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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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation--without iPhone OS 3.1 Software) [Previous Model]
Customer Review: Really cool - but beware if you want to use it as a PDA
Summary: 2 Stars
There is no doubt that the iPod touch is really really cool. It's an amazing little device...
...until you really try to use it. I naively assumed that it would work as a PDA: it has a calendar and contacts, right? After using one for a month, I'm getting rid of it. The cool factor is long since gone, and I realize that in many ways I liked my 1998 PalmPilot better than I like this thing. I have used Palms heavily for a decade.
Things that a 1998 PalmPilot could do better than an iPod touch:
o The iPod is unreliable. The most frustrating is that the date/time/time zone likes to reset itself randomly.
o There is no ToDo app, and none of the downloadable ones sync well with Outlook.
o The calendar has no search capability - indeed, there is no global search. This is a dealbreaker when you have (as I do) a calendar with a decade of information, and over a thousand contacts.
o The auto corrections were clearly not tested: words get trashed beyond all recognition. If you are looking at the keyboard typing and don't see that it has suggested something off the wall, you end up with text that's beyond useless: a typo you might recognize and work around. If you type a lot of acronyms, usability is terrible.
o There is no caps lock - one of these little things that makes life a little bit harder, esp if you use a lot of acronyms.
o No search. I know I said it already, but it's a big problem.
o Memos are not syncable with Outlook.
o No cut and paste
o No block delete
o No zooming of text in long calendar or contact notes: the text is forced to very small
o In long contact notes, the only way to see the text is to edit them.
o There is no usable calendar alarm. I had to use it a couple of times to realize that it does beep, just so softly that you can't hear it from a pocket. Loud Palm alarms were incredibly useful as notifications of meetings and as a customizable alarm clock. (If I have a very early meeting two months from now, I can set a Palm as an alarm right now.)
o The phone #s in contacts can't understand nonstandard numbers. If a number is 123-456-7890 ext 321, the software will try to be clever by changing it to 1234567890321. Thanks.
The PDA apps Apple tries to cover with MobileMe. Don't bother. Friends have had the sync overwrite the wrong data, and backup is out of your hands. But for me it's a bad idea: I am never going to keep my calendar or contacts on a server I can't control, and that's true of many many people.
Over the course of the last month or two, I've asked people who use iPhones/iPod touches who used to use Palms what they use for todo lists, or how they do calendar searches. Answers include using using postits for todos, looking sheepish, and being resigned to not being able to do what they used to do.
Again, it was really cool for a couple of days. But I'm getting rid of it.
Customer Review: Fun!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned several ipods in the past and this is by far my favorite. I'm a fan of ipod and I've really enjoyed all of mine in the past but this surpasses even the other new models of ipod in features, style, and hardware.
As an Ipod the touch i think is slightly less effective as other models for two reasons; you have limited control when in your pocket, and the way cover flow is implemented. The 2G touch has a nice external volume control feature and I also picked up some apple buds with a remote and mic so this makes up some of the difference, but there is no way to skip forwards or back on a song. perhaps two sets of external controls would remedy this or controls on remote earphones, but all in all it is a small inconvenience. My other complaint is that whenever you wish to use cover flow you must rotate your ipod landscape, and even when you don't rotating landscape brings up cover flow :-) this may seem stupid but when i lay sideways while choosing a songs it screws everything up and results in a few moments of frustration and discomfort :-)Also not colossal but still a bit frustrating.
The Style of the new Itouch is good, but I HATE the fact that they are still using a stainless steel backing that attracts scratches like magic. I remedied this by purchasing a ZAGG invisible shield but I'd much prefer a hard, matte finish like on other models or even a backing such as an iphone. The screen I am very impressed with, it is very scrath resistant (it's glass) and somewhat fingerprint resistant. The shape of it fits nicely in the hand and The screen is brilliant and vibrant! The Touch feature is also very impressive, very accurate and suprisingly easy to type with.
Although a good ipod, the features of the touch are what make it the best ipod available (unless you count the iphone which is very similar but perhaps slightly better). I heard there have been an estimated 10,000 applications created for the ipod touch/iphone that range in use to everything from virtual aquariums to mosquito replants and everything ion between. The gaming apps are numerous and though many need some work they tap into the ipod's remarkable touch and accelerometer abilities. THere are also great productivity apps that make the ipod touch a worthy contender as even a pda! The only negative is that for most apps wifi is important if not essential. And speaking of wifi, the safari web browsing is fast and fairly easy, Good enough for everday use (great as long as you don.t visit sites that use flash). And my favorite part is that you can listen to your music while doing all this! And the battery can handle a good four hours of this intense work, not great but good :-)
Overall I'm very satisfied, great value!
Customer Review: Glorified status symbols.
Summary: 2 Stars
When it comes to the iPod Touch, I just have to ask myself: what's the point? Here's the deal: what exactly are you looking for when you buy this product? If you say "The ability to store my music and take it wherever I go", then leave this page and go find yourself a good portable MP3 player for 1/3 of the price you'd be paying for this. However, if you want the ability to download thousands of useless applications and pop bubble wrap or light a Zippo on a touch screen, then by all means purchase this. Or maybe you just want to say you own one of these, since owning an iPod is a sort of status symbol these days. In any case, I see no reason why anyone would purchase one of these things.
Everything this can do, so can your cell phone. In fact, there is no difference at all between an iPod Touch and an iPhone other than the fact the Touch can't make calls. People say "I like having the applications and using the web browser"...correct me if I'm wrong but cell phones can do this as well. And about the applications: they are (mostly) worthless. Apple loves to advertise the fact they have over 75,000 apps ("An app for everything!") but what they fail to mention is that over half of these are buggy, poorly designed, and completely useless. I can't tell you how stupid some of these apps are: on every Touch I have ever looked at that was owned by another person, their app menu was full of fascinating things like a Zippo lighter you could light using the screen, a fish tank, and bubble wrap that you could pop. There are literally thousands of these utterly worthless time wasters available for download, and they serve no point whatsoever. Anyone fascinated by these things needs to grow up--nothing is more pathetic than seeing a group of adults fascinated with an app that lets you pull the trigger of a gun and hear it go off. That's not to say there aren't some useful apps, but they are few and far between, and offer nothing a good cell phone with a data plan can't do. Furthermore, your cell phone would do it in more places anyway, seeing as the Touch can only get online through Wifi anyway, meaning a lot of your most useful apps are useless unless you have an Internet connection nearby. It's like you'd be able to pull out the restaurant finder app and use it while driving in the city--unless you are near a Wifi hot spot.
This is just an expensive little device that doesn't know what it wants to be--music player or time waster. If you want something simply to store your music, please go out and find yourself a decent device without all the bells and whistles this comes with. This is not a music player, this is a TOY. And a status symbol for some people to show off with.
Customer Review: NOT for News podcasts!
Summary: 1 Stars
I got an 8GB Touch free with a MacBook and discovered it was completely useless for podcasts -with the new OS, it's now possible to actually download podcasts directly to the touch via wi-fi, but it's still a lousy way to hear and watch news shows compared with a device that allows full web functionality, which both the Touch and the iPhone do NOT do. News shows online are overwhelmingly produced in Flash or Realplayer formats, neither of which Mac allows on its handhelds. This causes huge and unnecessary problem and inconveniences for news junkies. So be warned! Go for a handheld that allows full web functionality if you want easily accessable webcasts.
This should be a warning as well for anyone who thinks they'll get full web functionality on a Touch or iPhone -you get nothing close without Flash or Realplayer. Mac is following the Microsoft model of forcing you to use its software, in this case iTunes, rather than allowing full web access.
Here's how you access a news show on the computer: go to the webpage, read the info, if you want to hear or see it, click.
Here's how you access a news show on the Touch: forget the show's webpage, it's useless to you. First you have to do a search for it by keyboarding in the show's name in iTunes, then you have to download (not stream) a podcast. Then to hear any future podcasts, you have to go to stored "Music" files and search thru your downloads, find the show you want, then click on "Get More Episodes". Then the Touch goes to Safari, opens the podcast list in iTunes and hopefully lists the current show. Unfortunately, the latest news show, though it's on the website, is often not available in iTunes. It's not uncommon to have to wait 24 hours to get a news show from iTunes that's already available on the show's webpage. And what you get in Itunes is a bare three word preliminary description of the show, as taken from the show's website. It's your guess whether it's something you might be interested in. The show's actual website will give a full length description of the show and the guests, but Apple in its cluelessness won't let you listen to anything directly from a website, you gotta go thru iTunes or not at all.
If you chose to live stream a news video from iTunes, if iTunes drops it, as it often does, you have to type in the name of the show via "Search" and start over, or try to find where you were dropped at. Its' all a huge pain you wouldn't have on a machine that allows full web access.
Shame on Apple for hamstringing its browser in this way, and following the discredited Microsoft model. If you want current news via the internet, this is NOT the way to go.
Customer Review: Love it.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say, this is my first ipod since my 1st generation white firewire and the ipod experience has vastly improved. I am a Mac user and have been for 15 years or so, so the integration with all of my applications such as email, calendar, contacts is very useful. As well as movies and photos always with me is very handy.
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wifi:
We have a 10/2 fios connection but the speed of my internet hasn't made browsing any faster. Safari is abit slow on the touch, it's not horrible 8-10 seconds for sites like cnn for example. I can go outside of my house and have access to email. There are great apps out there that help you connect and see to open wifi spots.
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email:
I have my gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, work email, all on here. (I have multiple accounts for a couple of these services) I don't have to login to all of my online accounts to access them. Instead I have a single application to view all of my email, reply, forward and even see attachments. (Large attachments such as pdf's take longer to download and view.)
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calendar, contacts, photos:
synced with my mac so anything I enter in either the ipod or computer gets synced so I have everything always updated and current. The weather app is nice also. (there are alot of nice free ones besides the apple weather app.)
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movies and music:
I use visualhub to convert avi's to an itunes format and sync to the ipod. The screen is nice and clear for viewing and if you have a higher end pair of headphones the ipod sends great sound to them. I have usually about 4-5 movies on there all the time. Music is nice to have a couple of albums on here, again sound is great.
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app store:
ok now this is addictive, there are thousands of app out there, alot of them free. Useful stuff like news, weather, productivity like todo apps. Financial calculators etc. There is no way to get a refund on apps so be sure to read the reviews and look at screenshots. Alot of paid apps have free "lite" versions available so try these out before you purchase a full version. I have a couple of games, todo, facebook, twitter, password manager.
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my digital hub:
My workflow has changed since using my ipod. Sure it's marketed as a entertainment tool, but I have used it more to be productive than anything. Having access to my email, a todo app (Things), a password manager (mSecure), weather (Weather Channel), News (AP News, Amazon and Bank of America access, all make this a great PDA. THis is a great ipod. Don't hesitate.