Apple iPod touch 8 GB (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
by Apple Computer
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod touch 8 GB (1st Generation) OLD MODEL
Customer Review: What a fun toy!
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, let me start by saying that I ordered the Touch on a lark. Got it direct from Apple with free engraving on the back. I must say that this is a really fun toy, at 8GB its just big enough to hold my music collection (6GB), a couple of videos and still have space to cache some video streams, barely! As mentioned elsewhere, the interface is quite cute and innovative. I love a touch screen and I love how big the screen is. Ok, here's the things I love about the Touch so far:
1) Big beautiful screen
2) Touch screen interface
3) Wifi connectivity with Safari, iTunes and YouTube built right into the main screen.
4) Changeable background, finally!
5) Sleek form factor slides nicely into my pocket.
6) Don't have to use it as a cell phone.
7) Flips back and forth from landscape to portrait modes depending on how you hold it or what you are viewing.
8) Power button, thank you Apple for finally deigning to put a power button on an iPod!
9) Automatic brightness adjustment, absolute genius!
10) Seems to remember where you left off on every video on the unit, awesome feature I love it!
11) iTunes: for any iPod you have to count the flawless relationship with iTunes as a big plus, you just can't beat it for reliability, ease of use and great features (and believe me I've tried!)
12) Great Now Playing music page, the album art fills the whole screen and by tapping the middle you get immediate access to repeat and shuffle buttons. Now you can now easily shuffle just a playlist, a feature that has been hard to find on previous iPods.
13) Like any other iPod, accessories abound and are easily purchased just about anywhere!
14) Apple customer service is good imo, they stand behind their product and will replace without much hassle as I know from experience.
15) For only $20 you can get extra stuff like Notes, Weather, Calculator, and stuff like that.
But of course, nothing is perfect. I give this a 5 stars because it is such a great innovation for Apple and a great product, but that doesn't mean that its without flaws and here's the ones I've noticed so far:
1) Touch screen can be a bit frustrating, often doesn't feel me and often I miss the button I'm aiming for with my fat fingers (they feel fat when trying to hit keyboard buttons on that screen anyway!). I understand that this is a "Capacitance" screen which means you can't use a stylus or your fingernail, you have to register firm contact with your flesh on the screen.
2) Screen flipping: although this is a cool concept it can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally the screen flips as I'm moving around and I didn't want it to. So I sit there twisting the thing to and from trying to get the alignment I want. Wouldn't it be nice if you could lock it into the perspective you want and it would just stay there (is anybody at Apple listening?)
3) Hard to operate "blind", as I walk around I like to be able to pause/play or adjust volume without having to look at the screen. Very easy to do on my 5.5Gen iPod, almost impossible on the Touch. I have to pull it out of my pocket almost every time I want to pause or adjust the volume.
4) Sound quality is not quite as good as my 5.5Gen Video iPod or my Archos 605, I've tried it on speakers and headphones and the Video has just a little bit cleaner smoother sound especially at high volume.
5) No built in USB port!
Overall, its an awesome innovative product and if you really like having the coolest new toy (like me!) and money is not a major concern I say what are you waiting for?
2 month update: Well of course you can get cases everywhere for this thing now. Still very happy with my Touch, although I did have to send in for replacement unit due to dead battery, took about two weeks but they sent me a new one and even engraved it like my original. What the heck got a shiny new Touch for free :) I have updated my review, added a positive point, removed a couple of outdated negative points.
Customer Review: Good, not perfect
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had it for a few days now (8GB version). I chose it over the 8GB Nano because I figured the extra bells and whistles (larger screen, touch sensitivity, wi-fi, etc.) were worth an extra hundred bucks. I will share a few things I've discovered in my first week of ownership. First, the weak points (which most people want to hear first): Sound quality is on par with the Nano but doesn't seem as good as my wife's iPod video. Wallpaper can only display when unit is coming out of sleep mode, browsing while music is playing causes music to stop, the screen will be a horrid mess of greasy finger prints after only a few minutes of use, there is no visible way to determine charging status without pushing a button because the screen goes completely black when charging. Video seems more pixelated and not as sharp or crisp as the new Nano (They're not lying when they say the Nano has the sharpest display of all iPods.) The lack of accessories hurts, mainly because I'd love to cover the smudge-prone body more than anything. Also, the dimensions of this thing basically scream "drop me" and I'm clumsy enough to do it if I don't get a good belt clip or at least enough protection to confidently slide it in my pocket. As for the good things: Wi-fi was super-easy to configure and I get a strong signal throughout my three-story home. I like the web browsing. Pinching to zoom and adjusting pages with your finger makes surfing the tiny screen much much easier. The Safari browser is quick and efficient at loading pages. The touch screen is very responsive (although big-fingered people such as me will have a difficult time trying to select letters on the tiny keyboard. I had to hit backspace quite a bit for incorrect characters). it didn't require multiple taps or finger drags (not counting deleting mistaken characters). The photo album is really cool. The thumbnails are well arranged and image manipulation with your fingertips is just as fun as web browsing (I just wish the wallpaper could be viewed on the home screen and not only when the device is locked, as mentioned above). The video is pretty good (even if not on par with Nano). Lastly, the organization of everything is really intuitive and well executed. You are pretty much one button-push away from anything you want; much better than endless sub-menus. In my opinion, the bottom line for having an iPod is the music. if you have a huge music collection (over 15GB), I would strongly suggest going with the Classic. Trust me, unless you REALLY feel you'll use the extras such as wi-fi and maybe the PDA features beyond the first day, there isn't much else to justify sacrificing the capacity. Even if you want the touch for movies, the storage limitations prevent any serious mobile collection. The coolness factor took all of ten minutes to wear off for me. However, I've never needed more than a 4GB iPod, (I have a meager collection of music ripped from my CD's. Call me old-fashioned). Therefore, I think I'll keep it, only because my alternative has the same capacity and I actually do plan to ocassionally check my email from the backyard without needing to lug out my clunky laptop. I just figured I'd put that out there for people on the fence about whether to get a Touch or Classic. Also, I like the PDA-like features of the touch. Even though much has been made of the so-called "crippling" of the calendar, I don't plan to use it as a full-fledge PDA anyhow, so the fact that it synchs with Outlook and makes my appointments and contacts readily available is good enough for me. Lastly, much has been made about the "negative-black" screen issue. I have a week 38 model with Corrine Bailey on the box (if you've spent any time at all researching the screen issue, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, stop by Apple's iPod Touch forum and you'll quickly find out). I've had no problems whatsoever (other than a little blocky video at times). No dead or stuck pixels and blacks look just fine. I honestly think it is a much smaller issue than people are making it out to be.Customer Review: Simply Amazing.......
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first Ipod but my fourth mp3 player. I have always been averse to trendy objects just because everyone else had one, and this is the way I had viewed the Classic Ipod. But then came the Ipod Touch and my curiosity was piqued. This device fills a gap and acts as a pseudo-PDA with wifi and web surfing ability, and is also able to do pictures and video. Though admittedly, on the 8GB model, it is debatable whether video is really and truly an option, as 8GB (heck, even 16GB) is a dearth of space when taking into account there will also be a music library. But as I am not into videos, that was never an issue to take into consideration for me.....but it might be for others. The flash memory is also nice, as this can get jarred around for running and the like, unlike the classic version which is disk based.
I have been playing with it for just one day but so far I absolutely love it. It is very intuitive, although one complaint so far is the fact that on one sync of my photos, for some reason it doubled the amount of photos on the device and made two folders. On a Windows drag and drop model such as the Rio Carbon I have, I could simply go in and delete that specific folder. But now, I must find a way to do this through itunes and the sync process. As I am a new Ipod/Itunes user, this is admittedly a little bit of a pain.
The ability to wirelessly surf the web on the fly is what won me over with the Ipod Touch. I may not use this capability often, but it is nice to know it is in my pocket, as opposed to having to carry around a laptop or the like. I tried the wifi/Safari at the local Panera's and it worked like a charm. One difficulty in using this is that when zooming in, as you must deftly use your fingers to zoom, without touching any links which will inevitably open. On a page like CNN with many links everywhere, this can be challenging. But like all things, there will be a learning curve to this.
Some minor complaints, though admittedly not with the device itself. The charger is contained in a USB cord, so if you plan on taking this away for any length of time like a week-long getaway, you will either need to be near a computer to recharge or buy an adapter. This really should be included. And one thing which I would change is the lack of ANY documentation with the package whatsoever. When I pay $300 for a device, I expect some type of documentation. This does not even come with a disk; I shouldn't have to run out to ANY website before being able to use this.
But all in all, this is truly an amazing device. A caveat however: do not get either the 8GB or the 16GB if you want to carry around a large music collection, or are into videos. This will simply not be enough space. And a note to the people who complain that the Touch should be 80GB instead of 8GB, they obviously do not understand the differentiation between players using flash memory for storage and those such as the Classic which use HDD for storage. Flash memory is **much** more expensive than HDD storage per GB of storage, and thus putting 80GB of flash into this Ipod **at this point in time** (because flash memory costs are always decreasing) would put the price of this Ipod Touch around $1500. At least! Simply not an option.
And an FYI: I have read some reviews which claimed that actual battery life was well below what Apple claimed. In my opinion, turning off the wifi should increase battery life as you will not have the wifi searching for a network all of the time.
Apple did an amazing job on the interface and it is clear in my opinion that this type of device will be the future of interactive graphical user interfaces, where the user will interact seamlessly with a virtual world. This device is a revolutionary, not evolutionary step, forward.
A definite 5 stars.
Customer Review: I absolutely LOVE it, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a gift from my fiancee, and I have been having a great time with it. For those of you who have not had an oportunity to see one in person, they are quite amazing: it feels like you are holding something from the future right in your hand. The interface is great (go Apple) and coverflow works like a charm.
As an iPod, the hardware still has some issues. On a couple of occasions, I have been showing-off the features to a friend (be prepared to do this a lot). During navigating through playlists and songs, I (or friends)have accidentally started playing a song. If the headphones aren't plugged in, this is easy to overlook, and the song will keep playing as you navigate through other features and later goes to sleep (still playing). One day later, the battery will be dead. It's not a big issue, but it wold be nice if there were a little led or perhaps a banner on the home screen to indicate that music is playing.
Another iPod consideration is that the touch screen means you can't operate the controls (brace yourself for irony) "by touch". If you plan on using it for tunes in your car, you had better find a single playlist and a comfortable volume setting and leave it alone while driving. On my old 2-Gen iPod, I can reach down and fast-forward, rewind, pause, lower the volume or turn off without taking my eyes off the road. That isn't a criticism of the iPod touch per se, but it should be a consideration for those of you who are deciding between an 8GB touch and an 8GB nano for $100 less. While driving, the iPod touch has even less functionality than a shuffle (you still can't see what's playing, but you can control the music by touch/feel).
The touch does have WiFi, which seems beyond cool at first, but zooming and panning (despite Apple's great pinch/stretch design) stops being interesting after a while, and you'll go back to browsing on your laptop. You can check your mail using the WiFi and a web application, and I would expect that some of these web interfaces will become scaled specifically for the touch in the future.
There is also a calendar feature on the iPod touch, but unlike the iPhone, you cannot make any changes to the calendar (aka you cannot add "events"). I very much need an app where I can update my calendar on the go. For now, I am still stuck with having to carry my palm pilot with me. A working calendar, notepad, and other features may be available in a later software update. If not, Apple is trying to release a (non-web-tethered)software developer's kit for the iPod and iPhone in early 2008. I'm sure a good calendar app, contacts app, good notes app won't drag to far behind.
So, I love it. Lots. I hate myself for only giving it three stars, but a crippled calendar application and an all-to-easy way to leave your music running and drain your battery are below the standards I have for Apple's hardware. If I had $300 for myself, I would buy a nano and have a $100 stockpile for accessories. However, once I had the iPod touch in my hands, I couldn't let go.
***EDIT 11/21/07*** With the latest iPod update (through iTunes), you can now add and edit events in your calendar. My iPod touch can now replace my Palm Pilot, and I am a very happy camper. I'd change my rating to four stars, if I could.
Customer Review: iPhone features minus the data plan/contract strings
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife and I purchased two iPod Touch units two weeks ago and my review will reflect on my experience in that time. I was very excited when Apple announced the iPod Touch because I love the mobile Safari and overall feature set found in the iPhone, but I am also quite happy with my Blackberry and wasn't looking forward to being locked into AT&T so for me the Touch fit the bill.
Regarding value: Less than two years ago I spent about half of what I paid for the Touch and I got a 1" screen, no video and only 2-GB of storage space. For twice that amount I have four times the storage space, a 3.5" screen, video playback option, video out option, WiFi, touch technology, ability to buy songs on the go with the mobile iTunes music store and probably the best mobile web browser available: Safari. While not "cheap" the iPod Touch is a very good value for what it is.
Regarding features: It feels like you're playing with something from the future. So all the coolness of the iPhone (which is only a few months old) applies here. This is bleeding edge stuff, you really need to head over to Apple's website and check out some of the videos if you haven't seen the user interface on this thing.
If I'm at a WiFi hotspot, I'll pull it out of my pocket, I'll tap on the music icon and turn it on it's side to trigger album scroll, I'll find my what I want to listen to within seconds and then I'll open Safari and start surfing while listening to my music. If I miss an episode of my favorite TV show or if I want to check out a past episode or something I've never seen before I can go on-line to the iTunes store and for a couple bucks I can quickly download and transfer those episodes into my touch and watch them in 480x320 widescreen resolution on the go. To oversimplify, it's like a television in my pocket. Sure some of these things were available before in PDA's and phones, but unless you have an iPhone, not like this! Like the iPhone, the iPod Touch has been designed to cater to the user, "keep it simple" and "make it work". If you travel a lot, this is the iPod for you.
The video was the one option I wasn't so excited about that really surprised me, when I bought it I thought of the video as a nice bonus, now I consider it to be a very important feature, it's just that good and useful.
Regarding durability/quality: There was a screen problem with a lot of the early units, actually every one on display at my local Apple store had a problem and the two I bought had the problem and had to be exchanged. You can find more information at the link below:
http://jdeats76.bravehost.com/iBadScreen.htm
Regarding critics: There have been two compliants about the Touch. One is "why only 16-GB" and the other is "why doesn't it have a certain feature found on the iPhone". The answer to these questions are pretty simple. 1. It uses Flash memory for stability and durability to complement its small form factor which limits it to 16-GB. 2. It's not an iPhone and since the iPhone cost more Apple has crippled the device in some ways to make the more expensive iPhone look more appealing (many technology companies do this with software, see the last several releases of Windows as an example)