iPod Touch - The full review
Wow. So it's been about a week or so since Carly brought me back my iPod Touch from the UK (Thanks Shnitz). This thing is absolutely fantastically phenomenal.It is smaller in capacity than other available iPods - a max of 16gb are available. I decided to spend the cash and get the 16gb Touch. What a decision, worth every penny. The actual Touch itself is minute, measuring a whopping 8mm in width.The screen (you know, that touch thing) is amazing. In fact it is virtually impossible to scratch the screen, have a look:To be honest I didn't need a new iPod but I have had mine for almost four years now and felt that I deserved an upgrade. I am going to be going through some of the great things you can do with the iPod Touch. The things that I am going to chat about are the cool things that I like about the Touch, not what it can do, what I have missed or what I might have left out.
User Interface (UI) - To start with the UI is a thing of beauty. The designers have done a sterling job to make the UI simple, fast, easy, visible, pretty, sleek and any other nice word you can think of. Add the touch ability of the iPod and combine it with this amazing UI and you have a winning combination.iCal syncing - This is definitely one of my favourite features of the Touch. I have synced my iCal and all my meetings on to my Touch and now will never miss a meeting. When an event is added to my iCal and my Touch is plugged in it automatically syncs with my iCal. When a calendar event pops up, you know about it. The Touch beeps and alerts you of the meeting, if you have set alerts to activate on iCal. I now have a mobile meeting diary.The only downside of the Calendar on the Touch is that you cannot add events in the Touch, it must be done in iCal.Address book - be sure to use your Touch as a backup address book incase you lose your phone. Simply add in as many contacts as you like, their emails, cellphone numbers, photos and names. Great little feature.Movies - I have yet to convert a movie in to an iPod format that will play. This is definitely one of the things that frustrates the most with the Touch (and many other iPods as i hear it). I have just downloaded the IMtoo iPod video/movie converter and will try that out later.
YouTube - Apple struck up some sort of a great deal with YouTube. YouTube is included as a feature on the Touch's main menu screen. Simply connect your wifi, tap the YouTube button and surf your way around the sites available videos. Flip the Touch so that it is horizontal and make use of the wide, crisp, crystal clear picture. Fantastic.
Photos - Mac users will be extremely chuffed with the Touch. Simply sync your Touch with iPhoto, choose the folder you want and sync away. Easy. Again, just as with the YouTube videos, flip your Touch horizontally to get the full effect of your photos and the wide, clear screen. Be sure to use your finger to "flick" through your long list of photos, or simply slowly guide your finger across the screen to slowly view the photos on the Touch.
Music - Everything that any previous iPod has had is available on the Touch. But there is more. View your album art and flick through your entire music collection by flipping the Touch horizontally and perusing the album art. Tap to view the artist, tap again to view the songs, tap the song you want and bam, there it is, right in your ear.
Itunes Store - I couldn't buy music as I needed an account with relevant information. I am not sure if you can use the iTunes store at all in SA, if you know let me know. What you can do is preview albums, hop on to your favourite cheap online store (or other method) and get the stuff you've heard at the Itunes store!Blogging - If you run a Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, iblog or any other blogging platform for that matter then blogging will be a breeze on the Touch. Just like blogging on any other computer, laptop, or device that has a built in browser, the Touch is simple. Just enter the admin panel of your blog, type away and hit publish and you are done. Simple, easy, effortless.Google - A google application is built in to the Safari browser. Simply double tap on the url address bar and the Google search bar pops up. Type in the word you are looking for and hit the search button. Done, dusted, simple, easy.Apps - Only recently have Apple decided that Apps are unavoidable and have opened up their list of must-have web apps. Visit www.apple.com/webapps for a full list. To use the apps simple visit the same url in your safari Touch browser and tap on the "view web app" option. Again, very simple.WiFi - Wow the wifi on the Touch is pretty simple if you aren't an idiot. I. Am. An. Idiot. I'll tell you why I am an idiot, because I insisted that I could not be dumb enough that I couldn't connect the Touch to the wifi. It could not have been me, it must have been a faulty product. Surely. No, not so much.After much deliberation, after much research and after much frustration, I figured out that I had entered the WEP password for my home wifi incorrectly. STUPID. So my little tip for Touch wifi, make sure you enter the passwords correctly whether at home or at a pay/free restaurant wifi hotspot. I am now connected to wifi and browsing is blissful.
iPod Touch browser - Apple has obviously chosen to use their Safari browser as the browser of choice for the Touch. This is without a doubt one of the best things that they could have done for the Touch. The browser looks good, it is smooth, it picks up wifi in the area and it offers multiple tabbed browsing. Without a doubt this is one of the coolest functions on offer for the entire Touch. I am so used to tabbed browsing via Firefox that going back to single window browsing is almost an impossibility.
Incredibly the Safari browser allows you to zoom in or out of any area, aspect or picture of any website that you browse. Mobile browsing as you know it is dead, no more simplified, basic, text websites. The Touch offers full browsing capabilities, full view of any website on the web. Some sites such as Facebook have created a compatible site for the iPhone and iTouch which makes browsing their site fantastic. Double tap here, zoom in, double tap there, zoom out, full picture download, full interactivity and anything else you could imagine!
