iPod touch gets its first review

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the first review (or at least the first we've seen) of the iPod touch, Apple's new iPhone-aping, widescreen media player / WiFi device. If you can't wait until the end of September (the touch is shipping by the 28th, if you believe the Apple Store), you can sink your teeth into one lucky critic's view of the new device. According to PC Magazine, the iPod touch is a, "Thing of beauty," which shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the praise for its design-doppelganger, the iPhone. The review notes that all of the media player and internet controls are the same as the aforementioned device (Cover Flow, lists, zooming, etc.), though the touch allows you to "double-click" the button on the front of the device to bring up a music control-panel, no matter what application you're in. It's not all sweet-loving however -- PC Mag isn't too psyched on the Starbucks feature, which apparently can't be turned off, and says that the earbuds are absolutely awful (no real surprise there), though the complaints are minor compared with the praise lavished on the player. Don't take our word for it, though, hit the link and read the whole thing for yourself.

[mewantphone @ Sep 13th 2007 10:37AM]

never been first to comment. woot!

[LegendZ28 @ Sep 13th 2007 11:22AM]

You're a good person.

[Cash @ Sep 13th 2007 1:44PM]

I was really excited when the rumors started coming out about the new widescreen iPod and sat glued to my screen on Sept 5th, switching between Engadget's and ArsTechnica's life blog of the event, credit card in hand. When Jobs whipped out the Touch, I about wet myself as I was so excited. Then he mentioned the flash memory storage.

Heartbreak.

How can you do this to us Steve? 16gigs might get me through one international flight, but it's sure as hell not going to get me through a round trip, not if I want to bring more then a couple hundred songs with me. And for all this Flash love you're showing, why no Flash support in your web browser? That's awesome you have a custom option for YouTube, what about other flash video sites though? I get your concerns about battery life, but I don't understand them when there are litterally hundreds of aftermarket battery packs and other type addons to boost battery life, yet none to boost storage. Couldn't you *at least* have included an expansion slot? It's not much but it's something. Anything.

The sad part about this is I have been an iPod faithful since the way back to second version of the original, (the first version had a physical spin wheel, like the Sansa. The second version was the first to introduce the now-iconic touch wheel) even before you offered native support for Windows PC's, but after waiting two years for a widescreen iPod that plays video I can't wait any longer. I'm most likely going to be picking up one of those new Archos 605's now. It does wifi, has a touch screen (almost a full inch bigger then your's btw, with twice the resolution and 221 ppi compared to your 153 ppi) but most importantly, it comes in three sizes: 30gig, 80gig, and 160gig. In fact, the 160gig model retails for the same price as the touch. So it's bigger and not as slick looking, who cares? Yours doesn't exactly fit in my pocket either, and it's still a third the size of my portable dvd player which it will be replacing. On top of all that, instead of making me convert 90% of the video files I use into your format, all I have to do with the 605 is drag and drop them off my hard drive. Sure I have to pay 20 bucks more for the few codecs it doesn't come bundled with, but at *least* they give me the option, and that's something you never have. I can even download them wirelessly on the road if I decide to. One last thing: for about twice the price you ask for the just the necessary equipment to output video to a TV, I can turn this thing into a fully functional web-ready net-streaming PVR!

This is just my two cents. Your mileage may vary of course. I'm gonna miss the slickness and ease of use of the iPod. That is, till I boot up my 605 and find my *entire* video colletion there in front of me on an 8 hour flight to who knows where. That's all I wanted from you Jobs. You had me hook, line and sinker, and you blew it just to make the thing a couple millimeters thinner. Ouch.

[jman315 @ Sep 13th 2007 1:54PM]

16gigs is waaaay more than "a couple hundred songs", i dunno what crack your smokin. obviously not the good stuff. My itunes is 15gb with 3500 songs. I dunno where you are flyin that 3500 songs wont be enough but seems plenty

[Dave @ Sep 13th 2007 3:32PM]

For all that you wrote Cash, I call bullshit on 16 gigs not getting you through a flight or two (or twenty)

I just created a 16 Gig smart playlist, nothing under 192kbps... It's 7.4 days or 387.6 hours of continuous music.

6 Gigs got me through a 6 day road trip and a week in San Fran and I only listened to about half of it.

[Xzavier @ Sep 13th 2007 3:44PM]

ok ok ok... we got the message already.

. It's not Steve’s fault because the industry is pumping out 16gig flash drives; so that’s what’s in the iPod... Come back in a few months or years and guess what you'll have!!!
. you want the iPod screen to be bigger on the iPod... Come back in a few months or years and guess what you'll have!!!
. you want PVR, net-streaming, output to TV on the iPod... Come back in a few months or years and guess what you'll have!!!
. you wand divx or other codex's on your iPod... come back in a... ahh... well we can discuss that when you come back!

Or you can buy the device with all of those features that you want and you wont be *Heartbroken* anymore. :D

Strange though... the previous iPods didn't have all of that stuff!

[mewantphone @ Sep 13th 2007 10:38AM]

first?

[Josh @ Sep 13th 2007 11:53AM]

No. Just don't bother.

[Simon @ Sep 13th 2007 11:59AM]

Fail.

[BWhaler @ Sep 13th 2007 11:59AM]

No, just a tool.

But thanks for playing.

[Xzavier @ Sep 13th 2007 12:39PM]

Reboot!

[Z @ Sep 13th 2007 10:39AM]

I know one way to turn off the starbucks feature... that is not to go anywhere near a starbucks cafe.
That feature would be pretty much useless to me since there isnt any starbucks near where I live.

[Z @ Sep 13th 2007 10:40AM]

Forgot to mention that only a couple of starbucks in the usa are offering the ipod download service anyways.

[Alan Partridge @ Sep 13th 2007 11:20AM]

Speaking of features, how diffulcult will it to port over the mail, google maps and calendar apps from the iphone with a bit of hackery?

[Ken @ Sep 13th 2007 8:32PM]

Is avoiding a Starbucks physically possible in a U.S. city?

[Dave @ Sep 13th 2007 12:02PM]

My question for the Starbucks thing is does that give you full free WiFi when you're in a Starbucks, or just the ability to buy songs. Everything thinks it's the former, but they've never come out and said that as far as I can tell.

[Tony C @ Sep 13th 2007 12:12PM]

Yeah, it's only supposed to be free access to the iTunes WiFi Music Store.

[Z @ Sep 13th 2007 4:09PM]

How is it that you have the same "nickname" as me? I thought names could be assigned only once.

At any rate, the review did mention that you wouldn't see the icon unless you were on wireless iTunes via WiFi.

[Alex Jarvis @ Sep 13th 2007 6:05PM]

That's going to be hard for me since I work in downtown Seattle, but I don't think the feature will really bother me.

[Ant @ Sep 13th 2007 10:42AM]

ahhh nooo now i might have to brake down and join the ipod crowd =(

is there any way i can not use itunes or aac on the ipod touch?i hate itunes sooo much lol

@mewantphone
your a dumbass

[David @ Sep 13th 2007 11:00AM]

You can still use mp3 through iTunes, if thats anything? And I think realplayer and some Linux-apps can put music on the iPod.

[Ian H. @ Sep 13th 2007 11:38AM]

Media Monkey synchs with iPods, IIRC.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

[Jonathon @ Sep 13th 2007 10:42AM]

Now THIS is a blatant iPhone rip-off
[ducks]

[Alpha899 @ Sep 13th 2007 10:50AM]

No these are:
http://www.mp4nation.com/products/index.php?PID=mp4

[Xzavier @ Sep 13th 2007 11:03AM]

Ironic... The iPhone came before the new iPods yet in the Engadget interview with Phil Schiller, Phil calls the iPhone the best *iPod* ever made? Interesting.

[LegendZ28 @ Sep 13th 2007 11:24AM]

You idiot! The iTouch and the iPhone are made by the sa....ohhh ho ho, I see what you did there. Nice one!

[Abuzar @ Sep 13th 2007 10:44AM]

What a rip off. Apple should sue these guys for ripping off the Iphone!

[joe23521 @ Sep 13th 2007 12:07PM]

Reminds me of the Coke Zero commercials...

iPhone team leader: "We'd like to sue the iPod for ripping off our product."
Lawyer: "Um, you're the same company..."
iPhone team leader: "But they're on a different part of our floor."

[Das @ Sep 13th 2007 10:44AM]

MOAR MEMORY!

[Rick @ Sep 13th 2007 10:46AM]

I've got mine on pre-order!

My wife goes to Starbucks fairly often but we don't sit there while she drinks her coffee. I have noticed that the type of music they play in Starbucks is not the type of music I buy. The Starbucks integration probably won't change our behavior or get iTunes any additional music sales. I must be in the wrong demographic.

[Sean DL @ Sep 13th 2007 12:05PM]

Different Starbucks play different music. matter what area they are in. But there is an iTunes connection, Starbucks just created a music label(Hear Music) and the first person they sign was Paul Mccarthy, who is in turn was the first Beatle in the iTunes music store.


So expect to see hear a lot more Starbucks-iTunes crossovers in the near future as their label grows.

[Matt @ Sep 13th 2007 1:34PM]

I was always under the impression that all the Starbucks stores played XM 75... is that not true anymore? Was it ever?

[Ryan Karolak @ Sep 13th 2007 4:01PM]

I'm disappointed that the only free thing you can do at starbucks is go to the store for free. Starbucks should let all ipods and iphones access the entire web for free. I know that would be more likely to keep me for a few more minutes and get more coffee. I doubt letting ipods and iphones alone have unlimited internet access would hurt their profits they make for laptop users using their internet.

[Frank @ Sep 13th 2007 10:48AM]

Interesting about the double click. Wonder if they'll make double click on the iPhone take you straight to the dail-pad on the phone app. Would make sense to me.

[Ryan @ Sep 13th 2007 10:51AM]

Frank, I hope for a double-click shortcut on the iPhone, but the dial pad isn't the best use for it. I rarely dial from the dial pad, usually referencing my contacts instead.

[christapher @ Sep 13th 2007 10:54AM]

ive always thought it would be a good idea to be able to define 'fingerstrokes' like key strokes with expose but just to bring up certain things like you said

[Ryan @ Sep 13th 2007 1:00PM]

The only time I've ever used the dial pad on my iPhone was to press "1" to get through someone's stupid voicemail prompts. All my contacts sync'd down through iTunes, so I didn't even have to type those numbers in the first time. Phone numbers are an antiquated notion that should be completely done away with.

[xgwynn @ Sep 13th 2007 10:53AM]

I'm still disappointed that it doesn't have A2DP bluetooth. Being in the UK I may wait for the iphone release here and hope that they add A2DP (as well as 3G).

[Sascha @ Sep 13th 2007 8:50PM]

A2DP sounds awful. Trust me, it's scientifically provable. Apple has really high minimum standards for audio quality, so while I like my wireless headphones too, I can understand their perspective in waiting until chipset manufacturers start implementing SOUNDabout Lossless or something similar.

[Satish @ Sep 13th 2007 10:54AM]

Enuf! Enough! Enough! ENOUGH!
Enough news on Apple/ipod/iphone/itouch/ieat/idrink/isleep/iApple..

[Baby-G @ Sep 13th 2007 11:21AM]

lmao i feel your pain.... and why does everyone rank people low when they bash apple? it was a good attempt but when are they gonna give the consumer what they want? (dont get me wrong some people might want it, and if you do im not bashing you) but the majority of us can find something that will make our eye's and wallet like us more.....

[Otsego_Undead @ Sep 13th 2007 12:50PM]

I low rank people for not for bashing Apple/Complaining/whining, but for TAKING THE TIME TO POST IT. Engadget has been PLENTY kind (several times) reminding trolls like you that you dont have to read (LET ALONE POST ABOUT IT), and even went to the trouble of creating an Apple-free RSS feed (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/). Hell, i feel bad about wasteing my time posting this.

[Dale @ Sep 13th 2007 12:53PM]

You know, for a while, the complaints about the iPhone coverage made me roll my eyes, but this blog and TUAW rarely cover anything else now - which is a shame, because TUAW especially used to be a great source for information about cool apps.

[ssuk @ Sep 13th 2007 3:23PM]

I knoq there's a lot of Apple posts on Engadget, but I wouldn't say they give Apple more posts than non-Apple news. It's just that it's a busy time for Apple and Engadget is sucking up what it can from a slow news day.

[Pap @ Oct 5th 2007 8:02AM]

I feel your woes.

Here, see this :-

http://www.theinternetnowinhandybookform.com/schmapple/

It has been around a while, but it'll make you feel better.

[Dias @ Sep 13th 2007 10:55AM]

Sadly, the review confirmed sucky Calendar. C'mon Apple, this is the only reason I haven't ordered Touch yet...

[eEZER @ Sep 13th 2007 10:57AM]

At last some Apple news, very nice.

[MosquitoControl @ Sep 13th 2007 10:58AM]

The double click sounds brilliant.

The wifi iTunes is useless for me. For one, I loathe iTunes as a player and will not install it on my computer. It's a bloated piece of trash with, at the very least, a necessarily massive visual footprint. Ug.
For another, I can't see myself buying mp3s from Apple. Most of what I listen to is non-RIAA protected artists. I buy most of it on vinyl, and often CD, for less than iTunes would charge me. I'll rip my own, thank you.

The tiny flash drive, although necessary, defeats the purpose of video to me (and correct me if I'm wrong, but videos purchased from iTunes run about 750MB per hour, meaning the 8 gig can hold about 10 hours of video, or less than half a season of Heroes.) For the price, for the purpose, I'd never buy it with these capacities.


I think the product is ahead of its time, but in a negative way. I know people will jump for it and love to show it off. I know it is beautiful. But it offers absolutely nothing for me other than looks. For mp3/video playback there are dozens of other options with more battery life and much higher capacity.

And, for wifi internet browsing, which I am eager for, there are those UMPCs. Which are currently far, far too expensive, but will ultimately be products I really want.

[Steve @ Sep 13th 2007 11:22AM]

cheer up emo kid!


(haha...or, at least take the stick out...)

[just a resident cynic @ Sep 13th 2007 11:39AM]

I realise that engadget is primarily a site about gadgets, but coming across this a few days ago but not being able to try it out for myself I'd like to ask what people think of this:- (particularly if you feel you are a developer and could help out)

[http://www.songbirdnest.com/]
[http://www.songbirdnest.com/features]
[http://www.songbirdnest.com/screencast]

**For anyone with an iphone or who may gave early access to one of the new ipods
how viable an alternative to itunes is this for use with your ipod?**(may require 3rd party plugin on site)

- it may not be compatible right off the bat but has add-on support which is one of the things that really makes winamp great (I believe some of the creators of winamp built it).

from my understanding of Songbird, its seems like it has the potential to be to itunes what firefox is to IE.

what does anyone else think....?

[apologies for going marginally off topic but I thought that this could be something that could interest a lot of people]