Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation--without iPhone OS 3.1 Software) [Previous Model]
by Apple Computer
![Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation--without iPhone OS 3.1 Software) [Previous Model]](/images/Apple-iPod-touch-8-GB-2nd-Generation-without-iPhone-OS-3-1-Software-Previous-Model-B001FA1NZK-L.jpg)
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List Price: Our Price: $199.99 You Save: $100.00 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $107.98 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation--without iPhone OS 3.1 Software) [Previous Model]
Customer Review: An OBJECTIVE plus (+) and minus (-) review. Please read this if you're making up your mind.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an impartial review based on my experience of the iPod Touch 2nd Generation, and other Personal Media Players.
Strengths:
+ WiFi and Safari Browser. Superb mobile browsing experience. For example, you can stream BBC iPlayer to the Touch perfectly. A real joy.
+ Youtube widget for playback of youtube videos.
+ Integrated Nike + Support, so that you can use the device as a training tool for exercise.
+ App Store. You can download from thousands of Apps on iTunes, including games, and stream internet radio, for instance.
+ Superb capacitive glass touch screen. Older touch screens use `resistive' technology. These work on a different principle, and are less responsive. (The Archos 5 uses a resistive screen. The Cowon S9, however, uses a capacitive one like the iPod Touch).
+ Incredible User Interface. Beautifully conceived and implemented. Music and Videos are organised with an astonishing attention to the user's goals, and you regularly feel that Apple designers have read your mind when you go about tasks.
Here's an example: you wish to download a podcast. You go to an internet address in Safari. Safari automatically grabs the address, boots you into iTunes (on the device itself), and takes you to the podcast listing within the iTunes store. Two more clicks and you're downloading your content. That's the way things should be done.
+ Advantages over the previous generation include a dedicated volume rocker, slightly more curvaceous design, slightly improved battery life, integrated Nike + support and mini speaker.
Weaknesses:
- Very, very average sound quality. Now it is a mystery to me why so many users and reviewers overlook this issue. Having owned the Touch, I have come to the conclusion that it is a stylish Swiss Army Knife whose MAIN BLADE is blunt.
It is true that many people will have no issue with the sound quality probably because their only reference point to the world of personal media players is the iPod brand. This is useful ignorance, because I would challenge anyone not to be thoroughly crestfallen with the sound of this device compared to something as cheap yet beautiful sounding as the Sansa Clip.
- Video playback. If you are happy to be locked into the iTunes universe, then you will love this device. You will endlessly pay for movies and will enjoy them on this device. If like me, however, you like to play your own physical DVDs in DivX format,in addition to a range of movie files in various formats and codecs, then the Touch is simply not your friend. It only supports a few video codecs, which means as a device for video playback, it is somewhat paralysed.
- Terrible battery life. Three hours of mixed use, and the Touch is wheezing for a recharge. It's great being a Jack of all trades, but Jack gets tired rather too quickly sometimes!
- Being `locked in' to iTunes. There are some Apple hating brand lunatics who simply disparage anything Apple for the sake of it. For me, I feel that iTunes is an excellent software (especially on a Mac) but it is also limiting. With iTunes organising my device, I can't just drag and drop files onto the Touch, and this is a bit of a pain. But you may feel different, so this one is up in the air...
Conclusion and buying advice:
Having owned it, the Touch is either superb or mediocre depending on whether you wish to buy it as 1) your mini WiFi web browser with an App Store, or as 2) your multimedia player.
1) As a mini browser, it is excellent. Browse the web, download podcasts, stream iPlayer, etc. (But remember, when you're not near a WiFi signal, none of these capabilities count for anything).
2) But as a genuine media playback device, it just does not cut the mustard. Think of it as a second rank device in a field of stellar performers. The sound quality for music playback is just average, and in some cases, embarrassing when listened to devices made by Cowon, Sansa, iRiver and Sony. And its Video playback is equally crippled by its lack of codec support.
So what is the bottom line?
Well, I owned this device but decided to sell it when I bought a £20 Sansa Clip and stopped listening to music on it because the sound quality was so much superior on the Sansa. This is not hyperbole, and I do not hate Apple. In fact, I love Apple, so do take this as objective advice.
I simply realised that my priority was sound and video quality, and that I would get all of the extra features of the Touch most important to me (namely WiFi and a stunning User Interface) when I buy a Macbook in the future.
I have since purchased a Cowon O2, which is a stellar sounding device (admittedly without the Touch's `extra' features) but in a league of its own in terms of sound quality for music playback, and movie playback. (It supports a cornucopia of music and video files and in this regard is a much more accomplished device).
So then, what are you after?
A mini WiFi enabled device with music/video as an extra? Well then buy the Touch! Go for it. You'll love it and enjoy its brilliance.
But if the answer is an audiophile experience of sound and video, do not buy this device. Start investigating a Cowon O2 or S9, or an iRiver Spinn.
Hope this helps.
- Written by a non-partisan audiophile.
Customer Review: The genius is in the Apps available for this device.
Summary: 5 Stars
When the iPod Touch and iPhone were first launched I thought they were cool but thought that they were not for me as I really did not want to jump on the Apple fans bandwagon. I own a couple of Apple products (a desktop and a shuffle) but I have many other devices from other companies like Zune, Sansa, and also a Blackberry. thought that this was just a cooler iPod with lower memory. But then I bought an iPhone. Now that I own this device, I find that I was highly mistaken in thinking this was just an iPod.
This device is so much more than an iPod. The real genius is in the Apps that you can download, most of them for free. They expand the capabilities of this device to new limits, and have totally converted me from a critic to a "fan-girl" (at least for this device!)
It is a nice MP3 player and browsing through your pictures is great as they flow through the beautiful bright screen at the swipe of a finger. The calendar/ contacts list is so easy to read and update (better than Blackberry!). Love the Youtube streaming.
But some of the best applications come from the Apps, some of my favorite FREE apps:
Social:
Facebook: Nicely formatted for the screen, wonderful to have if you live on a campus with freely accessible WiFi.
MySpace
News: AP Mobile, USA Today - there are so many great news apps for free
Radio
Pandora: Stream songs for free from your favorite bands/singer. Each time you add a singer a radio station is created for that singer that plays songs that are similar and will appeal to your tastes. For example adding Led Zeppelin will play Pink Floyd, Doors, etc.
IHeartRadio/AOLRadio : Get local radio stations, or choose any city you like. Some stations display lyrics too.
Shazam: Works best on iPhone. "Listens" to any song playing and tells you which song it is and also pulls up iTunes/ youtube to help you download the song.
Music/Instruments:
Mini Piano: The app featured on the screen, allows you to play piano and sounds just great
Digidrummer: Allows you to play drums and record beats to music
Directions:(You need WiFi connectivity for these apps to work on the run)
Google speak search (iPhone): Works really well, you just speak your search works instead of typing for e.g. "Thai restaurant San Jose" brings up results in a jiffy.
Yelp: Tells you where the nearest restaurant, theater, drugstore is and also gives reviews
Showtimes/Flixter: Shows you movie showtimes and plays movie trailers and is linked to IMDB for greater details.
Fastfood: Shows you where your favorite fast food restaurants are located
Yellow pages: Really nice app which gives you the address, phone number and locates the store for you on the maps
iTV/What's on TV: Gives you listing of all the channels, and you can customize it to any location and choose your provider. i.TV also gives you movie listings.
Other apps:
SimplifyMedia: Allows you to stream music from your computer to the iPod over WiFi, no more worrying about limited space as long as you have WiFi
VNCLite: Allows you to access all files on your desktop through a virtual network
Fring: Allows you to combine all your instant chat clients like Yahoo, Live, AOL, GoogleTalk into one
Backgrounds: Allows you to get really nice backgrounds for free
eBay: Watch your auctions
EasyWriter: Turn the keypad into landscape mode for easier typing
Remote: Turns your iPod Touch into a remote for iTunes playing on your laptop
Stanza: Nice eBook reader with several free books
Wikiamo or Wikipanion: Bring up facts from wikipedia formatted nicely for your screen
Free timepass Games: Too many to list, but some short and fun free game are - Topple (stack cubes, uses iPhone tilt interface very well), Bubblewrap (yes you just burst bubblewrap), Beginning, Words (Lite version is free), Magic 8 ball
I have already filled in 4 screens of apps and keep discovering new ones I love. I don't even use it much as an MP3 player as I have my songs on several other devices. For me this is a notebook replacement more than a music player. And I simply LOVE it!
Customer Review: Could Be Better For Podcasts
Summary: 3 Stars
I have had my iPod Touch 8Gb for a few years now and have mostly been satisfied. I'm a podcast/vodcast fanatic and I bought it because I liked the large, widescreen LCD which I knew would be good for vodcasts.
Pros:
Fits easily in my top pocket (actually it fits a little too easily because it falls sideways - which is very annoying when you want to adjust the volume because you have to dig around to stand it upright again).
The LCD screen is just big enough for video and is nice and bright.
Interfaces very nicely with iTunes which makes keeping track of podcasts very convenient.
Cons:
The iPod Touch desperately needs a stop or pause button on the side. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I have been waiting at a bus stop and someone I know comes up to talk to me and I have to struggle with my iPod, first extracting it from my pocket, swiping the unlock function so that I can touch the on-screen pause button and then pressing the top button to turn the screen off. In the meantime the person talking is feeling embarrassed because I have to go to so much trouble to stop playback - that is unless I just rip out my earplugs and let my podcast keep playing. But if I do that, I'm wasting battery life and I have the hassle of trying to find my previous playback position later.
Sometimes my iPod Touch will often replay a podcast/vodcast that has already been marked as played some time before. This is irritating because there I am, scratching my head trying to remember if I have already heard this before or not and I often end up nearly listening to the whole thing again.
Apple needs a more consistent approach for playback settings for audio and video. For the first year I had my iPod Touch I didn't realize that there was a setting to get the iPod to remember playback position for videos/vodcasts. It is not turned on by default - it should be. To turn it on you go into the main iPod menu, choose "Settings", select "Video", find "Start Playing" and change to "Where Left Off". There is also a setting for music - only this time the setting is in the iTunes software which is a bit confusing for users because the video settings are on the iPod. But wait - it's even more confusing because there are also individual settings for videos in iTunes as well.
Some further enhancements I would like to see:
Make the iPod Touch a little bit bigger - it will fit in my top pocket even better and will be better screen-wize too for videos and photos.
I would like Apple to make the playback position scale logarithmic - not linear - because most podcasts/vodcasts are 30 minutes to an hour long and the linear scale is just too small and tiny to easily rewind or seek a specific playback position with your finger. Probably nobody ever complains about this because they all use their iPods to listen to pop songs which only last 3 or 4 minutes but there must be some people out there who put podcasts, movies or tv shows on their iPod Touch and I'm sure they would benefit from a logarithmic playback position scale.
Another enhancement which would be particularly nice is a *high-quality*, variable fast-forward speed control. This would be really good for long audio podcasts/vodcasts - especially ones which are full of padding with podcasters making in-jokes with each other and chatting about things that have nothing to do with the podcast topic. I would just love to speed them up!! The iPod does have a crude 2x playback speed but it is too fast and the sound quality is terrible. If the free program VLC Media Player can manage intelligble fast playback, why can't the iPod?
My iPod Touch has been supsceded by later models now but it's still going strong. My ideal replacement, if it ever comes, would be a paperback novel sized device, with eInk colour motion screen for eBooks and video playback, 160 Gb of flash memory so I can put my entire lossless-encoded music library on it and support for standard PC applications so I can use programs like Mediamonkey which makes use of *all* my tags, not just the dumbed-down set that iTunes forces you to use. Now that would really rock!!!
Customer Review: Cop a feel of The Touch: Like having the world in (providing you have time on) your hands,
Summary: 4 Stars
[Update: Whether you're a DJ overloaded with equipment or an aspiring one, the Touch could be the answer for your next gig. It occurred to me to take it to a job where "Boot Scootin' Boogie" was sure to be the order of the night, and I had little faith as a musician that I could make the tune come off as an instrumental. Not only did the Touch perform wonders with a P.A. system, but the "Genius" feature enabled me to find just enough other Boogie tunes to keep the line dancers happy. With a C&W band in my Tux pocket, I can even afford to leave the protective chicken wire screen at home.]
This most recent model of the Touch 8GB is currently priced at a negligible premium to the previous model even though, unlike the original Touch, this one comes with an onboard speaker. True, not impressive audio but adequate to get you by in the pinch or to make monitoring what's on your iPod that much easier. The built-in speaker plus the prospect of using the gizmo to download and play tunes during a live call-in radio show are what drew me to the Touch 2nd generation.
I never appreciated how small, thin and light the item is until I had it in hand. Now that I have it, I'm suddenly aware that I've in effect purchased an entire Apple computer(!) --and for little more than a couple hundred bucks! The internet, e-mail, map locator, applications galore and, of course, gaming are in your shirt pocket. And let's not forget the movies, videos, and photos not to mention podcasts, dictionaries, stock quotes, social networking, and on and on. My wife, who has a Treo, readily and intuitively caught on to a number of the functions while I was still painstakingly looking through the accompanying 100+ page manual that I felt compelled to immediately print out. I'm still finding the learning curve fairly steep.
Unless you're a digitally talented teen (or my wife), this gadget may not be worth the investment of time required for some of us to master all of its potential. Especially with the limited (and limiting) keyboard on the Touch, you might do well deciding on no more than a couple of dedicated uses and then practicing those until you're good at them. This entry model, especially, is priced reasonably enough to justify saving it for the things that it (and you) do best.
One caveat re: Apple's entire new line: I don't recall the company making more fuss out of so little than its hype about the "Genius" feature (sad commentary on the intelligence of the public?). Were it not for the absurd raving about this non-substantive "improvement," I'd feel like even more of an out-of-tune klutz for being so technologically challenged in the presence of yet another shrunken "smart device." I tried it, but am happier to have it turned off. (And, after a lifetime of collecting records, able to come up with just as many and better choices.) Time better spent reading a book (or Kindle).
So far, I'm finding navigation of the internet, answering e-mail, and even downloading of iTunes excessively slow and cumbersome for my purposes on the Touch, enough to steer me back to my Macbook. In sum: the iPod Classic and Nano 3G are still my top vote-getters, smaller even than the Touch yet manageable to aging eyes and unsteady fingers (especially when under time constraints). By not pretending to be "micro-computers" but merely intelligent storage drives, they serve "me" instead of vice versa. But for those seeking a world in miniature to escape to for extended periods, the Touch offers such a universe.
In sum, the Touch is an amazing gadget and cutting-edge technology, guaranteed to impress anyone within range (I'll probably use it next time I show a movie to a grand child). I'm still hopeful of learning how to stroke its magical screen to ensure timely downloading and playing of music files, even though this maiden voyage has convinced me that I'm not the ideal customer for an iPhone. (Nor, for that matter, for any of these miniature all-in-one phone-camera-GPS-media centers, including Google's new one, which at least has the advantage of being coordinated with Amazon's collection rather than iTunes).
Customer Review: Good But Not Perfect
Summary: 3 Stars
I had been an AT&T/Cingular/new AT&T customer for years. My past two phones were PDA phones (TREO 600 & Cingular 8125). I was disappointed in their performance but kept holding out for better phones. At the same time, the AT&T wireless coverage at my work continued to be at best pathetic. Of course, my phone problem was apparently answered by the iPhone 3G. However while at work, I would have problems getting calls. In the meantime, those with Verizon service consistently were able to make and receive calls from campus and inside the buildings. So, I decided to switch my service from AT&T to Verizon. Unfortunately, the Verizon phones were not my cup of tea. I settled with a cheap (i.e. free) flip phone. I still needed a pocketpcish replacement. After some research, I decided to give the iPod Touch a try. My experience with this device has been eye opening and somewhat disappointing.
What are the positives with this phone? First, the device's look and performance are impressive. They definitely make the Treo's and Pocket PC's I used in the past look like toys made by amateurs. The large color display is gorgeous. The applications execute with almost no hesitation. The wireless abilities (802.11 b/g) are far superior to my previous PDA phones. Even the web surfing experience is actually workable though Safari does not support Flash (which shows up more frequently than I expected). The interface is so intuitive that my wife (who has troubles with my electronic toys) was tinkering with it like a pro. That speaks volumes about the iPod Touch touchscreen interface. Second, it is pretty easy to add applications to the Touch using the iTunes app store. The pocket pc interface was always clunky.
What are the negatives? First, the device has no bluetooth. I keep finding myself wanting to grab my bluetooth headset and listen to an audiobook. I'm getting tired of wires. Second, the operating system for this device and the iTunes interface seem to be e-book phobic. I have e-books on my laptop that could be loaded to my pocket pc and read with a cheap e-book reader. It is very difficult to do that on a Touch (or any iPOD). Part of the problem has to do with the size of the data buffer that e-books would use. Another part of the problem is iTunes. It is designed to move music/movies/photos/apps to your iPOD and nothing else. The e-book readers for the Touch are getting much better with time. However, getting e-books on your Touch is a real pain. All in all, I find this development hole to be shameful. Third, iTunes is a pain. I don't feel as strongly against iTunes as a did a few months ago when my wife got a Nano. I have had an opportunity to get used to it. However, I would prefer to copy my music/video over directly instead of going through a at times obtuse piece of software. Oh and by the way, you cannot just copy over albums or individual tracks to your Touch. Instead, you must create a playlist. iTunes will only copy over the tracks/albums that are assigned to a playlist. Fourth, the touchscreen is not kind to those of use with medium sized or larger fingers. There is not stylus which would allow for greater precision when you click out a word or URL on their virtual keyboard. I find that my finger misses the correct letter more often than I would like. I can live with this annoyance. Fifth, the almost 50% price increase in going from a 8 GB to 16 GB Touch is tough to stomach. I decided to go with the 8 GB version. With proper file management, I'll make due. Lastly, a true GPS ability would have been nice. The Touch has the ability to use Wi-Fi to detect your location. However, that breaks down when you get away from Wi-Fi heavy areas. It's impressive technology but not something you can rely upon.
In conclusion, if the iPod Touch had included bluetooth and better support for e-books, I would have given it 4-4.5 stars. If GPS had been thrown into the mix, then I would have given it 5 stars. In it's current form and cost, I'll give it 3 stars.