iPod Touch, First Impressions
March 15th 2008 03:57
As a software developer I'm beginning to realize the richest of the rich don't get there because they work hard in delivering the best software to intelligent people. No, they get rich by ripping people off in any given number of ways either through fancy marketting, pretty visuals or pathetic propoganda.
Which is why I bought an iPod touch, to develop software for it and exploit other people.
But this is a first impression thing, so on to my first impressions.
I've never used an Apple product for any extended period of time, either because I've found them completely unusable, unstable or just plain inefficient. As such I had a few preconceptions as to the functionality of my touch. Amongst other things I was expecting the touch to be easy to use once you understood how to use it, that it would be built sturdy and strong and that it would have some niggling limitations that defied all logic.
Actually I feel like I should start with the unpackaging of the product and not because it comes in a small box to make it look cool but because of the smell. That 'new' smell you get, usually when unpackaging a mobile phone or computer or something. In this case however it was really potent, like Apple had delibrately sprayed the box to smell oh so sweet. I must have sat there for half an hour just smelling the open box, taking in the goodness of the newness. So plus one for presentation, or smell.
Rummaging through the tiny box I found three manuals, a USB charger/connecter a cleaning cloth and a wierd plastic thing. Though I couldn't find the damn touch. I freaked out thinking that this was Apples idea of a sick joke as I looked again and again, then realized to my stupidity that the touch was right there, I thought it was the manual. Yes this thing is thin, really thin which is great as it can sit very nicely right next to my fatter-than-average mobile phone.
Booting it up I found that I had to connect it to iTunes. Great, lets connect the touch to iTunes, except for one little problem. There was no CD in the box, iTunes had to be downloaded seperately from Apples website. Now if memory serves me correctly the propoganda machines say that Apples products are the epitome of usability. The iPod touch is the ONLY gadget I have ever bought in my entire life which could not work out of the box. So thats minus one million points for usability, one million and one even. It's simply not usable, at all, period.
I downloaded iTunes and set it up to connect with the touch (the USB connector also doubles as a charger, very nice feature) it was all very easy and pretty much took care of itself. Then again, my last MP3 player worked out of the box, needed no software and could be plugged into a USB port and have music transferred to it simply by dragging and dropping via Windows Explorer. As such I don't consider the fact the touch worked instantly when it detected iTunes as an exceptional achievement on Apples behalf but rather see it as the bare minimum Apple can do considering how severely and delibrately they've gimped the touch's usability.
Once in I decided to try and transfer some of my podcasts and Audio books to the Touch. You'd think that would be easy enough, just drag and drop into iTunes and move it to the iPod icon under the devices heading. Well not really, see the touch refuses to acknowledge what I'm sending it is anything but music, so my audio books and podcasts are all under music. The only way I can change that is if I download direct from iTunes though I'm not at all interested in paying for Audio books I already have or download podcasts I already did. On a brighter note Apple can let you subscribe to podcasts so it can secretly download them to your iPod without you having to bother. Still doesn't excuse the fact that I cannot classify anything I send to it as audiobooks or podcasts and that I have to navigate to 'Music' to play Audio
books.
One of the hyped features of the touch is that you can access iTunes from it using Wi-Fi. Well that's partly true, you can access iTunes but only the music section, you cant download podcasts which are free or audiobooks, movies and TV shows either which aren't even free so it makes little to no sense. So you don't really get an iTunes service, you get part of what iTunes is supposed to be about. Another thing that annoys me to no end is when I open the podcasts section it tells me that there are no podcasts and that I can visit iTunes to download some. Naturally I automatically assume the text that says 'go to itunes to download podcasts' is a link to iTunes where I can download podcasts, but no, it's just text.
There are only two physical buttons on the whole thing, one turns the screen on and off and the other is kind of like the close button, it closes anything that might be running on screen. I would have appreciated it if it had some sort of physical volume control on it but sadly thats MIA.
The touch does have a fantastic screen, the resolution is 320*240 though honestly this is the one place I could forgive Apple for using a gimpy marketting term. They should just call it 'super high resolution podificated touchzore technology' because that is what it is. Fantastic screen, fantastic video output and fantastic everything. I really can't think of any criticisms for the screen, it is perfect in every way I can imagine and the only way it could ever let you down is if the video you are watching is of low quality in which case it's the videos fault anyway. In generel the build quality seems to be very good and it hasn't really done anything wierd. Then again, I've only had it for two days.
All in all through this limited use I've found the touch to be extremely sturdy but not very usable at all, in fact it's the second most unusable MP3 player I've ever owned, second only to my old mobilephones MP3 player. Do I like it? Yeah sure, have I been fooled by Apple propoganda enough not to understand why I like it while being blinded by its short comings? No, definitely not. I can imagine people who own such things to not understand why they them, they just do and it's because of Apples marketting. I'm just glad I'm not that stupid. The touch is great, but it has a lot of shortcomings that need to be ironed out.
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Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
And yet you rate the smell.
Even Apple isn't silly enough to advertise their products' smell
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three