iPod Touch review
Apple, an American company founded on April 1st, 1976, is renowned for its Macintosh computers and iPod music players. Many current music players are capable of doing a lot more than just playing music. And the latest Apple iPod touch is not an exception. It is a full media player equipped with innovative functions such as Internet, WiFi and an option to play YouTube videos for example. Enough reasons for LetsGoMobile to test the iPod touch and offer you an extensive review.
The iPod we tested has an internal memory of 16GB (14.8GB available). An 8GB version is also obtainable. The Apple iPod Touch came in a surprisingly compact box; only inches larger than the iPod Touch itself. The box contains a quick guide in 6 languages, Apple earplugs, a USB cable, an iPod connector with a transparent hook, a polishing cloth for cleaning the iPod and of course the iPod itself. The iPod Touch comes with a fully loaded battery, so it is not necessary to charge the battery before using the iPod Touch. Even the date and time were set correctly on the iPod Touch we received. The dimensions of the Apple iPod Touch are: 110 x 61.8 x 8mm.
Apple Touch - Main menu
The iPod Touch has only one dedicated button at its disposal, just as the iPhone, with one function to return to the main menu or in case screen deactivation is on, to activate the screen of the Apple iPod in combination with a sliding movement on the Touch screen. The Touch screen works flawless and fast. The main menu shows eleven icons, four of which are displayed for playing music, videos, iTunes and pictures. The remaining seven icons are for the Safari web browser, YouTube videos, agenda, contacts, clock, calculator and general settings. Furthermore the battery indicator is shown on the screen in the main menu. The time is rendered in every menu, in other words, it is always visible.
Apple iPod Touch - Music
Connecting the iPod Touch to your computer will automatically upload the program iTunes to the computer. Next you will be asked if you want to synchronize the iPod with the music on your computer. This all happens very fast and enables you to listen to the music that you were only able to listen to on your computer before. The music on the Apple iPod Touch is categorized straight away and therefore easy to find again. The songs can be found through the albums that carry the songs or they can be found through type of music and artist name. Play lists also belong to the possibilities in order for you to play your favourite songs sequentially. When Touching the icon: 'Songs', all songs will be rendered separately. And if you use the handy Alphabet on the right side of your screen, you will quickly find the first letter of the song you want to hear. Apple iPod Touch - Music qualityThe music quality of the iPod Touch in combination with the included earplugs is amazing. Personally I have never before heard such a beautiful, clear and pure sound from 'normal' earplugs. The only disadvantage I can think of is that the music can't be played without earplugs. It would have been a surplus function if the iPod Touch would have had integrated speakers.
Apple iPod Touch - Music playing screen
When playing music, a bar appears on the bottom of the screen for adjusting the volume. Right above it three buttons are rendered to play or pause the song and it lets you choose the next or previous song. On top of the music playing screen the song, the album and artist name are rendered. Touching once in the centre of the screen a bar will appear indicating how long the song has been playing and how much play-time is left. Sliding this bar lets you forward or rewind the song. When Touching twice in the centre of the music screen all songs of the album the song belongs to can be found. This function is also accessible by Touching the album button top right on the screen of the iPod Touch. When you want to listen to a different song from this album or a different type you have to use the same button. When you turn the Apple iPod Touch, the screen rotates and all albums are rendered in order for you to quickly select a different album; a nice additional function. And again the Touch screen works perfectly and lets you scroll through the albums with ease and select the desired one.
Supported music structures
• AAC (16 till 320 Kbps)
• Protected AAC (from iTunes Store)
• MP3 (16 till 320 Kbps)
• MP3 VBR, Audible (2, 3 and 4)
• Apple Lossless
• AIFF
• WAV
Supported file structures
• MPEG-4-video (till 2,5 Mbps)
• 640 x 480 pixels
• 30 frames per second
• Simple Profile with AAC-LC-audio
• 48 kHz • Stereogeluid in .m4v
• .mp4 file format
• .mov file format
Apple iPod Touch Videos
It is just as easy to put videos on the iPod Touch as it is to put music on it. These videos can be obtained through iTunes but also movies and videos already on your computer and not obtained through iTunes can be uploaded to the iPod Touch. While playing videos you can switch between normal reproduction and full screen by double-clicking the Touchscreen. To play/pause, rewind or forward the videos the Touchscreen has to be Touched once after which a bar appears that lets you manage these options. The volume is adjustable through the volume bar on the bottom of the screen. When a video is abruptly stopped, for whatever reason, it will start again the next time exactly where it stopped before. The quality of the videos, when the video itself is of good quality is excellent. Well, it won't be the Apple iPod Touch's fault!
Apple iPod Touch iTunes
The menu option iTunes is available via the main menu of the iPod Touch. To download iTunes the iPod has to be connected to the internet via WiFi. After Touching the iTunes button a list appears called 'recommended'. Furthermore, the obtainable iTunes songs can be selected and put in a top ten or you can manually search for a song. Entirely bottom right, the download button is placed to enable checking the selected downloads. The entire iTunes menu is very user-friendly. Complete albums can be downloaded or separate songs. Before purchasing a song, it is possible to listen to the first 30 seconds of it, the so-called preview.
iPod Touch Pictures
T he Apple iPhone lets you take pictures with the built-in camera and view them afterwards. Unfortunately the iPod Touch has not been equipped with a camera. It is possible however to synchronize the pictures from your computer with the iPod Touch through iTunes. Once the pictures are on your iPod you can watch them by Touching the Pictures icon in the main menu on the iPod screen. Clicking on a picture will make it appear in a medium size in the centre of the screen. And also here, just as is the case when playing music, the picture is automatically rotated when turning your iPod into a different direction. If you turn the iPod one quarter, the picture will be rendered on full screen. The icon that tells you the number of the picture and a second one that lets you go on to the next or previous picture are still visible and available. When the Touchscreen is touched once again on a spot clear from icons, the picture will be rendered fully. Instead of having to use the icons to go to the next or previous picture you can slide your finger to the left or the right on the Touchscreen and the next or previous picture will appear. An additional amazing function on the Apple iPod Touch multimedia player is zooming in on pictures.
Not so much amazing that this function is offered but more so because of the way it is carried out. You have to place your fingers on the exact spot you want to zoom in on and then move them apart. After that you can move to the right or the left sliding on the screen. Double-clicking on the Touchscreen will undo the zooming again.
This brings us to the buttons top right on the main menu. The first menu option we find is the Safari Browser. Also here you have to establish a WiFi connection first. The 'Favourites' offer easy and quick access to frequently used websites; Apple, Yahoo! and Google are pre-selected but can be changed manually. The web browsing history can be checked through the favourites. When you are visiting a website and you'd like to open a second website without wanting to close the first one, you just have to Touch the screen at the bottom on the right side which will open a second browser in the screen. Switching between various browsers is also possible by Touching at the bottom right and also by sliding your finger to the left or the right. Inserting a web URL is easy. Just click on the existing URL and a QWERTY-keyboard will come available at the bottom of the screen. The letters are reasonably small of course but after a bit of practising it will become easy to work with the keyboard. The iPod Touch's Safari web browser works excellent. I don't have any comments on it!
Apple iPod Touch - YouTube videos
The main menu offers direct access to YouTube via the YouTube function and lets you watch the desired YouTube videos for free. After Touching the YouTube icon you can select the most recent videos, the best videos or the history. These segments can also be adjusted if needed. There is hardly any difference in watching YouTube videos on the computer or on the iPod Touch.
Apple iPod Touch - Contacts
The contacts and the agenda of the Apple iPod Touch are well-structured and easy to use. Keep in mind that the iPod Touch is a media player for music and videos and not a PDA device. The functions in the 'contacts and agenda' menu are therefore not that enhanced. They are comparable to the contacts and agendas on most smartphones without too many options. However, contacts can be inserted fast and the agenda can be adjusted quickly thanks to the superior Touchscreen of the Apple iPod Touch, in combination with a digital QWERTY keyboard.
Apple iPod Touch - Alarm
When you click on the clock icon in the main menu, the world time appears in digital as well as analogue form. This clock had already been set to the correct time in my case. The Plus button, top right in the clock menu, lets you watch the clock in a different time zone. The alarm can also be set in this menu by clicking the alarm icon at the bottom right. Furthermore a stopwatch and timer are available here. Everything is clearly and very beautifully rendered offering easy and fast operation.
Apple iPod Touch - Calculator
The large buttons on the calculator of the iPod Touch are as easy and precise to work with as a normal calculator. The function possibilities are similar to a normal simple calculator. So in general it will do, but if you have to make a complicated math exam, you'd be better off taking an advanced calculator with you.
Apple Touch - Wi-Fi connection
The last menu option within the main menu of the Apple iPod Touch is the settings menu. This menu enables establishing WiFi connection. The iPod Touch will automatically search for available connections and in case the iPod can't find the required connection, you can do so yourself manually. This menu also lets you adjust the brightness of the monitor, manually as well as automatically. I left this setting up to the iPod Touch and I never felt the urge of changing it.
Apple Touch - Submenu music
The submenu 'general' is packed with information about the iPod Touch. You can adjust many things here like: background, date and time, country settings, auto deactivation of the screen, number lock, sound effects and keyboard. The submenu 'music' lets you set the volume to maximum and change the speed of the audio book and equalizer. In addition you can manage the video, picture, Safari web browser and contacts here.
iPod Touch Conclusion
T he Apple iPod looks neat and is very thin but firm. The Touchscreen of the iPod Touch is a joy to play with; at all times it works amazingly well. Synchronizing music, pictures and videos from your computer with the iPod is a piece of cake. No trouble at all. The battery lasts long but when you watch a movie the energy decreases of course. I consider the functions that require WiFi connection the most beautiful functions on the iPod Touch, such as watching YouTube videos and browsing the Internet through the Safari browser. The iPod Touch's music quality in combination with the included earplugs is astonishing. A nice extra function is rotation of the screen when watching pictures or playing music. If you are planning to purchase an iPod for frequent use on the bicycle I would recommend a cheaper model. But if you are looking for a multimedia player with Internet, the iPod Touch sure is the best choice. It has a price tag of approximately 375 Euros, certainly not cheap but definitely worth its money!
Apple, an American company founded on April 1st, 1976, is renowned for its Macintosh computers and iPod music players. Many current music players are capable of doing a lot more than just playing music. And the latest Apple iPod touch is not an exception. It is a full media player equipped with innovative functions such as Internet, WiFi and an option to play YouTube videos for example. Enough reasons for LetsGoMobile to test the iPod touch and offer you an extensive review.
The iPod we tested has an internal memory of 16GB (14.8GB available). An 8GB version is also obtainable. The Apple iPod Touch came in a surprisingly compact box; only inches larger than the iPod Touch itself. The box contains a quick guide in 6 languages, Apple earplugs, a USB cable, an iPod connector with a transparent hook, a polishing cloth for cleaning the iPod and of course the iPod itself. The iPod Touch comes with a fully loaded battery, so it is not necessary to charge the battery before using the iPod Touch. Even the date and time were set correctly on the iPod Touch we received. The dimensions of the Apple iPod Touch are: 110 x 61.8 x 8mm.
Apple Touch - Main menu
The iPod Touch has only one dedicated button at its disposal, just as the iPhone, with one function to return to the main menu or in case screen deactivation is on, to activate the screen of the Apple iPod in combination with a sliding movement on the Touch screen. The Touch screen works flawless and fast. The main menu shows eleven icons, four of which are displayed for playing music, videos, iTunes and pictures. The remaining seven icons are for the Safari web browser, YouTube videos, agenda, contacts, clock, calculator and general settings. Furthermore the battery indicator is shown on the screen in the main menu. The time is rendered in every menu, in other words, it is always visible.
Apple iPod Touch - Music
Connecting the iPod Touch to your computer will automatically upload the program iTunes to the computer. Next you will be asked if you want to synchronize the iPod with the music on your computer. This all happens very fast and enables you to listen to the music that you were only able to listen to on your computer before. The music on the Apple iPod Touch is categorized straight away and therefore easy to find again. The songs can be found through the albums that carry the songs or they can be found through type of music and artist name. Play lists also belong to the possibilities in order for you to play your favourite songs sequentially. When Touching the icon: 'Songs', all songs will be rendered separately. And if you use the handy Alphabet on the right side of your screen, you will quickly find the first letter of the song you want to hear. Apple iPod Touch - Music qualityThe music quality of the iPod Touch in combination with the included earplugs is amazing. Personally I have never before heard such a beautiful, clear and pure sound from 'normal' earplugs. The only disadvantage I can think of is that the music can't be played without earplugs. It would have been a surplus function if the iPod Touch would have had integrated speakers.
Apple iPod Touch - Music playing screen
When playing music, a bar appears on the bottom of the screen for adjusting the volume. Right above it three buttons are rendered to play or pause the song and it lets you choose the next or previous song. On top of the music playing screen the song, the album and artist name are rendered. Touching once in the centre of the screen a bar will appear indicating how long the song has been playing and how much play-time is left. Sliding this bar lets you forward or rewind the song. When Touching twice in the centre of the music screen all songs of the album the song belongs to can be found. This function is also accessible by Touching the album button top right on the screen of the iPod Touch. When you want to listen to a different song from this album or a different type you have to use the same button. When you turn the Apple iPod Touch, the screen rotates and all albums are rendered in order for you to quickly select a different album; a nice additional function. And again the Touch screen works perfectly and lets you scroll through the albums with ease and select the desired one.
Supported music structures
• AAC (16 till 320 Kbps)
• Protected AAC (from iTunes Store)
• MP3 (16 till 320 Kbps)
• MP3 VBR, Audible (2, 3 and 4)
• Apple Lossless
• AIFF
• WAV
Supported file structures
• MPEG-4-video (till 2,5 Mbps)
• 640 x 480 pixels
• 30 frames per second
• Simple Profile with AAC-LC-audio
• 48 kHz • Stereogeluid in .m4v
• .mp4 file format
• .mov file format
Apple iPod Touch Videos
It is just as easy to put videos on the iPod Touch as it is to put music on it. These videos can be obtained through iTunes but also movies and videos already on your computer and not obtained through iTunes can be uploaded to the iPod Touch. While playing videos you can switch between normal reproduction and full screen by double-clicking the Touchscreen. To play/pause, rewind or forward the videos the Touchscreen has to be Touched once after which a bar appears that lets you manage these options. The volume is adjustable through the volume bar on the bottom of the screen. When a video is abruptly stopped, for whatever reason, it will start again the next time exactly where it stopped before. The quality of the videos, when the video itself is of good quality is excellent. Well, it won't be the Apple iPod Touch's fault!
Apple iPod Touch iTunes
The menu option iTunes is available via the main menu of the iPod Touch. To download iTunes the iPod has to be connected to the internet via WiFi. After Touching the iTunes button a list appears called 'recommended'. Furthermore, the obtainable iTunes songs can be selected and put in a top ten or you can manually search for a song. Entirely bottom right, the download button is placed to enable checking the selected downloads. The entire iTunes menu is very user-friendly. Complete albums can be downloaded or separate songs. Before purchasing a song, it is possible to listen to the first 30 seconds of it, the so-called preview.
iPod Touch Pictures
T he Apple iPhone lets you take pictures with the built-in camera and view them afterwards. Unfortunately the iPod Touch has not been equipped with a camera. It is possible however to synchronize the pictures from your computer with the iPod Touch through iTunes. Once the pictures are on your iPod you can watch them by Touching the Pictures icon in the main menu on the iPod screen. Clicking on a picture will make it appear in a medium size in the centre of the screen. And also here, just as is the case when playing music, the picture is automatically rotated when turning your iPod into a different direction. If you turn the iPod one quarter, the picture will be rendered on full screen. The icon that tells you the number of the picture and a second one that lets you go on to the next or previous picture are still visible and available. When the Touchscreen is touched once again on a spot clear from icons, the picture will be rendered fully. Instead of having to use the icons to go to the next or previous picture you can slide your finger to the left or the right on the Touchscreen and the next or previous picture will appear. An additional amazing function on the Apple iPod Touch multimedia player is zooming in on pictures.
Not so much amazing that this function is offered but more so because of the way it is carried out. You have to place your fingers on the exact spot you want to zoom in on and then move them apart. After that you can move to the right or the left sliding on the screen. Double-clicking on the Touchscreen will undo the zooming again.
This brings us to the buttons top right on the main menu. The first menu option we find is the Safari Browser. Also here you have to establish a WiFi connection first. The 'Favourites' offer easy and quick access to frequently used websites; Apple, Yahoo! and Google are pre-selected but can be changed manually. The web browsing history can be checked through the favourites. When you are visiting a website and you'd like to open a second website without wanting to close the first one, you just have to Touch the screen at the bottom on the right side which will open a second browser in the screen. Switching between various browsers is also possible by Touching at the bottom right and also by sliding your finger to the left or the right. Inserting a web URL is easy. Just click on the existing URL and a QWERTY-keyboard will come available at the bottom of the screen. The letters are reasonably small of course but after a bit of practising it will become easy to work with the keyboard. The iPod Touch's Safari web browser works excellent. I don't have any comments on it!
Apple iPod Touch - YouTube videos
The main menu offers direct access to YouTube via the YouTube function and lets you watch the desired YouTube videos for free. After Touching the YouTube icon you can select the most recent videos, the best videos or the history. These segments can also be adjusted if needed. There is hardly any difference in watching YouTube videos on the computer or on the iPod Touch.
Apple iPod Touch - Contacts
The contacts and the agenda of the Apple iPod Touch are well-structured and easy to use. Keep in mind that the iPod Touch is a media player for music and videos and not a PDA device. The functions in the 'contacts and agenda' menu are therefore not that enhanced. They are comparable to the contacts and agendas on most smartphones without too many options. However, contacts can be inserted fast and the agenda can be adjusted quickly thanks to the superior Touchscreen of the Apple iPod Touch, in combination with a digital QWERTY keyboard.
Apple iPod Touch - Alarm
When you click on the clock icon in the main menu, the world time appears in digital as well as analogue form. This clock had already been set to the correct time in my case. The Plus button, top right in the clock menu, lets you watch the clock in a different time zone. The alarm can also be set in this menu by clicking the alarm icon at the bottom right. Furthermore a stopwatch and timer are available here. Everything is clearly and very beautifully rendered offering easy and fast operation.
Apple iPod Touch - Calculator
The large buttons on the calculator of the iPod Touch are as easy and precise to work with as a normal calculator. The function possibilities are similar to a normal simple calculator. So in general it will do, but if you have to make a complicated math exam, you'd be better off taking an advanced calculator with you.
Apple Touch - Wi-Fi connection
The last menu option within the main menu of the Apple iPod Touch is the settings menu. This menu enables establishing WiFi connection. The iPod Touch will automatically search for available connections and in case the iPod can't find the required connection, you can do so yourself manually. This menu also lets you adjust the brightness of the monitor, manually as well as automatically. I left this setting up to the iPod Touch and I never felt the urge of changing it.
Apple Touch - Submenu music
The submenu 'general' is packed with information about the iPod Touch. You can adjust many things here like: background, date and time, country settings, auto deactivation of the screen, number lock, sound effects and keyboard. The submenu 'music' lets you set the volume to maximum and change the speed of the audio book and equalizer. In addition you can manage the video, picture, Safari web browser and contacts here.
iPod Touch Conclusion
T he Apple iPod looks neat and is very thin but firm. The Touchscreen of the iPod Touch is a joy to play with; at all times it works amazingly well. Synchronizing music, pictures and videos from your computer with the iPod is a piece of cake. No trouble at all. The battery lasts long but when you watch a movie the energy decreases of course. I consider the functions that require WiFi connection the most beautiful functions on the iPod Touch, such as watching YouTube videos and browsing the Internet through the Safari browser. The iPod Touch's music quality in combination with the included earplugs is astonishing. A nice extra function is rotation of the screen when watching pictures or playing music. If you are planning to purchase an iPod for frequent use on the bicycle I would recommend a cheaper model. But if you are looking for a multimedia player with Internet, the iPod Touch sure is the best choice. It has a price tag of approximately 375 Euros, certainly not cheap but definitely worth its money!
