a type of user guide.
So this is the part where I’m going to break away from how I normally write a product review. I realized that the 2G touch is just packed with too much, and my review will simply turn into a novel if I don’t break things down. From here on out, it’s pros and cons for the iPod touch, and iTunes.
What I like about the iPod touch 2nd Generation
The touch screen: Yeah that’s a given right? It’s about 3.5 inches diagonally, the color gamut, brightness and contrast are all very good for a portable device such as this.
A Glass screen so it won’t scratch. A real metal back, it’s nice to see in a world where just about everything you buy is mostly plastic. It’s crazy thin. After activating my iPod, I simply looked at it for a very long time. I wondered how they squeezed a LCD touch screen, back-light, a battery, a computer, 8 gigs of memory, a speaker, a Wi-Fi transmitter/receiver, and audio amplifier into this little sliver of art. After a while, I felt kind of stupid, like a monkey pulling Kleenex out of the box, wondering how it all works. Needless to say, this is probably the first device I’ve ever purchased that I don’t know how to open. I also have a strange craving for bananas.
Ease of use: The touch works the way your brain thinks it should work. A quick sweep of your finger and the display flies by, a light tap stops the motion. It’s all very fluid, and natural.. most of the time anyway.
Versatility: Sure it’s a digital music player, but it also sports wi-fi with a very the very capable Safari browser to handle things. It’s got a calender which you can attach events/details to, a contacts list, a direct link to stocks, weather, maps, iTunes, and the app store. The iPod is also tuned to work specifically with YouTube. There are also quick links to a calculator, clock, music, photos and videos. The touch is a fine picture viewer as well, it’s probably the best way to share photos short of carrying around stacks of real photos.
Mail! Yes, right out of the box, the 2G touch is set up to use Microsoft Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo mail, and AOL. There’s also an option for a straight up POP3 mail, and that’s what I use. Once set-up, using it is a breeze.
Apparently, the first generation touch didn’t have a speaker. The 2G does. Great for viewing movie trailers, videos, and YouTube when you don’t want to use headphones. Also great for podcast radio shows, it turns your 2G touch into a mini radio. Considering that there is no speaker grille or holes of any kind, and sound must escape through the glass LCD and the metal back, the max sound level is decent, but that’s about it. Sound quality? Do you have to ask?
I’m not big on buying music on iTunes. But it is nice to have the ability to buy and download music right to my iPod. It’s also nice to get my new apps the same way, many of which are free. Now available as an update, the ability to download my podcasts via Wi-Fi.
The cons, and various things that bug me
Battery life can be very short. When using Wi-Fi with the LCD screen bright enough to be seen in strong light, the battery can be drained to nothing in as little as sixty minutes. It’s a huge problem, but not too surprising considering the blade like size of the 2G iPod. Dimming the LCD can extend the time considerably. Turning off the LCD, during normal music listening for example, it will take you several hours to burn up a quarter of your battery power. Wi-Fi reception isn’t the best, and apple needs to improve this on the 3rd gen model.
People always think that this thing is a phone. I’ve been asked why I carry two phones, and I’ve also been asked by more than one co-worker if they could make a quick call.
The metal back is sexy, and the touch in general oozes finery, however I don’t like one thing about the metal back. It’s almost as if Apple looked for the softest, most scratch prone metal and purchased it for the iPod. Everything scratches it, and you’ll put tiny scratches in it right out of the box. It also collects fingerprints and oils from the skin an a very gross kind of way. Note to apple, the chrome looks cool, however it should be dumped for a matte finish.
While the touch screen works well, it can be a hindrance. When it’s in your pocket or when listening late at night in bed, it’s annoying to activate the iPod and unlock it just to skip a track. Apple’s new ECH headphones with controls will solve this. While apple added a volume rocker to the 2G touch, Apple should have added a pause/play and track skip button rocker for those times when using the touch screen is inconvenient. When is it inconvenient? Like when you are using your iPod at work, and maybe you’d rather not draw attention to yourself. When changing tracks, I don’t want to appear to be making a phone call.
Sound Quality. It’s funny that most MP3 players exist to simply play music, and most of them sound mediocre at best. It’s a give and take thing. To quote long run times, power has to be saved, and the amplifier seems to take a major hit. With clear recordings, and MP3/AAC tracks encoded at 256 and 320k the sound can be above average, but that’s about it. Sony’s Walkman digital music players have better amplifiers in them across the board.
Still no accessible bluetooth for the 2G Touch. There is a bluetooth chip for the gimmicky Nike+iPod, otherwise it's off limits. The touch sometimes needs two or three tries to connect to Wi-Fi, very annoying.
The supplied ear buds are trash. It’s best to throw them straight into the garbage. I’m surprised that Apple wants the first impression of the 2G touch (or any iPod) to be the sound that emanates from throw away earbuds. Right off the bat, spend 40-60 bucks on some really good ECH (ear canal headphones) or just some good over the ear headphones.
No equalizer. What? This is just about the dumbest, laziest, plain moronic thing I’ve ever seen on such a device. The ability to tune the sound is limited to presets like ‘hip-hop’ ‘rock’ and so on. Lame. Apple, stop being morons, and add at the very least a simple five band equalizer. To make up for this crime, a ten band EQ would be even better. Also dynamic range compression for use in the car would be a nice option as well.
iTunes. I love it and I hate it. Sometimes it won’t recognize that the touch is connected to my PC. Other times it will be in sync mode for long periods of time, and not sync. Sometimes it works correctly and quickly. Other times it does sync properly, but it can take thirty minutes or more without explanation. iTunes is also a bloated and inefficient program. It can hog up RAM and processor power like nobody’s business.
Shortcuts and tricks must be learned. Yes there are faster and better ways to use this little computer, but you have to dig into Apple’s online tutorials on your PC or on your touch using Wi-Fi to connect to the internet.
The 8 GB touch I have, only has 7 GB of usable memory. That’s horrendous. Sure some of that must be allocated to the touch, but one gigabyte? What exactly is the touch storing on one gigabyte? Secret data about me? Is it some cloud computing thing? Who knows.
Value vs. Memory. The touch gives the lowest value when it comes to storage. Unlike the other iPods, the touch uses solid state memory in place of a hard drive. Flash memory costs more per gigabyte hence the smaller memory. Also, the 8 GB touch is the worst value in the touch line. The touch costs $229 for 8 GB, with the sweet spot going to the 16 GB for $299 or a doubling of memory for about $70 more. So why did I spring for the 8 GB model? The 32 GB and 16 GB models were sold out, and this nerd wanted something right now. So there you have it.
In my dreams for the third gen touch (Apple, please steal my ideas)
Apple bumps the resolution up to about 800 pixels on the long side (up from 480). Apple being the innovators that they are, move from LCD to OLED to finally ditch that image shift when viewed from an angle. Bluetooth and a FM transmitter/modulator are built into the touch. It’ll never happen, Apple and third parties make too much selling these things as add-ons, but I can still dream right? Ditch the metal back, and cover the back in solar panels. When the touch gets low, I could flip it for a trickle charge. Add track skip, pause/play rocker below volume rocker. Add flash support, too many websites use flash, and I can’t see anything!
And finally, the audiophile in me dreams of a limited edition audiophile version. Apple underestimates how many audiophiles are out there, simply tolerating MP3 players because nothing better exists. I’d be willing to accept a touch that was slightly thicker for the following. A better LCD screen, and support for multiple high resolution, high fidelity codecs. Also a headphone amp worthy of driving some fine ECH headphones and traditional cans from Sony, Sennheiser, AKG, Grado, and Etymotic Research. A ‘HeadRoom’ logo on such an iPod would have me floating.
Bottom line: The touch is now my music source in the car and at work. I use it to drift off to my favorite tunes late at night. I use it to keep up with podcasts. It’s my date keeper, alarm clock, my source for weather, movie times and it’s a radio (with the iHeartRadio app). But if it were just a plain-Jane iPod, I never would have purchased one for a few reasons. First, its sound quality is good enough for the masses, it’s not something that can deliver the goods over my audiophile sound system or my best headphones.
The exception might be using Apple’s lossless codec for ripped CDs and a direct digital connection to a high-end receiver. With the ability to check my e-mail, surf the web, tell someone on facebook that they suck, view photos and store contacts, the touch won me over. In spite of the many things that annoy me, it’s one of the coolest and most used gadgets I’ve ever owned. Touch one if you can.
Tony Flores 2009
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Member: Tony Flores
Location: Calistoga - Napa Valley Wine Country
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