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iPod Touch 64GB
Usually you’ll hear that old saying ‘Out with the old in with the new’ but with Apple these days there’s really not a very significant amount of difference. Their latest addition to their iPod media devices includes the iPod Touch Second Gen. I reviewed the new iPod Nano just recently and that device came with a plenty of additional features making it worthy of your consideration. Does the latest iPod Touch do the same, well here’s what I think.
Form Factor
There’s not a darn thing new here at all. The display is still pleasantly large at 3.5-inches behind its scratch resistant glass and the resolution hasn’t been upgraded either. It’s still 320 x 40 pixels and that’s just perfect. I don’t believe a change would have made a difference. The rear stainless steel surface is still an issue with me as the otherwise classy surface tends to get rather diminished with prolonged use. The scratches that it develops if you keep putting it down on hard surfaces or pulling it in and out of your pocket tends to offset the cool exterior look of the device on the whole.
What is new with the hardware is the fact that the device is no longer going to be available in 16GB but goes from 8GB straight up to 32GB and now it’s available in a whopping 64GB capacity. Personally I think it’s a bit of overkill in terms of space. I mean it’s great for long journeys as you can load it with plenty of movies etc,. which also means you’ll have to first patiently convert them all into acceptable formats for iTunes to transfer them onto the drive. Another addition to the new device are the earphones. The new cables are the same as the one’s included with the new iPod Shuffle. They are equipped with a microphone, volume keys that and a center control key. I’ll get to the functions in a bit.
I’m still not a fan of the quality that the Apple earphones provide although I have always liked the styling. So the new iPod hasn’t undergone any truly spectacular physical changes but it’s still a slim and sexy looking device in my book.
Features and Performance
Other than a few minor tweaks to the UI, the new iPod Touch is no different from the older model with the upgraded firmware 3.0 or 3.1. The larger disk space does help with smoother running even if you’re seriously tanked up on games and applications. What that means is you have more space so the processor doesn’t feel like its being sat on by a car. The processor itself is almost the same with a slight increment (532MHz) that helps handle graphics and games a little better. This is prevalent only in the new 64GB and 32Gb models. Since it also has OpenGL support, things actually do look a little better especially the games of course, which is of course one of the biggest highlights to the iPod Touch-style range of devices including the iPhone.
One of the newer features included with this iPod Touch is voice control. Using the controls on the earphones, for which you’ll have to first learn the various key presses, you can skip tracks, increase and decrease the volume, play and pause audio and activate the Voice Control feature. This is of course where the microphone comes in handy. You can select from a large array of functions with just a voice prompt. The microphone has decent range if you’re in a quiet space so don’t worry about pulling it close to your mouth to say something. However, if there’s a lot of noise around this feature will drive you nuts. The responses are quite astute most of the time but in quite a few instances, and I do speak quite clearly, it pretty much hears what it wants to. I could never get the system to find tracks by ATB as it kept selecting T-Pain and most of the time Bob Sinclair was substituted for Coldplay. They don’t even sound the same.
While I like this concept as it provides you with quite a bit of control of your music playback and all of it without even removing the device from your pocket I think it still needs a bit of refining. The good thing is it doesn’t need to be trained to recognize a specific user's voice and the bad thing is it often seems to decide for itself what it is you’ve asked for. The Voice Control screen also has a list of all the commands available moving across the screen. This is helpful for the initial few times you’ll use the feature till you get accustomed to what it can do. Once you have its quite redundant.
The microphone on the earphones can also be used for leaving voice memos as the device itself doesn’t have one.
Genius is a great concept as well. You might say it’s in-‘Genius’. With this option activated the iPod Touch will associate similar tracks as the one playing and create a playlist of what it believes to be music that goes well together. It also does the same for applications via the App store. The upgraded firmware now also comes with Bluetooth support. Oh don’t bother getting excited you still can’t pair it with handsets and alike devices for data transfer. No no no. Apple won’t have that it would be sacrilege. What it does support is A2DP so you can quite comfortably use a stereo BT wireless headset or speaker but you’ll have to then forfeit the use of Voice Control.
The new Shake to Shuffle option if active will automatically switch the device to Shuffle mode if you swing it in a particular motion and you can switch tracks the same way. Just don’t hold the device in your hand while walking if you’re one of those people who swing their arms or you’ll never be able to stick to one track.
The new firmware also brings features like Spotlight Search, Peer to Peer gaming which is definitely a highlight for the mobile gaming community, a landscape keypad whenever you want and Copy Pasting information from anywhere.
Another feature that the new iPod Touch is fitted with is support for Nike + iPod for those who like keeping track of their fitness regime or have upgraded from the Nano Video to this and are using the system already.
Audio quality is the same as well. It’s good but not great in my opinion. I know there are those out there that swear by the iPod’s audio quality but, to each his own.
The battery life has also gone unchanged. You’ll still be able to very easily watch about 2 full length movies and maybe a little more before the battery pans and wheezes its way to exhaustion. With regards to audio it rakes in an average of at least 20 hours of music playback. It'll do a little more if the Location Services, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are switched off.
The Bottom Line
While the prices are quite competitive and the product is still one of the better PMPs out there today, the new device doesn’t really come with anything that is more or less appealing. If you’re an existing user, upping the firmware will give you pretty much all of the new features and you can easily invest in a new set of earphones. What would have made this player really really stand out would have been a camera, even just 2 megapixels and an FM radio. The current price tag on the 64GB iPod Touch is Rs. 24,400 (MRP) which is a bit steep for just more memory. The 32GB and 8GB models are priced at Rs. 18, 400 and Rs. 12,400 respectively.
Form Factor
There’s not a darn thing new here at all. The display is still pleasantly large at 3.5-inches behind its scratch resistant glass and the resolution hasn’t been upgraded either. It’s still 320 x 40 pixels and that’s just perfect. I don’t believe a change would have made a difference. The rear stainless steel surface is still an issue with me as the otherwise classy surface tends to get rather diminished with prolonged use. The scratches that it develops if you keep putting it down on hard surfaces or pulling it in and out of your pocket tends to offset the cool exterior look of the device on the whole.
What is new with the hardware is the fact that the device is no longer going to be available in 16GB but goes from 8GB straight up to 32GB and now it’s available in a whopping 64GB capacity. Personally I think it’s a bit of overkill in terms of space. I mean it’s great for long journeys as you can load it with plenty of movies etc,. which also means you’ll have to first patiently convert them all into acceptable formats for iTunes to transfer them onto the drive. Another addition to the new device are the earphones. The new cables are the same as the one’s included with the new iPod Shuffle. They are equipped with a microphone, volume keys that and a center control key. I’ll get to the functions in a bit.
I’m still not a fan of the quality that the Apple earphones provide although I have always liked the styling. So the new iPod hasn’t undergone any truly spectacular physical changes but it’s still a slim and sexy looking device in my book.
Features and Performance
Other than a few minor tweaks to the UI, the new iPod Touch is no different from the older model with the upgraded firmware 3.0 or 3.1. The larger disk space does help with smoother running even if you’re seriously tanked up on games and applications. What that means is you have more space so the processor doesn’t feel like its being sat on by a car. The processor itself is almost the same with a slight increment (532MHz) that helps handle graphics and games a little better. This is prevalent only in the new 64GB and 32Gb models. Since it also has OpenGL support, things actually do look a little better especially the games of course, which is of course one of the biggest highlights to the iPod Touch-style range of devices including the iPhone.
One of the newer features included with this iPod Touch is voice control. Using the controls on the earphones, for which you’ll have to first learn the various key presses, you can skip tracks, increase and decrease the volume, play and pause audio and activate the Voice Control feature. This is of course where the microphone comes in handy. You can select from a large array of functions with just a voice prompt. The microphone has decent range if you’re in a quiet space so don’t worry about pulling it close to your mouth to say something. However, if there’s a lot of noise around this feature will drive you nuts. The responses are quite astute most of the time but in quite a few instances, and I do speak quite clearly, it pretty much hears what it wants to. I could never get the system to find tracks by ATB as it kept selecting T-Pain and most of the time Bob Sinclair was substituted for Coldplay. They don’t even sound the same.
While I like this concept as it provides you with quite a bit of control of your music playback and all of it without even removing the device from your pocket I think it still needs a bit of refining. The good thing is it doesn’t need to be trained to recognize a specific user's voice and the bad thing is it often seems to decide for itself what it is you’ve asked for. The Voice Control screen also has a list of all the commands available moving across the screen. This is helpful for the initial few times you’ll use the feature till you get accustomed to what it can do. Once you have its quite redundant.
The microphone on the earphones can also be used for leaving voice memos as the device itself doesn’t have one.
Genius is a great concept as well. You might say it’s in-‘Genius’. With this option activated the iPod Touch will associate similar tracks as the one playing and create a playlist of what it believes to be music that goes well together. It also does the same for applications via the App store. The upgraded firmware now also comes with Bluetooth support. Oh don’t bother getting excited you still can’t pair it with handsets and alike devices for data transfer. No no no. Apple won’t have that it would be sacrilege. What it does support is A2DP so you can quite comfortably use a stereo BT wireless headset or speaker but you’ll have to then forfeit the use of Voice Control.
The new Shake to Shuffle option if active will automatically switch the device to Shuffle mode if you swing it in a particular motion and you can switch tracks the same way. Just don’t hold the device in your hand while walking if you’re one of those people who swing their arms or you’ll never be able to stick to one track.
The new firmware also brings features like Spotlight Search, Peer to Peer gaming which is definitely a highlight for the mobile gaming community, a landscape keypad whenever you want and Copy Pasting information from anywhere.
Another feature that the new iPod Touch is fitted with is support for Nike + iPod for those who like keeping track of their fitness regime or have upgraded from the Nano Video to this and are using the system already.
Audio quality is the same as well. It’s good but not great in my opinion. I know there are those out there that swear by the iPod’s audio quality but, to each his own.
The battery life has also gone unchanged. You’ll still be able to very easily watch about 2 full length movies and maybe a little more before the battery pans and wheezes its way to exhaustion. With regards to audio it rakes in an average of at least 20 hours of music playback. It'll do a little more if the Location Services, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are switched off.
The Bottom Line
While the prices are quite competitive and the product is still one of the better PMPs out there today, the new device doesn’t really come with anything that is more or less appealing. If you’re an existing user, upping the firmware will give you pretty much all of the new features and you can easily invest in a new set of earphones. What would have made this player really really stand out would have been a camera, even just 2 megapixels and an FM radio. The current price tag on the 64GB iPod Touch is Rs. 24,400 (MRP) which is a bit steep for just more memory. The 32GB and 8GB models are priced at Rs. 18, 400 and Rs. 12,400 respectively.