Tuesday, August 18, 2009
IPOD NANO 8 GB
Product Features
8 GB capacity for 2,000 songs, 7,000 photos, or 8 hours of video
Up to 24 hours of music playback or 4 hours of video playback when fully charged
2-inch LCD with blue-white LED backlight and 320-by-240-pixel resolution
Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; Supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG
Technical Details
Brand name: Apple iPod nano 8 GB
Generation: 4th
Storage capacity: 8 GB
Color: Black
Drive type: Flash drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 1.5 inches (38.7 mm)
Depth: 0.24 inch (6.2 mm)
Height: 3.6 inches (90.7 mm)
Weight: 1.3 ounces (36.8 grams)
Audio controls: Hold switch; click wheel
Supported audio formats: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 2,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
Display size: 2-inch diagonal
Display type: LCD with blue-white LED backlight
Display resolution: 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 8 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 7,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 24 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 4 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 1.5 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 3 hours
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
IPOD NANO 8 GB
Product Features
8 GB capacity for 2,000 songs, 7,000 photos, or 8 hours of video
Up to 24 hours of music playback or 4 hours of video playback when fully charged
2-inch LCD with blue-white LED backlight and 320-by-240-pixel resolution
Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; Supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG
Technical Details
Brand name: Apple iPod nano 8 GB
Generation: 4th
Storage capacity: 8 GB
Color: Black
Drive type: Flash drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 1.5 inches (38.7 mm)
Depth: 0.24 inch (6.2 mm)
Height: 3.6 inches (90.7 mm)
Weight: 1.3 ounces (36.8 grams)
Audio controls: Hold switch; click wheel
Supported audio formats: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 2,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
Display size: 2-inch diagonal
Display type: LCD with blue-white LED backlight
Display resolution: 320-by-240-pixel resolution at 204 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 8 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 7,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 24 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 4 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 1.5 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 3 hours
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
Monday, August 17, 2009
IPOD TOUCH 32 GB (2nd Generation)
Product Features
This player is the iPod touch
32 GB capacity for 7,000 songs, 10,000 photos, or 40 hours of video
Up to 36 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged
3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display with 480-by-320-pixel resolution
Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG
Technical Details
Brand name: Apple iPod touch 32 GB
Generation: 2nd
Storage capacity: 32 GB
Color: Silver/Black
Drive type: Flash drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.33 inch (8.5 mm)
Height: 4.3 inches (110 mm)
Weight: 4.05 ounces (115 grams)
Audio controls: Volume Up/Down, Sleep/Wake, Home, Touchscreen
Supported audio formats: Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 7,000 songs
Display size: 3.5 inches diagonal
Display type: Widescreen Multi-Touch display
Display resolution: 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: Support for 480p and 576p component TV out; H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 40 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 25,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 4 hours
Wireless standard: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Internet browser: Safari for iPhone
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
IPOD TOUCH 8 GB (2nd Generation)
Product Features
This player is the iPod touch 8 GB capacity for 1,750 songs, 10,000 photos, or 10 hours of video
Up to 36 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged
3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display with 480-by-320-pixel resolution
Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG
Technical Details
Brand name: Apple iPod touch 8 GB
Generation: 2nd
Storage capacity: 8 GB
Color: Silver/Black
Drive type: Flash drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.33 inch (8.5 mm)
Height: 4.3 inches (110 mm)
Weight: 4.05 ounces (115 grams)
Audio controls: Volume Up/Down, Sleep/Wake, Home, Touchscreen
Supported audio formats: Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 1,750 songs
Display size: 3.5 inches diagonal
Display type: Widescreen Multi-Touch display
Display resolution: 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: Support for 480p and 576p component TV out; H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 10 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 10,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 4 hours
Wireless standard: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Internet browser: Safari for iPhone
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
ipod touch 16 GB
IPOD TOUCH 16 GB (2nd Generation)
Product Features
This player is the iPod touch
16 GB capacity for 3,500 songs, 10,000 photos, or 20 hours of video
Up to 36 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged
3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display with 480-by-320-pixel resolution
Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG
Technical Details
Brand name: Apple iPod touch 16 GB
Generation: 2nd
Storage capacity: 16 GB
Color: Silver/Black
Drive type: Flash drive
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.33 inch (8.5 mm)
Height: 4.3 inches (110 mm)
Weight: 4.05 ounces (115 grams)
Audio controls: Volume Up/Down, Sleep/Wake, Home, Touchscreen
Supported audio formats: Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Song storage capacity: Up to 3,500 songs
Display size: 3.5 inches diagonal
Display type: Widescreen Multi-Touch display
Display resolution: 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Supported video formats: Support for 480p and 576p component TV out; H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Video storage capacity: Up to 20 hours of video
Supported image file types: Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG formats
Image storage capacity: Holds up to 20,000 iPod-viewable photos
Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
Battery life: Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged; Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
Battery charge time: Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80percent of battery capacity); Full-charge time: about 4 hours
Wireless standard: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Internet browser: Safari for iPhone
Headphones: Earphones
Headphones Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Headphones Impedance: 32 ohms
Input: Dock connector
Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later; iTunes 8 or later
Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port; Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3; iTunes 8 or later
Friday, April 10, 2009
September 10th, 2008
iPod Touch review: Old vs new and playing music
By Chris Meadows
I have already looked at the (first-gen) iPod Touch in terms of the overall user interface, and at the variety of e-reading options available for it. What I have not yet covered is what some would say is the iPod’s very raison d’être—how well it plays music.
But before I get to that, a few words about the original iPod Touch vs. the neato-spiff new iPod Touch that Steve Jobs premiered the other day: except for a few features that are nice but not essential, there’s not a lot of difference—except in price. The refurbished models available on the Apple Store have had their price slashed even further—which makes now an excellent time to pick one up.
Old Touch vs. New Touch
The main differences from old to new are that the new iPod has a built-in speaker and a built-in volume control. It also claims a longer battery life, though how much of this is due to new hardware and how much is due to the 2.1 firmware (which was also supposed to improve battery life) is still unclear. Also, the new one can use the Nike+ transmitting pedometer gizmo. There are also some cosmetic shape changes.
That’s it. Apart from that, they both still have the same screen, same wi-fi, same storage capacity, same more-or-less everything. It would be nice to have that speaker for when you want to do something without headphones, and the lack of a volume control can sometimes be irritating—but on the other hand, if you are mainly interested in e-book reading you will not need the speaker anyway, and there are inexpensive ways to work around the lack of volume control (which I will cover in a separate entry).
The 32 gig old Touch is available, refurbished, for $319, versus a new 32 gig new Touch for $400. Either way, that new Touch now costs what I paid three weeks ago for my refurb, and boy am I wishing I had waited.
iTouch vs. My Old iPod
I had really been missing having an iPod when I finally broke down and ordered the new one. I made do with all sorts of hacks to try and make up for what I was missing—I listened to a few mp3 albums on my Nokia 770 until its earphone jack went on the fritz.
Then I bought a cheap Chinese mp3 player and listened to audiobooks on it, until it died. (Amusingly, said mp3 player advertised the ability to read e-books. Which was sort of right. It could display text files, on a screen the size of a postage stamp. It displayed about forty characters at a time.)
Finally, I got the iPod Touch, and on the whole, am satisfied. In addition to all the new stuff it can do, such as read e-books, it does everything the old iPod did just as well as it did.
Except for one thing.
No More USB Drive
One of the neat things about the old iPod was that it would act as a full-fledged USB hard drive in addition to an mp3 player. I used this a number of times for trucking documents down to Kinko’s, or for bringing episodes of Kamen Rider Faiz in to watch at work when it was slow.
But the iPod Touch does not have that ability out of the box. Presumably it’s related to Apple’s desire to keep the iPod locked down and prevent foreign code from executing on it.
However, there are a number of utilities that can be obtained to get around that. Some of them require jailbreaking the iPod, but even if you do not want to do that, there are still several apps available for transferring files to and from a storage space on your device. Some of them even include viewers for common document types, including PDF and rich text. (Note that this storage space will remain separate from your apps’ space and music library—you cannot load new e-books on board this way.)
One such app is called Air Sharing. Air Sharing adds hard drive storage to your iTouch or iPhone that can be accessed via wifi, rather than the sync cable. It also includes viewers for several document types such as RTF or Safari web archives, but no PDF.
Anybody who has an iPod Touch or an iPhone should go and download Air Sharing right now: for the first two weeks it will be free to all takers, then it will return to its normal price of $6.99.
But now that we have covered what the iPod Touch does not do, let’s look at what it does.
Music to My Ears
Music on the iPod sounds great. It sounded great on my old iPod, a 20-gig click-wheel model, and it has not changed much. Just as with that old iPod, the iPod Touch does not offer a true customizable graphic equalizer, but a number of presets. That being said, the presets sound pretty good—even the default is decent.
The standard iPod earbuds included with the device actually sound pretty good. Those who are worried about being mugged may want to swap them out for something less obvious—but given Apple’s market share these days, it is not as if potential thieves really need a telltale any more.
We Have Assumed Controls
In contrast to my first mp3 player, an old Diamond Rio 600, my click-wheel iPod had controls that were elegant in their simplicity. For the newer click-wheel models, most of that elegant simplicity has gotten buried under an avalanche of additional photo and video options, but it was at least easy enough to operate without looking once you knew where all the controls were.
The problem is that the iPod Touch (and iPhone) only has one hardware button (or two if you count the sleep/power button on top). The rest is an entirely smooth touchscreen, which you cannot really do much with when it is hooked to your waist or in a purse or pocket. Fortunately, you can buy a very inexpensive remote control device that entirely solves that problem. I will cover it in my next entry.
But when you can see the controls, they work pretty well. The main music playing screen displays album art (if any is available) in the middle of the screen. There are play and track skip buttons and a volume control slider at the bottom of the screen. At the top, a tap in the middle of the screen opens another display with elapsed and total time (and a slider to move through the song), options for random or looped play, and Genius.
There is also a button to flip to a display of all the tracks in the album. This screen also contains the option to rate the song with 1 through 5 stars.
If you turn the player on its side, you are treated to the "cover flow" display, showing the art of the album currently playing, with the covers of albums that come before and after displayed to the side. You can slide through album covers with your finger, or when the song changes the covers will zoom to the left or right until they find the one for your next song.
I’d Be a Genius
The main new feature introduced to the iPod Touch with firmware 2.1 is "Genius." In my opinion, Genius by itself is well worth paying the $10 for if you have not yet upgraded from firmware 1 (which comes loaded onto the old Touch).
Genius makes random playlists based on what songs it thinks are "like" the song you are playing right now. It bases these choices on data from everybody else who has iTunes 8 and Genius enabled.
Genius is not as accurate yet as the soon-to-be-defunct Pandora, and at present it only has data for music that is fairly mainstream—no animé soundtracks, or obscure groups like Payne’s Gray. And of course it can only work with what is on your iPod at the moment, unlike a streaming service such as Pandora.
But on the other hand, it does a decent job with the music it can match. That is fairly good for this early stage, and it will improve as more people install iTunes 8 and contribute their Genius data to Apple’s servers. And if you use the version of Genius built into iTunes 8, it can recommend new music for you to purchase.
Maybe Not the "Funnest," But Still Pretty Darned Fun
All things considered, the second-generation iPod Touch will be a great bargain at its new lower price—but even the first-gen iPod Touch is still a very decent device. The first-gen plays music, reads e-books, and runs most apps just as well as the newer version, with the only important changes being the speaker and hardware volume control. The speaker you can live without, and my next entry will describe how to do without the volume control for either the old or the new version.
from http://www.teleread.org/2008/09/10/ipod-touch-review/
iPod Touch Review
When it comes to Apple products there are two distinct camps, those that think they all "rock" and those who wonder if they are buying a lot of brand value as opposed to real solid functionality. So when a new device like the Apple iPod touch comes along you have to get one have a play and make the value judgement, which is exactly what this review is about.There was no doubt in the office that the iPod touch would be very sexy as it has a lot in common with the iphone which much of the country and gadget press have been going slightly nuts over. Now the touch is much smaller than the iPhone although it does use the same screen as the phone but that is where the physical resemblance stops, it is closer in form factor to the iPod Nano measuring 110 × 61.8 × 8 mm and weighing 120 grams.It also lacks any external buttons so unlike the iPhone it does not have hard keys for control of volume levels which some will dislike as you do have to use the screen UI to do everything. Open up your Apple iPod touch and try to use it and you are in for a surprise, its not ready to go out of the box. In its factory condition it needs to be connected to a PC or Mac and iTunes in order to receive its final config. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come, much like the mobile phone model Apple is as interested in getting you hooked into iTunes and its music service as it is selling your the device.So the touch will keep showing the cable to iTunes icon until you do so, that said its quick and easy when connected to iTunes and soon it will be activated and filling up either the 8 or 16gb of flash storage depending on the model chosen. Clearly even the 16gb model is small in terms of storage compared to most MP3 players on the market so Apple is relying on its UI and "experience" to bridge the gap.So power up your iPod touch and you will get something very similar to the iPhone, the combination of Cover flow (the album art browsing system) and multi touch makes the touch feel just like the iPhone. You also get WiFi and the Safari browser but more on that later.The interface displays large icons for music, video, photos and iTunes across the bottom of the screen and the browser and other items like a link to youtube sit above. Open up your music collection and you soon see that its no standard click wheel and list. For those that haven't seen the coverflow system its a rather nifty way of using your finger on the 3.5" touch screen to drag through a filing system of album covers. The UI is quite special as it has a natural responsive ness and latency when browsing through lists or screens, a drag of the finger tip starts the movement and when you stop it or slow it there is an amount of spingyness. It makes for a very easy way to trawl through lots of data and is far better than the acclaimed click wheel set-up. We were very impressed with the iPod touch and the way the interface works so naturally, however it was hardly a surprise as it is really the iPhone skinnied down. Gone is the phone (obviously) gone is Bluetooth, camera, speakers etc so this really is an iPod nano style device with the iPhones interface and WiFi thrown in for good measure.The WiFi is 802.11b/g and not the forthcoming n, it works well and when paired with the Apple Safri browser it makes for an ok web browsing experience. We say ok because the small 3.5" screen isn't suited to most websites including our own. Yes the screen automatically changes from portrait to landscape by sensing how you are holding the device but even sideways the 3.5" lcd doesn't really display a webpage to make it readable. The primary use of the WiFi is to connect iTunes via the web direct to the device so that you can download (and of course buy) tracks and movies directly without a PC. The movie playback is a bit more useful than web browsing and despite a low 5 hr playback when in video mode it would be good for a flight or journey, we suggest its far more likely to be used to share music videos.Battery life is steadily improving but still the touch has only 22 hours playback from a charge for audio, 5 hours for video and from our tests not much more than 4 hours for web browsing via WiFi. And true to form Apple have chosen not to make the battery user replaceable so you will need to send your touch off on holiday and part with cash to have the battery changed when the time comes, or risk a DIY out of warranty swap.Also true to form Apple had a dodgy batch problem again with screens, this time in displaying black and reducing the viewing angle, a firmware fix was issued and our had no such problems.As a music player the iPod touch is as you'd expect a good device, audio quality is as good as its bigger brothers and despite the semi poor earbuds shipped as standard our usual test tracks sounded fine. The weird thing is that the "experience" of playing with a touch seems to be more important than the function. We found ourselves suckered into the whizzy menus and almost forgot that for £199 we got just 16gb of flash memory and an MP3 and Video player with a bit of WiFi.There is no doubting that the Apple iPod touch is a very smooth and polished device but we do feel that this is very much form over function, better value is to be found in saving £40 and buying a 80gb classic iPod as opposed the smaller 8gb touch and certainly not the £269 16gb version!Its amazing the difference hard cash makes but we just cant recommend the extra outlay of your hard earned pounds when Apple themselves have much better value options. if you must have a touch hold off and wait for the price to get in "touch" with reality.
Published - 02/01/2008
from http://www.lordpercy.com/ipod_touch_review.htm
iphone / ipod touch review : metal gear solid touch
by Demi Adejuyigbe on March 29, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Confession time: I’ve never actually played any of the Metal Gear Solid games. Well, to completion anyway; I own a copy of MGS2: Substance for the Xbox, but I’ve never actually played it past the the first level. I got confused towards the end of it, and I just never picked it up. When Konami announced Metal Gear Solid Touch, I thought it would be a great way for me to finally get into the MGS franchise.
I knew they’d worked hard on it, because they mentioned how Kojima actually scrapped the entire game and started from scratch halfway into development. Konami said it wouldn’t be a lot like the console games, and I didn’t expect it to, but with such a great legacy, how would Metal Gear Solid Touch live up to the Metal Gear games before it? Would it finally get me into the Metal Gear series? Hit the jump for the full review.
Metal Gear Solid Touch is set up like a shooting gallery, where you’re ducked behind a barrier, only to come up often to shoot strategically placed PMC soldiers, Haven Troopers, and Gekkos before they shoot you. The game gives you a life bar to make things fair, and adds a circular meter around your enemies’ heads, which is like a countdown until they begin to fire at you. It starts off in the yellow, and makes it’s way to the cautionary red, when you should probably begin ducking behind the barrier.
The controls are super simple- drag your finger across the screen to move the aiming reticule, tap the screen to fire, pinch your fingers to switch to the sniper, spread your fingers to move back to your M4, lift your finger to duck behind the barrier. They’re easy to pick up which makes it a simple game to pick up at any time. One thing I didn’t like about the controls was how sluggishly the sniper reticule moved. It’s easy to move the M4 reticule from one side to the other, but it takes a couple of drags with the sniper to aim at someone across the screen. This can easily be fixed by zooming out THEN moving, but it’s still a hassle to do so. It also took me a while to find out how to pause the game. Turns out that you just have to turn the screen from a landscape position to a vertical position, but Konami didn’t bother to mention this in the explanation of controls.
Some of the first things you’ll notice about the game are its graphics. They’re fantastic, especially for an iPhone game, and rival anything you’d see on a PSP or DS currently, but this could be because the models barely ever move. Snake only tilts to aim, and the PMC troopers only move when they fall. One of the second things you’ll notice is that there are missionaries in the game. You probably shouldn’t shoot them. I learned that the hard way.
MGST takes you into 12 missions across 2 acts, and Konami’s promising the addition of 8 more levels soon, too. The game has a story that (according to Konami) is similar to that of MGS4, even though the story is in no way essential to the plot. As a matter of fact, it’s all presented through text-based cutscenes that can be easily skipped. If you’re still annoyed by the story, you can play the Survival Mode of the game, which is just a straight shooting gallery, where you play until you lose. The main mode of the game has a rather lengthy boss fight at the end of the game with Raven, and it’s one of the only two boss fights in the game, the other being one with Laughing Octopus. The boss fights are confusing at first, as you have to figure out how to defeat them on your own, which is a nice change of pace from the usual “shoot the giant red spot on their chest” boss.
The UI of the game is very clean and minimal, with only a lifebar, a timer, a counter of remaining enemies, and a label showing which mission you’re in, tucked away in the corner. One of the cooler parts of the game is the way you procure extra life and different weapons. By shooting yellow chickens placed across the map (yes, chickens) you can get more life, and shooting green little frogs gives you either a rocket launcher or invisibility for a short time, though it’s much more common for rocket launchers to be present when Gekkos or helicopters are attacking you. It’s a case for PETA for sure, but still very useful.
If you get sick of the game, you can always take a look at some of the extras the game has. For those of you like me that don’t know much about Metal Gear Solid, the game has the entire history of Metal Gear Solid so you can catch up, complete with art from the games. There’s also Drebin’s Shop, which allows you to buy 3D art of characters for the Drebin Points you’ve accrued over the course of gameplay. Unfortunately, that’s as far as it goes for the game’s extras, and the 3D art is kind of lame.
Overall, Metal Gear Solid Touch is a great game, even if it’s not a lot like other Metal Gear Solid games. The shooting gallery format works great with the iPod touch/iPhone format, and the lack of an important story means more gameplay, less winded cutscenes. At $7.99, it’s a biiiiiiit pricey for a shooting gallery, but still something any iPhone owner should check out.
from http://www.ripten.com/2009/03/29/iphoneipod-touch-review-metal-gear-solid-touch/
iPod Touch review: Old vs new and playing music
By Chris Meadows
I have already looked at the (first-gen) iPod Touch in terms of the overall user interface, and at the variety of e-reading options available for it. What I have not yet covered is what some would say is the iPod’s very raison d’être—how well it plays music.
But before I get to that, a few words about the original iPod Touch vs. the neato-spiff new iPod Touch that Steve Jobs premiered the other day: except for a few features that are nice but not essential, there’s not a lot of difference—except in price. The refurbished models available on the Apple Store have had their price slashed even further—which makes now an excellent time to pick one up.
Old Touch vs. New Touch
The main differences from old to new are that the new iPod has a built-in speaker and a built-in volume control. It also claims a longer battery life, though how much of this is due to new hardware and how much is due to the 2.1 firmware (which was also supposed to improve battery life) is still unclear. Also, the new one can use the Nike+ transmitting pedometer gizmo. There are also some cosmetic shape changes.
That’s it. Apart from that, they both still have the same screen, same wi-fi, same storage capacity, same more-or-less everything. It would be nice to have that speaker for when you want to do something without headphones, and the lack of a volume control can sometimes be irritating—but on the other hand, if you are mainly interested in e-book reading you will not need the speaker anyway, and there are inexpensive ways to work around the lack of volume control (which I will cover in a separate entry).
The 32 gig old Touch is available, refurbished, for $319, versus a new 32 gig new Touch for $400. Either way, that new Touch now costs what I paid three weeks ago for my refurb, and boy am I wishing I had waited.
iTouch vs. My Old iPod
I had really been missing having an iPod when I finally broke down and ordered the new one. I made do with all sorts of hacks to try and make up for what I was missing—I listened to a few mp3 albums on my Nokia 770 until its earphone jack went on the fritz.
Then I bought a cheap Chinese mp3 player and listened to audiobooks on it, until it died. (Amusingly, said mp3 player advertised the ability to read e-books. Which was sort of right. It could display text files, on a screen the size of a postage stamp. It displayed about forty characters at a time.)
Finally, I got the iPod Touch, and on the whole, am satisfied. In addition to all the new stuff it can do, such as read e-books, it does everything the old iPod did just as well as it did.
Except for one thing.
No More USB Drive
One of the neat things about the old iPod was that it would act as a full-fledged USB hard drive in addition to an mp3 player. I used this a number of times for trucking documents down to Kinko’s, or for bringing episodes of Kamen Rider Faiz in to watch at work when it was slow.
But the iPod Touch does not have that ability out of the box. Presumably it’s related to Apple’s desire to keep the iPod locked down and prevent foreign code from executing on it.
However, there are a number of utilities that can be obtained to get around that. Some of them require jailbreaking the iPod, but even if you do not want to do that, there are still several apps available for transferring files to and from a storage space on your device. Some of them even include viewers for common document types, including PDF and rich text. (Note that this storage space will remain separate from your apps’ space and music library—you cannot load new e-books on board this way.)
One such app is called Air Sharing. Air Sharing adds hard drive storage to your iTouch or iPhone that can be accessed via wifi, rather than the sync cable. It also includes viewers for several document types such as RTF or Safari web archives, but no PDF.
Anybody who has an iPod Touch or an iPhone should go and download Air Sharing right now: for the first two weeks it will be free to all takers, then it will return to its normal price of $6.99.
But now that we have covered what the iPod Touch does not do, let’s look at what it does.
Music to My Ears
Music on the iPod sounds great. It sounded great on my old iPod, a 20-gig click-wheel model, and it has not changed much. Just as with that old iPod, the iPod Touch does not offer a true customizable graphic equalizer, but a number of presets. That being said, the presets sound pretty good—even the default is decent.
The standard iPod earbuds included with the device actually sound pretty good. Those who are worried about being mugged may want to swap them out for something less obvious—but given Apple’s market share these days, it is not as if potential thieves really need a telltale any more.
We Have Assumed Controls
In contrast to my first mp3 player, an old Diamond Rio 600, my click-wheel iPod had controls that were elegant in their simplicity. For the newer click-wheel models, most of that elegant simplicity has gotten buried under an avalanche of additional photo and video options, but it was at least easy enough to operate without looking once you knew where all the controls were.
The problem is that the iPod Touch (and iPhone) only has one hardware button (or two if you count the sleep/power button on top). The rest is an entirely smooth touchscreen, which you cannot really do much with when it is hooked to your waist or in a purse or pocket. Fortunately, you can buy a very inexpensive remote control device that entirely solves that problem. I will cover it in my next entry.
But when you can see the controls, they work pretty well. The main music playing screen displays album art (if any is available) in the middle of the screen. There are play and track skip buttons and a volume control slider at the bottom of the screen. At the top, a tap in the middle of the screen opens another display with elapsed and total time (and a slider to move through the song), options for random or looped play, and Genius.
There is also a button to flip to a display of all the tracks in the album. This screen also contains the option to rate the song with 1 through 5 stars.
If you turn the player on its side, you are treated to the "cover flow" display, showing the art of the album currently playing, with the covers of albums that come before and after displayed to the side. You can slide through album covers with your finger, or when the song changes the covers will zoom to the left or right until they find the one for your next song.
I’d Be a Genius
The main new feature introduced to the iPod Touch with firmware 2.1 is "Genius." In my opinion, Genius by itself is well worth paying the $10 for if you have not yet upgraded from firmware 1 (which comes loaded onto the old Touch).
Genius makes random playlists based on what songs it thinks are "like" the song you are playing right now. It bases these choices on data from everybody else who has iTunes 8 and Genius enabled.
Genius is not as accurate yet as the soon-to-be-defunct Pandora, and at present it only has data for music that is fairly mainstream—no animé soundtracks, or obscure groups like Payne’s Gray. And of course it can only work with what is on your iPod at the moment, unlike a streaming service such as Pandora.
But on the other hand, it does a decent job with the music it can match. That is fairly good for this early stage, and it will improve as more people install iTunes 8 and contribute their Genius data to Apple’s servers. And if you use the version of Genius built into iTunes 8, it can recommend new music for you to purchase.
Maybe Not the "Funnest," But Still Pretty Darned Fun
All things considered, the second-generation iPod Touch will be a great bargain at its new lower price—but even the first-gen iPod Touch is still a very decent device. The first-gen plays music, reads e-books, and runs most apps just as well as the newer version, with the only important changes being the speaker and hardware volume control. The speaker you can live without, and my next entry will describe how to do without the volume control for either the old or the new version.
from http://www.teleread.org/2008/09/10/ipod-touch-review/
iPod Touch Review
When it comes to Apple products there are two distinct camps, those that think they all "rock" and those who wonder if they are buying a lot of brand value as opposed to real solid functionality. So when a new device like the Apple iPod touch comes along you have to get one have a play and make the value judgement, which is exactly what this review is about.There was no doubt in the office that the iPod touch would be very sexy as it has a lot in common with the iphone which much of the country and gadget press have been going slightly nuts over. Now the touch is much smaller than the iPhone although it does use the same screen as the phone but that is where the physical resemblance stops, it is closer in form factor to the iPod Nano measuring 110 × 61.8 × 8 mm and weighing 120 grams.It also lacks any external buttons so unlike the iPhone it does not have hard keys for control of volume levels which some will dislike as you do have to use the screen UI to do everything. Open up your Apple iPod touch and try to use it and you are in for a surprise, its not ready to go out of the box. In its factory condition it needs to be connected to a PC or Mac and iTunes in order to receive its final config. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come, much like the mobile phone model Apple is as interested in getting you hooked into iTunes and its music service as it is selling your the device.So the touch will keep showing the cable to iTunes icon until you do so, that said its quick and easy when connected to iTunes and soon it will be activated and filling up either the 8 or 16gb of flash storage depending on the model chosen. Clearly even the 16gb model is small in terms of storage compared to most MP3 players on the market so Apple is relying on its UI and "experience" to bridge the gap.So power up your iPod touch and you will get something very similar to the iPhone, the combination of Cover flow (the album art browsing system) and multi touch makes the touch feel just like the iPhone. You also get WiFi and the Safari browser but more on that later.The interface displays large icons for music, video, photos and iTunes across the bottom of the screen and the browser and other items like a link to youtube sit above. Open up your music collection and you soon see that its no standard click wheel and list. For those that haven't seen the coverflow system its a rather nifty way of using your finger on the 3.5" touch screen to drag through a filing system of album covers. The UI is quite special as it has a natural responsive ness and latency when browsing through lists or screens, a drag of the finger tip starts the movement and when you stop it or slow it there is an amount of spingyness. It makes for a very easy way to trawl through lots of data and is far better than the acclaimed click wheel set-up. We were very impressed with the iPod touch and the way the interface works so naturally, however it was hardly a surprise as it is really the iPhone skinnied down. Gone is the phone (obviously) gone is Bluetooth, camera, speakers etc so this really is an iPod nano style device with the iPhones interface and WiFi thrown in for good measure.The WiFi is 802.11b/g and not the forthcoming n, it works well and when paired with the Apple Safri browser it makes for an ok web browsing experience. We say ok because the small 3.5" screen isn't suited to most websites including our own. Yes the screen automatically changes from portrait to landscape by sensing how you are holding the device but even sideways the 3.5" lcd doesn't really display a webpage to make it readable. The primary use of the WiFi is to connect iTunes via the web direct to the device so that you can download (and of course buy) tracks and movies directly without a PC. The movie playback is a bit more useful than web browsing and despite a low 5 hr playback when in video mode it would be good for a flight or journey, we suggest its far more likely to be used to share music videos.Battery life is steadily improving but still the touch has only 22 hours playback from a charge for audio, 5 hours for video and from our tests not much more than 4 hours for web browsing via WiFi. And true to form Apple have chosen not to make the battery user replaceable so you will need to send your touch off on holiday and part with cash to have the battery changed when the time comes, or risk a DIY out of warranty swap.Also true to form Apple had a dodgy batch problem again with screens, this time in displaying black and reducing the viewing angle, a firmware fix was issued and our had no such problems.As a music player the iPod touch is as you'd expect a good device, audio quality is as good as its bigger brothers and despite the semi poor earbuds shipped as standard our usual test tracks sounded fine. The weird thing is that the "experience" of playing with a touch seems to be more important than the function. We found ourselves suckered into the whizzy menus and almost forgot that for £199 we got just 16gb of flash memory and an MP3 and Video player with a bit of WiFi.There is no doubting that the Apple iPod touch is a very smooth and polished device but we do feel that this is very much form over function, better value is to be found in saving £40 and buying a 80gb classic iPod as opposed the smaller 8gb touch and certainly not the £269 16gb version!Its amazing the difference hard cash makes but we just cant recommend the extra outlay of your hard earned pounds when Apple themselves have much better value options. if you must have a touch hold off and wait for the price to get in "touch" with reality.
Published - 02/01/2008
from http://www.lordpercy.com/ipod_touch_review.htm
iphone / ipod touch review : metal gear solid touch
by Demi Adejuyigbe on March 29, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Confession time: I’ve never actually played any of the Metal Gear Solid games. Well, to completion anyway; I own a copy of MGS2: Substance for the Xbox, but I’ve never actually played it past the the first level. I got confused towards the end of it, and I just never picked it up. When Konami announced Metal Gear Solid Touch, I thought it would be a great way for me to finally get into the MGS franchise.
I knew they’d worked hard on it, because they mentioned how Kojima actually scrapped the entire game and started from scratch halfway into development. Konami said it wouldn’t be a lot like the console games, and I didn’t expect it to, but with such a great legacy, how would Metal Gear Solid Touch live up to the Metal Gear games before it? Would it finally get me into the Metal Gear series? Hit the jump for the full review.
Metal Gear Solid Touch is set up like a shooting gallery, where you’re ducked behind a barrier, only to come up often to shoot strategically placed PMC soldiers, Haven Troopers, and Gekkos before they shoot you. The game gives you a life bar to make things fair, and adds a circular meter around your enemies’ heads, which is like a countdown until they begin to fire at you. It starts off in the yellow, and makes it’s way to the cautionary red, when you should probably begin ducking behind the barrier.
The controls are super simple- drag your finger across the screen to move the aiming reticule, tap the screen to fire, pinch your fingers to switch to the sniper, spread your fingers to move back to your M4, lift your finger to duck behind the barrier. They’re easy to pick up which makes it a simple game to pick up at any time. One thing I didn’t like about the controls was how sluggishly the sniper reticule moved. It’s easy to move the M4 reticule from one side to the other, but it takes a couple of drags with the sniper to aim at someone across the screen. This can easily be fixed by zooming out THEN moving, but it’s still a hassle to do so. It also took me a while to find out how to pause the game. Turns out that you just have to turn the screen from a landscape position to a vertical position, but Konami didn’t bother to mention this in the explanation of controls.
Some of the first things you’ll notice about the game are its graphics. They’re fantastic, especially for an iPhone game, and rival anything you’d see on a PSP or DS currently, but this could be because the models barely ever move. Snake only tilts to aim, and the PMC troopers only move when they fall. One of the second things you’ll notice is that there are missionaries in the game. You probably shouldn’t shoot them. I learned that the hard way.
MGST takes you into 12 missions across 2 acts, and Konami’s promising the addition of 8 more levels soon, too. The game has a story that (according to Konami) is similar to that of MGS4, even though the story is in no way essential to the plot. As a matter of fact, it’s all presented through text-based cutscenes that can be easily skipped. If you’re still annoyed by the story, you can play the Survival Mode of the game, which is just a straight shooting gallery, where you play until you lose. The main mode of the game has a rather lengthy boss fight at the end of the game with Raven, and it’s one of the only two boss fights in the game, the other being one with Laughing Octopus. The boss fights are confusing at first, as you have to figure out how to defeat them on your own, which is a nice change of pace from the usual “shoot the giant red spot on their chest” boss.
The UI of the game is very clean and minimal, with only a lifebar, a timer, a counter of remaining enemies, and a label showing which mission you’re in, tucked away in the corner. One of the cooler parts of the game is the way you procure extra life and different weapons. By shooting yellow chickens placed across the map (yes, chickens) you can get more life, and shooting green little frogs gives you either a rocket launcher or invisibility for a short time, though it’s much more common for rocket launchers to be present when Gekkos or helicopters are attacking you. It’s a case for PETA for sure, but still very useful.
If you get sick of the game, you can always take a look at some of the extras the game has. For those of you like me that don’t know much about Metal Gear Solid, the game has the entire history of Metal Gear Solid so you can catch up, complete with art from the games. There’s also Drebin’s Shop, which allows you to buy 3D art of characters for the Drebin Points you’ve accrued over the course of gameplay. Unfortunately, that’s as far as it goes for the game’s extras, and the 3D art is kind of lame.
Overall, Metal Gear Solid Touch is a great game, even if it’s not a lot like other Metal Gear Solid games. The shooting gallery format works great with the iPod touch/iPhone format, and the lack of an important story means more gameplay, less winded cutscenes. At $7.99, it’s a biiiiiiit pricey for a shooting gallery, but still something any iPhone owner should check out.
from http://www.ripten.com/2009/03/29/iphoneipod-touch-review-metal-gear-solid-touch/
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