I wouldn't consider myself a Mac geek exactly. I do own a Macbook Pro, which I mostly use to run Windows (my only copy of Photoshop is Windows based unfortunately). I have a tendency to fall behind when updating my Macs with the latest OS. The last Mac desktop I purchased was five years ago and is currently in my guestroom, collecting dust.

However, there's something about the iPods that get me every time.

When I heard that Apple was releasing a new line of iPods, including the 8GB and 16GB Touch, I was giddy. It was perfect timing, with my birthday right around the corner in October. My last iPod purchase was the 30GB iPod Video in November of 2005, so I was itching for an update. So was my husband, who was stuck with my cast-off Nano and had quickly run out of space for songs on the 4GB drive. He was eyeballing the 30GB on my Video and was literally salivating.

I put in a request for the Touch for my birthday to my husband, and it was duly noted. Until I heard rumors that Apple was releasing them ahead of the promised ship date. It was September 14th and they were already hitting certain Apple and Best Buy stores.

By coincidence, we happened to be leaving for vacation September 15th, and traveled right through Omaha, where I snagged the last 16GB iPod Touch of the day from a local Best Buy. The $400 we plunked down kind of hurt, but seeing the little black box within the yellow Best Buy bag made me forget all about it (until I received my Visa bill a few weeks later). While I was there, I suddenly had flashbacks to my iPod Video getting scratched all to heck, so I threw in a cheap little neoprene sleeve they had by the checkout stands. I think it was meant for the iPod phone, but the iPod Touch fit perfectly.

Inside the Box:

Within the box was the iPod Touch (nestled in a plastic tray), a cloth for cleaning, a little cheap plastic stand that I've already lost, a USB cable, headphones, and a very brief "Quick Start" guide. What's impressive to note is that there was no disc to install iTunes as I remember with previous iPods. In order to own the Touch, you do need to have internet (but is that really a problem?).


Getting Started:

I first plugged in my Touch into the power adaptor I had hooked up through my car cigarette lighter and let it charge (since we were trying to make it to Kansas City that night). I'm not sure if that's something that was required or not because I couldn't find any mention of it in the Quick Start guide, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

Once charged, there wasn't much I could do until I could get to my laptop to properly synch it with iTunes. Nothing on the Touch will work until you've plugged it in to a computer (via the USB cable) first.

Once I had access to my laptop, syncing the Touch was fairly easy. I just hooked it up via the USB cable and my iTunes immediately recognized it. I did have to download an iTunes update, but once that was completed I was able to sync my music, videos, and photos easily. The set up in iTunes seemed very similar to my previous iPods.

What's included on the Touch:

Safari (web browser)
YouTube
Calendar
Contacts
Clock
Calculator
Settings (for adjusting music, video, photo, web browsing, and general settings)

Down along the bottom are four buttons for what you'll mainly be using the Touch for:
Music
Videos
Photos
iTunes


Using the Touch:

I wasn't prepared for how different the Touch felt when holding it, compared to my iPod Video. It's wide, flat, and thin. It almost feels too wide for its depth, which I know sounds weird. It feels like it could be snapped, but at the same time the cool piano black plastic on the front and silver case on the back seem to declare it unbreakable. I have small hands and find it a little awkward to hold- I end up holding it up with my fingers instead of cupping it in my palm.

As far as the durability of the materials used, that remains to be seen. I'm a little surprised that they decided to use the same shiny silver metal for the back casing that is on my iPod Video, because it scratches incredibly easily. I have yet to remove the protective film that it was shipped with from the front. Every time I go to remove it, I have flashbacks of my Video that is all scratched to heck. I think I'll wait to remove it until I purchase a better case.

The Touch, as you probably know by now, works by the user tapping the pad of their finger on the screen to select different options. Using your fingernail or any other object will not work. Once inside any menu, the user can return to the main screen by clicking the "Home" button at the bottom of the device. There's also another button at the top that effectively turns off the screen.

Those are the only two buttons on the device. Everything else, including volume and song selection, must be controlled through tapping the screen (which can be a little nerve wracking when trying to do that AND drive at the same time!).

The headphone jack is located on the bottom right, a minor annoyance for those wanting to use the Touch at the gym, but very convenient for viewing videos horizontally.


Playing music:

Very intuitive. Just tap the "Music" button at the bottom of the screen and it brings you to a list of your playlists. You can choose to sort by Artists, Songs, and Albums by selecting buttons along the bottom of the screen. Once you've chosen how to sort your music, you can then scroll by placing your finger on the screen and either moving it up or down. This can be a little cumbersome, especially if you have a lot of artists to scroll through (placing a finger on the touchpad of the old iPods and moving it in a circle allowed for unlimited scrolling without having to lift your finger).

Once you've found the song or album you want to listen to, you have a few options for how to view the artist information.

Vertically: You can view a list of songs within the album by selecting the list icon at the top of the Touch. Or, you can select the Cover Art icon to view the cover art. Either option leaves the controls (Reverse, Play, Forward, Volume) at the bottom of the screen. Further track information (like the length of the track, shuffle, repeat) can be selected by touching the cover art (these options do not appear if viewing your music in list mode)

Horizontally: Flipping your Touch horizontally brings you automatically to "Cover Flow" viewing. This allows you to scroll through albums by scrolling with your finger either left or right. The album name is displayed at the bottom. Once you find an album you want to listen to, you can tap on the cover art to see a list of songs.

This feature is very cool, but one thing I find a little annoying is that if you press the "home" button while the iPod Touch is horizontal, it still displays all of the "home" features (Safari, YouTube, Calendar, etc) vertically. It would be nice if the horizontal viewing could remain consistent throughout.

Another pitfall of Cover Flow: Your albums need all their Cover Art in order for this feature to really shine, otherwise you'll get grey boxes with ? on them. I have yet to see an option to download Cover Art through iTunes, which is a little baffling.

UPDATE 10/14/07: I updated my iPod and realized that there is an option to download missing cover art under Preferences in iTunes. I'm not sure if this was always there, but I'm glad it's available!


Viewing videos:

Viewing videos is very easy. You tap the "Videos" button back on the home screen, and then select your videos from a list. Videos are automatically displayed in landscape mode.

A thought on videos: The clarity of the screen is absolutely amazing, but I really am not sure how much I'll utilize the Touch for videos considering it only has a 16 GB drive.


Viewing photos:

Again, fairly easy. Pressing the "Photos" button on the home screen takes you to a list of photo albums that you've organized through iTunes. Tapping on an album shows you a screen full of thumbnails, and you can select photos from there or press "Play" at the bottom of the screen for a slide show.


Surfing Safari:

I'm not going to lie to you, this is the main reason I bought the Touch. I am an internet addict. Safari is accessed by simply tapping "Safari" on the home screen. Safari will load, and then will ask you to select a Wi-Fi Network based on a list of available networks. Tap a network, and you're connected to the web.

Some minor pitfalls: It seems that the wireless antennae built into the Touch is somewhat weak. It has a hard time picking up networks that my husband’s Gateway laptop has no problem picking up. The antennae itself also seems a little finicky- use the Touch vertically, with the antennae facing toward wherever the wireless is coming from, and you get a strong signal. Tilt the Touch horizontally, with the antennae facing down, and suddenly your signal drops.

Another pitfall: I've found that many "free" wireless networks require you to register and often validate your account prior to joining them. How can you check your email and validate your account if you don't have internet access until your account is validated? This is certainly NOT a problem of Apple's, but it is something that I never thought of.

I am amazed at how well Safari works considering the Touch isn't a full-fledged CPU. Most pages load just fine, including MySpace. If you want a closer peek, tapping the screen twice or pinching your fingers open or close on the screen brings you closer (or farther depending on what you want). If there is a form that needs to be filled out, touching the field brings up the on screen keyboard, and features "next" buttons if you have more than one field to fill out (so you don't have to go back and forth between a tiny screen and the keyboard).

The keyboard is both amazing and cumbersome. As mentioned before, I have very small girly hands (ring size 4.5) and often I have problems touching the exact letter I'm looking for. It's easier to type in horizontal mode. However, if you start out in vertical mode, bring up the keyboard, and then decide that you want to go horizontal, tough luck. You have to exit the keyboard, flip the Touch horizontal, and then bring the keyboard back up again. Just a minor blip in an otherwise fluid performance.

Another minor complaint about the keyboard: It contains most symbols including "/". However, I need to use "\" to access my email at work, which it doesn't have. Wahh!

So I'm not really sure how I feel about the Wi-Fi capabilities of the Touch. On one hand, I think I set my expectations too high. I had visions of us strolling through downtown Gatlinburg, picking up Wi-Fi networks to research what we wanted to do next. I didn't expect us to have to stand in a hotel lobby to pick up wireless, then curse as it dropped out a million times, and then curse some more as I typed things wrong and in the midst of that, the wireless dropped out again. Not that it wasn't helpful, it did save us in a pinch a few times (like finding directions to our cabin), but at the same time it wasn't quite as easy as I imagined. Using a laptop with wireless capabilities is much easier.


Thoughts on other features:

I haven't used YouTube or the Wi-Fi iTunes store yet so I can't comment on them. I will say we visited a brand new Starbucks in Pigeon Forge that had no wireless so that was kind of a letdown. I also haven't used the calendar or contacts feature but have noticed that there's cability to add information (appointments, contact phone numbers) using the on-screen keyboard.


And one huge missing feature:

I used my Video as a portable hard drive for my photos. Not anymore! Apple has removed the hard drive capability from the Touch. Not a huge deal considering you're only working with 8 GB or 16 GB anyway, but I wonder what gives?


Battery Life:

I don't really have any comments on this either because my Touch is usually either plugged into my laptop or the car charger. I have yet to run the battery out. I will update once I have more experience with this.



I realize the above is pretty in-depth so I'll narrow it down to pros and cons:

Pros:
-Wi-Fi and Safari, you'll never be lost again (or run out of things to do) if you find a strong Wi-Fi network to join
-Beautiful graphics and screen
-Very slim and lightweight
-Cover Flow is a beautiful feature
-The ability to see photos and videos on a portable device with amazing graphics and color
-It's set up so you can surf the web and still listen to your music at the same time.

Cons:
-Wi-Fi can be temperamental
-Safari keyboard takes some getting used to and is missing some needed symbols
-Most controls require interaction with the screen, which can be difficult when driving (makes surfing blind incredibly difficult)
-No hard drive capability
-No games
-Shiny silver case on the back that's prone to scratching
-Awful headphones. They are the same headphones Apple has always sent out and they need to be updated. The bud doesn't fit in my ear canal, nor my husband's. We both have upgraded to better earphones, but it would be nice to see Apple come out with a pair of headphones that have interchangeable pads so you can adjust the size.


Things I'd like to see Apple add for future updates:
-Chat application
-Perhaps a camera?
-Maybe a keyboard that slides out from behind the device, instead of an on screen keyboard


Bottom Line: I've owned the Touch for almost three weeks. Do I regret purchasing it? Absolutely not, because I'm a sucker and love having the newest technology. Do I think it could use some improvements? Most definitely. However, I'm excited because I feel that the Touch is ushering in a new era of personal devices and can't wait to see what technological advances bring next.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 399
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies