Apple iPod touch 32 GB | 
| Brand: Apple
List Price: $499.99
Buy New: $429.99
You Save: $70.00 (14%)
New (20) Used (5) Refurbished (2) from $399.99
Rating:  440 reviews
Sales Rank: 35
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Size: 32 GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 3.5 x 1.6
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: MB376LL/A
Model: MB376LL/A
UPC: 885909210985
EAN: 0085909210989
ASIN: B0012JNQYK
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Includes five software applications: e-mail, maps, weather, stocks, and notes | | • | 32 GB flash memory stores up to 7,000 songs, 40 hours of video, or 25,000 photos | | • | Built-in Wi-Fi capability allows direct access to the Internet via Safari, YouTube videos, and the iTunes wireless store | | • | Includes earphones, USB 2.0 cable, universal dock adapter, polishing cloth, iPod touch stand, and quick start guide | | • | 1-Year Limited Warranty, 90-Day Single Incident Phone Support |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
other bitrates supported * plays MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF (uncompressed), Apple Lossless, and Audible files (formats 2, 3 and 4) * displays photos converted from JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG formats * plays video in MPEG-4 and QuickTime formats * built-in lithium ion rechargeable battery provides up to 22 hours music playback; up to 5 hours video playback * 32GB hard drive holds approximately: 40 hours of video, 20,000 photos, or 468 hours at 128 Kbps *
Amazon.com Product Description
iPod touch has always been an amazing iPod. With great new applications, now iPod touch is even better. Watch a movie you rented from iTunes. View rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline. Open PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments. With Maps, find your location and get directions from there. See where you are on a map, a satellite image, or a combination of both. Make Web Clips for your Home screen so you can visit your favorite websites in just one tap. Fill up to nine Home screen pages with Web Clips and arrange them however you like. Browse YouTube videos, follow your stocks, check the weather, and take notes. With the new iPod touch, tap into even more. 
Glide through albums with the iPod touch's amazing Cover Flow technology. View iPod touch dimensions. | 
Browse the Web with the included Safari browser. Or fire up a YouTube video and enjoy the show. | 
The iPod touch responds to your movements; turn it sideways and your video is presented in widescreen mode. | 
Incredibly thin at just 8 millimeters. |  | | The mail application lets you view rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline, as well as PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments. |  | | Rearrange the icons on your Home screen. Even change the Dock. |  | | Mark specific locations, find the best route between them, and search for points of interest along the way with Maps. | Music, Movies, and More
Flick through album covers and find your music. Download and watch your favorite movies, rentals, TV shows, and more from the iTunes Store. Tap into thousands of photos. All using incredible multi-touch technology on a beautiful 3.5-inch display. Music
If a picture says a thousand words, think of what all the album art in your collection might say. With Cover Flow on iPod touch, flick through your music to find the album you want to hear. When you do, just tap the cover to flip it over and display a track list. Another tap starts the music. Even view the lyrics while you're listening to the track. Video
The 3.5-inch display gives you video like you've never seen on a portable device. Watch your favorite movie or rental from the iTunes Store. Catch up on TV shows anywhere. Enjoy video podcasts. Play music videos. All using multi-touch technology. With a tap, bring up onscreen controls to play/pause and view by chapter. Turn your iPod touch to switch between widescreen or full screen. Photos
iPod touch holds up to 25,000 photos you sync via iTunes. Flick to scroll through thumbnails. Tap to view full screen. Rotate for landscape format. Or perform some sleight of hand by opening two fingers to zoom in. You can even play slideshows, complete with music and transitions. Set any photo as your wallpaper to personalize your iPod touch . . . with a touch. iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
With iPod touch, discover new music anywhere. Its built-in wireless capability gives you access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, where you can buy songs with a tap. Browse New Releases, What's Hot, Genres, and Top 10 songs. Or find exactly what you're looking for with a quick search. Tap a song to preview it, tap Buy to purchase it. Even redeem your iTunes gift cards and gift certificates. All from anywhere you happen to be. Starbucks Music
You walk into a Starbucks. Order your latte. While you wait, you hear a song wafting from the loudspeakers. You love it. So you get out your iPod touch and buy it over Wi-Fi. Just like that. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPod touch tells you what's playing in select Starbucks and lets you buy it along with other featured Starbucks content. So you can sip, shop, and listen. Home Screen
Make the iPod touch Home screen your own. Change what's in the Dock. Rearrange the icons. And make room for even more. You can add up to eight Home screen pages and fill them with Web Clips. Internet
Surf the web. Send email. Get directions and find your location with Maps. Check stocks, weather, and more. iPod touch is not just an amazing iPod. It's the Internet in your pocket. Safari
iPod touch is the only iPod with wireless access to the web. Safari is built in, so you see websites the way they were designed to be seen. Search the web using the touchscreen keyboard. Zoom in and out by tapping the multi-touch display. Switch between portrait or landscape view, depending on how you hold your iPod touch. Sync your bookmarks. Better yet, add them to your Home screen. iPod touch can automatically create a Web Clip on your Home screen from any of your favorite websites. So just one tap takes you directly there. YouTube
Got a bit of a YouTube addiction? iPod touch feeds it from anywhere with a special YouTube player built right in. Watch featured videos, check out the most viewed, search for something specific, then bookmark your favorites for future reference. It's all the fun of YouTube--pocket-size. Mail
iPod touch is the first iPod with Mail. And it's the best email you've ever seen on a handheld device. This mail application lets you view rich HTML email with graphics and photos displayed inline, as well as PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments. Maps
Get directions and check traffic with Google Maps. Even find yourself, wherever you are. Using some local Wi-Fi networks (if Wi-Fi is turned on), iPod touch finds your approximate location and gives directions from there. Mark specific locations, find the best route between them, and search for points of interest along the way. With a hybrid map and satellite view, you can see major street names on top of satellite images. Widgets
Widgets are small, incredibly handy applications you can use every day. Three of the most useful widgets now live front and center on your Home screen: 
Weather
Get a five-day weather forecast, including highs and lows, for cities around the world. Save your favorite locations so you can check the weather anytime. | 
Notes
Take notes, make a to-do list, or jot down a reminder using the easy-to-use touch keypad. Then save or email them. | 
Stocks
Check your stocks and track the market over one day, one week, one month, three months, six months, one year, or two years. | High Technology
iPod touch features the same revolutionary interface as iPhone, the most advanced software ever engineered, and state-of-the-art technology. With the multi-touch display, you can control everything using only your fingers. If you rotate your iPod touch from portrait to landscape, the accelerometer automatically changes the way the content is displayed. And with wireless technology, you can connect to the Internet from any Wi-Fi network, anywhere you are. Multi-touch
iPod touch features the same revolutionary interface as iPhone. Built to take full advantage of the large 3.5-inch display, the multi-touch interface lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page. And iPod touch features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, getting directions on a map, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, or adding new contacts. Ambient Light Sensor
The iPod touch display has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness to suit the ambient light in your surroundings. The result? A better experience for you and battery-saving efficiency for iPod touch. Wireless
Connect to the Internet anywhere there's a Wi-Fi network. Send email from a coffee shop. Surf the web at the airport. Browse, buy, and download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at select Starbucks locations or other wireless hot spots in your area. iPod touch finds wireless networks and connects you to the Internet. Accelerometer
An accelerometer detects when you rotate iPod touch from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page, your music in Cover Flow, or a photo in its proper aspect ratio. What's in the Box:
32 GB iPod touch, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, dock adapter, polishing cloth, stand, quick start guide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 435 more reviews...
 Almost perfect, needs some minor improvements September 30, 2007
C. Franz (Zurich, ZH Switzerland)
818 out of 875 found this review helpful
I'd like to make one thing clear from the beginning: this device is the best portable media player I've held to date (I received mine on Sept 25th). *This* is how it should be done. That doesn't mean that it can't be improved (this review shows a number of misses), but in the iPod Touch so many good things come together the right way, it's embarassing how clumsy suddenly all the other devices seem (other iPods included). I have extensive experience with a myriad of other players (I own(ed) *lots* of those: Nomad, iRiver, Zen, Rio, iPods, Zune) and now that I'm holding it, it's blindingly obvious how much better the new interface works. I am really happy with this iPod. Still, there are some annoyances, idiosyncracies and downright silly limitations in this device.
So, let's begin:
First - unless you've recently held a new 'Nano', you won't belive how thin the Touch is. The glass surface feels different from my iPod Classic (yeah, I'm a *serious* MP3 player addict, and have that one, too). I can't really put my finger on it (it's hard to resist puns like that), but it feels somewhat softer when tapping it with your finger nail. Surprisingly (for me at least) the Touch does not respond to finger nails - you need to touch the surface with your finger's skin. This can initially be confusing when you are used to pressure-sensitive touch-screens, and can become difficult when using the virtual keyboard. The touch-sensitive font plate has (so far) proven to be scratch-resistant (i've been carrying it around in my pocket for the past three days).
In my hand it feels surprisingly hefty (sonsidering it's sleekness), and it is noticeably longer than the Classic. Like most other iPods, the Touch has a polished backside that magically attract fingerprints. This backplate also holds the customized engraving that Apple applied free of charge to my iPod.
The headphone connector is on the bottom, and accepts any normal headphone jack (unlike the iPhone). The position of the connector would have been annyoing if you wanted to use it upright in a gym (natch, iPod nano!). But movies are viewed in landscape orientation, and the iPod's interface automatically detects it's orientation. Now that's design for you. The earbuds are the same that come with other new iPods (classic). They are ok, but unlikely to be your first choice. I use the those earbuds for running (with my shuffle), but third-party (B&O) earphones with the classic and touch. I'm no audiophile, so sound quality usually is good for me (this holds true for all my devices). But then, according to some people I'm only listening to trash anyway. I therefore recommend that you look at other reviews if you are in search for a tone perfect device. I like it.
Controlling the iPod is a strange - great when you are looking at it, annoying if you can't see it (i.e. if it's in your pocket). As with all touch-interfaces that have no tactile feedback there is no way to 'blindly' control it, and sadly the Touch does not have a remote nor real buttons except 'sleep' and 'home'. The Touch desperately needs some hardware volume control.
Looking at the screen I have to say that I am amazed at the clarity of the image. 3.5 inches is still too small for me to comfortably watch a lengthy movie, but the 320x480 pixel wide-screen display is stunningly crisp. I re-ripped some TV shows that I originally ripped for the Classic and watched them on the Touch. The problem is that files ripped for the Touch's resolution are roughly twice as large as for the Classic - but the Touch has only a fraction of the available storage. Thus, I can't envision myself using the Touch for lengthy movie watching - but it is excellent for watching shorter clips (while I'm no youTube fan, I do have a lot of short clips shot with my handheld camera). The Touch's sceen is very bright - I can't confirm initial reports of 'inverse black' or other artifacts. It appears to have a light sensor built-in that dims the screen when in darker surroundings, and brightens the screen when in the sun. One small annoyance though: there is no way to control a movie's contrast. The docs claim that the Touch can play 5 hours of video on a single charge. I'm prepared to take this on face value - I'm certainly not going to stare into that small screen for so long just to verify this. It's long enough for one-and-half normal movies, but won't last a transatlantic. Nor would my eyes, though.
Coverflow is drop-dead beautiful, and a real show-off. It requires that you add artwork for all your CD-ripped tunes, though. Otherwise missing covers are replaced by generic grey ones. It's a great way to browse your music if you don't know what you want to hear next. It's a silly way to look for a particular album, though. For this, however, you can still (luckily) use the normal artist/album/song browser with the (again drop-dead intuitive) new gesture-based interface. It works reall, really well.
Like all iPods the Touch can play a large variety of file formats with the (expected) exceptions of WMA (protected and otherwise) and Ogg. I don't have to add that it plays AAC protected (iTunes). It can also display an impressive array of image and movie formats, even though I have the suspiction that some of the listed formats are transcoded on-the-fly by iTunes during sync.
The Touch provides video out signals that can be set to either NTSC or PAL. For Europeans like me this is very important, but may be of limited use for people living in the US. What *really* annoyed me was the fact that Apple chose to change the video out cabling, and thus forced me to purchase new cables to connect the Touch to TV sets or beamers. On the up side, the Touch does work with my (Audi) car integration without any changes.
iTunes integration is exemplary, as expected (this is the part that break most other digital music players: integration with your media library). Synching the Touch with a computer works like with any other iPod: Plug it in, iTunes starts, and you select the stuff you want synched. A strange relict from the 5G iPods: I found out that unlike the newer iPods, the Touch can't use playlist groups. Annoying (my best playlists are built from smaller lists).
While synching the Touch I encountered my first big disappointment: no wireless synching. I would have expected this ability, or at least the ability to connect to a shared iTunes library on my home network (I have a wireless access point at home). Alas, no. The iPod must be physically connected to synch and cannot wirelessly connect to a shared iTunes library. When you synch you can choose to synch music, movies, photos, contacts, web bookmarks, and calendars. Sadly, you can't sync notes (why the heck not?). Synching is done with USB 2.0 (sadly not FireWire) using the Apple-provided USB Dock Connector (no standard USB connector).
When looking for the 'enable disk use' checkbox I was baffled to find out that the Touch can't be used as a mass storage - unlike any other iPod I own, and with the exception of Zune unlike any other digital music player I own. Why? (I suspect this is to lock down the device to prohibit tinkering with it. It feels like an arbitrary, spiteful limitation, though).
The interface is largely similar to the iPhone. It's not as ghastly colorful as the new (G6) iPod interface, but still uses a little too much colors for my taste (I *really* liked the G5 color interface). The gesture/finger-based interface is easy to learn, and is even more intuitive than using a mouse (it took about one 'pinch' and one 'flick' to convince me). As I mentioned above, the drawback is that there is no tactile feedback, so you must always look at the screen while changing a setting (e.g. volume, skip, rewind). The virtual keyboard is OK to use, and I'm happy to see that it automatically changed to Switzerland's 'QWERTZ' layout. So far, fingerprints on the surface have been a non-issue for me (they do look ugly on the back side, though). The keyboard has an optional 'clicker' that provides (very welcome) aural feedback when you press a key (as the other iPods, the Touch has a small clicker built in that can produce simple sounds).
As iPods before it, there are some additional applications provided, updated for the touch interface: Calendar, Calculator (this one is new), Contacts, Settings, and Clock. Calendar holds one the most unfortunate, narrow-sighted and arbitrary product decisions Apple has made in a long time: you can't add new Events. The reason this is unacceptable to me is because the exact same application on the iPhone *has* this ability, and it was taken out as a concious decision; it was not an oversight. Clearly this is an attempt at artificially differenciate the Touch from the iPhone. Shame on Apple - I really hope that subsequent updates will rectify this.
Another disappointment is that there is no Notes application, as this would have been a natural for the gestured-based interface and virtual keyboard. Again, this application exists for the iPhone, but was removed. Sad, sad, sad. In the same vein, it would have been great if I could load PDF documents for off-line viewing onto the touch -- Safari comes with an *excellent* PDF viewer (presumably the Touch's version of Preview). I'm using this feature through a work-around: convert a document to PDF, publish it on my home Mac's web server, and then load it in the Touch's Safari (e.g. 'http://mintel.local/myDoc.pdf'). That way I can read this document offline (did so this morning while being driven to a meeting) - but only this one PDF document can be in-memory. I tried to open a second browser window, and the first document was not retained in the cache, forcing a re-load. So a document viewer (and PDF management from iTunes?) would be a great addition.
Also, the games that I had to re-purchase for my Classic (yes, re-purchased because the Classic can't use games for the 5.5G iPod) will *NOT* run on the Touch. Arrrgh! It looks as if I'll have to re-re-purchase those games again (I'm addicted to Bejeweled and Sudoku).
Up until here, the Touch has been a natural evolution of the iPod -- the first, and long-awaited 'true video iPod'. But the Touch offers one more thing that I feel makes it a killer product: productive WiFi integration. I'm not talking about some half-baked song sharing feature (although that would have been welcome too) but actual useful net access.
WiFi
The Touch has 802.11b/g (but not 'n') WiFi built-in that can connect to the internet through normal hotspots. Since you can expect the iPod to be in many different locations, hooking it up to hotspots is an important feature that must be easy to use. The Touch can (and will) remember hotspots it has connected to, and asks when it connects to a new hotspot very much like your Laptop does. Connecting to open Hotspots is a snap: scan surroundings, pick from list, (enter password when protected), connect. You can turn it off for airplane travel or to conserve battery life.
You connect to protected hotspots (using the virtual keyboard for password entry). Also you can use Safari for those annoying web-page-to-enter-billing-info based hotspots that hotels seem to like (and every one else hates). Connecting to a closed and secure WLAN is a bit more complex. My WLAN is configured to require any device to be known by MAC address, and looking up this info wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be (I found it in the Info tab). I then entered Network Name and Password, and a few seconds later, my Touch had access to my WLAN.
But what is so special about WiFi? To me, having access to the Web is a killer feature. I'm not talking about music here - but access to Google (but not the Google Apps just yet), Wikipedia, CNN, Amazon, and my web mail account. With just a little tap on the screen I can look at news, check my mail, track a package, fire off a note to someone, or answer a silly question that just entered my head. Anywhere, anytime (when in range of a hotspot. In Switzerland that's practically everywhere). To repeat: this is a killer feature. It turns this digital media player into a nearly fully fledged PDA.
The Touch version of Safari is great (even though Google Docs does not yet support it, and there currently is no support for Flash), and very responsive. Using the virtual keyboard takes some time to getting used to (again the missing tactile feedback is annoying). Navigating the web is quick (provided you have a good connection), and using the gestures to move the obscured parts of web pages into view becomes natural after only a few moments.
The touch also comes with a special version of iTunes, the 'WiFi Music Store'. It allows you to instantly purchase a song (very, very nice). Strangely, once you sync, songs purchased with the Touch will appear in their own 'Purchased on Touch' group (what on earth for?) in your main (iTunes) library. The WiFi store's selection does not provide access to PodCasts (lame!), nor any video content. And don't get me started on iPod games again... Still, navigating the WiFi Store is natural, and the design is intuitive. It's also very robust -- I purchased a 75 track (classic) compilation using the WiFi store. Of course, some time during the transfer the connection dropped, and I switched off the Touch. Later, at home, the Touch resumed download as soon as it re-connected to the net. The WiFi iTunes store is also where allegedly the 'Starbucks Thing' is happening. I'm (somewhat) sorry to say that I havn't tried out this feature beacuse a) I don't frequent Starbucks and b) even if I did, Switzerland is not yet upgraded for this feature anyways.
So let's look at the remaining applications: I'm (again) seriously disappointed to see that Apple chose to cut Mail from the application list (the Touch would have been a great Blackberry replacement - and arguably might be too close a competitor to the iPhone if it had that feature), but at least I can use web mail as a work-around. Apple does include a dedicated youTube application which I have to admit I never used. I simply don't "get" youTube.
Summary:
The Touch is (currently) the best flash-based media player around, with a stunning (even revolutionary) new gesture-based user interface that works. I would have welcomed a significantly larger main storage, but it's very good as it is now. As a media player it's main drawback derives from the purely touch-based interface: it could have profited from a tactive rotary controller for 'blind' control. The feature that separates the Touch from the rest is the addition of another killer feature: WiFi web browsing. WiFi based music purchase is a nice bonus.
The Touch also comes with a number of (sometimes artificial) limitations that I hope will be resolved in the future. All in all I'm very, very satisfied with the Touch, even though the Touch experience can clearly be improved (e.g. by removing application restrictions, being able to pull in shared iTunes Libraries, sharing songs wirelessly, syncing wirelessly etc.).
PLUS
- great "video" iPod
- WiFi web browsing with Safari (killer feature)
- wide range of supported file formats (audio, video, images)
- great display
- phenomenally sharp images
- drop-dead gesture/touch interface
- both NTSC and PAL video out (important for us Europeans).
- iTunes store wirelessly
- TV PAL and NTSC out
MINUS
- no playlist groups
- difficult to use 'blind'
- no contrast control for movies
- no disk mode (huh???)
- non-standard AV connector (again!)
- artificial limitations on Calendar application
- no Mail, Notes, Games applications
- can't access iTunes shared libraries on WLAN
- can't share songs with other Touch iPods
- no wireless synching
- 16GB can be awfully small when ripping movies for Touch's resolution
- no WiFi iTunes PodCasts
Things I'd like to see in updates
- Wireless Sync
- Access to iTunes shared Libraries
- Notes
- Off-line viewing of PDF documents
- Games
- Third-party software development kit (SDK)
 Good, not perfect October 5, 2007
Mr. J (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States)
216 out of 252 found this review helpful
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.
What a fun toy! October 4, 2007
Alan E. Moore (Sanford, FL)
189 out of 217 found this review helpful
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.
 Apple's iPod Touch - Updated and Enlarged! Test Drive it Today!!!! February 18, 2008
Mark (NY, NJ, CT USA)
153 out of 163 found this review helpful
Apple iPod touch 32 GB
Apple's 32 GB iPod Touch has finally given the mobile device market a media player with a great combination of quality, features and capacity. Of course it arrived shortly after I was given the 16 GB iPod Touch that I had put off buying for so long. Still, the extra capacity gives this unit the last piece of the puzzle it needed to be a must-have item for me. The awesome video, sleek thin body and web capability make it stand out despite a high price and some missing features.
Pros
+ Great design with a sleek thin body!!!
+ Beautiful 320x480 pixel wide-screen provides pleasing video viewing
+ Turn to the side to view video using the full wide screen width
+ Orientation detection changes view to landscape mode automatically when turning iPod!
+ Enough capacity to finally be worth replacing some of your disk-based players in earnest
+ Brighter screen with great contrast and crisp sharp images
+ Wireless access via 802.11 b/g compliant antenna (hopefully `n' will come soon)
+ Wireless searching and video on mode can be disabled to extend battery life
+ Great interface for Safari web browsing with easy Wifi hotspot setup
+ Headphone jack compatible with standard phones, unlike iPhone
+ New apps work great and give you stocks, maps, email, notes and weather
+ Supports both NTSC and PAL video out
+ Very nice size of 32GB stores good amount of video
+ Works with some legacy iPod accessories (except standard A/V cable and some docks)
+ Diminishing price tag in terms of $ per GB of space
+ Unlike iPod classic, all flash memory means less failures and breakage
+ Flash memory also awesome for running / working out, though I use my nano for that ;-)
+ Coverflow actually works nicely on the Touch, much better than on the iPod nano
+ Slightly better sound quality than 2nd generation iPods
+ So far seems to have lower error rate than other iPods
+ Apple reputation is highly deserved
+ Plenty of free video and audio teaser content available on iTunes
+ Easy access to iTunes right from your device over your local wireless internet!
+ Apple SDK being made available which means more apps are on the way!
Cons
- Touch design is almost too minimal without hold button or easy volume adjustment
- Very difficult to adjust or use without looking at it; some earbuds include controls that help
- Screen requires "real touch," bad for those of us in cold weather cities
- Data port seems more cramped than other models and difficult to seat on many dock ports
- The headphone jack is strangely placed right next to the data port; ok for landscape mode, awkward in portrait mode
- Not backwards compatible with legacy docks and cables; Universal dock now required for video out
- Battery life still shorter than other iPods due to WiFi and video power needs
- No expandability or SD card slot like Sansa View or Creative Zen
- iTunes software with limited native formats (MP3, MPEG4, AAC) and high overhead
- Some poor interface designs, such as volume control only available when upright
- PDA functions such as calendar syncing and contact management still need work
- Playlist and music groupings are lacking and need many improvements
- Still lacking some features such as built-in FM radio & voice recorder
- Missing Zune features such as the ability to share songs with other iPod Touch units
- No Bluetooth for peripherals and accessories
- No wireless synching or wireless access to iTunes WLAN libraries
- No WiFi viewing of live iTunes PodCasts
- Still no local viewing of PDF or other common document formats
- No mode to use as disk storage?!?!
- Roughly 2GB of space taken up with iPod software alone!!!!
- STRANGE Apple business practices - ie, charging for software features included with the iPhone????
- While the cost is slowly coming down, still quite expensive in total $ terms
Looks and Design
Aesthetics and design have always been Apple's greatest strengths, along with Steve Jobs' marketing savvy. The iPod Touch is solid but light. It has a longer body than either the latest iPod nano Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Black (3rd Generation) or the iPod Classic Apple 80 GB iPod classic (Black). Yet it's slightly shorter than the iPhone. It's nice and thin, though not as thin as the new Nano.
The big 320x480 pixel wide-screen is simply gorgeous, and the instant landscape mode combined with high quality video resolution makes this the first truly beautiful mobile video player. The old Creative Vision W Creative Zen Vision W 60 GB Widescreen Multimedia Player (Black) had a lovely display, but was MUCH thicker. The Touch blows everything else away in terms of looks and design.
The metal back common to most iPods still attracts fingerprints, but you will be too busy staring at the screen to notice them. The screen too attracts smudges. I've heard it's almost impossible to scratch it, but I still bought screen and body protectors before I ever touched it.
Apple did away with the hold button and the click-wheel. While I really love the touch interface, it's impossible to change tracks or volume without looking at the player, an awkward trait. Get a nice pair of headphones with integrated controls and you won't notice the omission as much.
Sound and Video
Sound quality is slightly improved from previous models. The included headphones are the same as other models. I actually think the included phones are fine in terms of sound, but not so much in terms of comfort. Upgrade your phones only after doing a lot of research. For the Touch, having phones with volume control and additional buttons is a huge plus.
This guy really showcases video, but the sound is still very good and improving with the last few models. I expect this trend to continue.
Most video encoding is done at very high bitrates, which has the added benefit of better sound. Use the highest quality bit-rate you can stand if sound quality is your primary desire. As for me, I have been through frequent hardware upgrades to add more disk space and finally try to collect all my music and videos in one place.
Features
The features in the iPod Touch were in development for 3-4 years. I was one of those who read the rumor mills daily waiting for all those features to come out in one bang. Well they didn't.
The first Touch seemed to artificially remove some features already available in the iPhone, which was very disappointing. Now with the software update, at least a few of those things have been added back in. It really sucks that they charged 16GB early adopters for those features, but luckily they are included with the 32GB iPod Touch.
The main improvement is of course the increased capacity. That feature alone was long overdue and far outweighs most of the cons the player still has. Even though you can't load a lot of video at once, you can finally load enough to satisfy even demanding users. This is a huge plus over the 16GB model, which is available with or without updates. Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates
The device's battery life is still shorter than one would want, but longer than the iPhone and more than adequate for an average day's usage. Users will notice their battery indicator going down, but probably won't get cut off before they get home.
Apple's software is still a weakness with very limited direct control over your device library and few file options. No external disk function, no native WMA support? With key features disabled, such as use as an external hard drive, it makes you wonder. Hopefully some of these features will be added back into this device with time.
Coverflow works MUCH better than on the iPod nano and actually helps when scrolling through your videos. Press your selection and the cover flips over to show you which tracks are available.
It's still buggy and there are some UI features that are lacking. Elapsed time and track length aren't shown for podcasts, and volume adjustment only shows up in portrait mode for some reason. Still, hopefully some of these more intricate details will be added in a FREE patch as opposed to a fee update.
The Safari web browser is THE killer feature of the Touch. Most of the other widgets, including the new ones, are stuff that you can get through the internet. The widgets added back to the Touch which are available on the iPhone just make some of those common functions quicker. Quick stock quotes, instant weather. Not bad.
The video out signal options are a nice addition and can be set to either NTSC or PAL. This is great for those who travel or have some foreign hardware, like me. ;-)
Finger-based scrolling is very intuitive and you will be navigating with ease in no time. I'm less happy with the virtual keyboard and I can't wait for an alternative to appear. I have to use it very seldom, so I can live with it.
The 802.11b/g built-in WiFi antenna connects to most hotspots, though I hope wireless n will be included in the next version. The antenna works well, though with a seemingly limited range. You can turn off wireless scanning to save battery life.
It would have been awesome to have Bluetooth for wireless headphones or other accessories. Some of those Zune-like features would also help, such as wireless syncing, music sharing or access to WiFi playlist libraries or live podcasts. Zune 80 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation) Even basic staples like a built-in FM radio tuner, voice recorder and an expansion slot are also missing.
Both the Creative Zen Creative Zen 16 GB (Black), which is much thicker, and the Sansa View SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black), which is taller, have some of those added components built in. Newer Archos players has many of those players plus much greater format support Archos 705 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (160 GB). Yet none of those players have the level of wireless internet capability that sets this unit apart. Even fans of competing players will agree that the iPod Touch more than makes up for missing features by utilizing the features it does have VERY VERY WELL.
Conclusion
Overall this device is an HUGE improvement. Apple's sleek design impresses once more. With time, hopefully the kinks and omissions will be worked out. Despite everything, it's very difficult not to give this player 5 stars. The good far outweighs the bad.
Enjoy!!!!
iPod touch: Is it worth it? October 17, 2007
SM (WY)
104 out of 145 found this review helpful
My first iPod was a 3G 10gb. At the time nobody really knew what an iPod was or what it did (to tell you the truth, i really didn't know what it was either but I wanted one). Wow, this was the coolest thing I had ever had. It held my whole music collection in my hands and I could basically take it anywhere. Apple has done it again.
Now, 5 years later, I just bought my iPod touch. I had been waiting for Apple to release a new iPod for over a year because my 3G had finally gave out. To say the least I was quite disappointed with the line-up when I saw them in September. I wanted a cool device to hold everything. My music collection has grown considerably since I got my last iPod (about 6gb to 45+gb). I was excited to hear about the touch but my hopes were lost when I found out how much space it had and the classic had not changed at all except in looks. 16gb is not enough if you listen to music all the time. I have different moods and each requires a different kind of music and, if you want to watch videos also, your space will fill quick.
You may be wondering why I still ran out and got one. Now, I believe, the only reason I have one is because Apple says its supposed to be "cool" which it is cool but thats about it. This is a device that should be able to do much more that just play music. Sure safari is cool but it is no desktop internet browser and half the time will not work on secured networks. Same with itunes store and You tube. I have mild security on my home wifi and Youtube and itunes will not connect but safari will at dreadful speeds. So basically its just a 16gb iPod with a cool looking screen (which, I should say, is really nice to look at but do you really need it?). Apple could make this into a killer PDA but won't. Who knows why, I think they just do not want people hacking their technology and copying it by not offering a SDK (software developer kit).
I will keep the iPod touch a little longer to see if my opinion changes and if it doesn't, I am going to take it back, save $150, and get a classic with a whopping 80gb of space on the cheap one! I listen to music for music, and, although I give into hype like this, music is music when the novelty of the device is gone.
If you want something someone tells you is "cool", go ahead and spend $400 on this and be happy. For me, I just want to listen to music and have all of my music with me. I have a laptop for everything else.
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