Yesterday I was at a computer store (not a Apple Store) to return an iPod cover I had purchased from them, when the new iPod Touch caught my attention. I must say it is a lot of fun to use because I ended up playing with it for about 45 minutes.
1. The picture to the left is the main menu from where you can select your music, videos, calendar, address book or browser (OS X Safari).
2. The user interface is exactly the same as the iPhone with a multi touch screen. It also has all the same functionality except for the ability to dial and receive calls. The sleek UI lets you slide the white button to unlock the phone.
3. The picture on the left shows Theinvestornextdoor.net on the iPod touch. The quality of the Safari browser is as good as using it on my Powerbook laptop.
4. Gmail on the iPod Touch web browser.
5. Wikipedia on the iPod Touch web browse
6. Converging your fingers on to a particular part of the screen zooms in to that area.
7. Similarly, diverging your fingers from a point zooms out from that section. Very intuitive.
8. The Keyboard. People have been saying this is the biggest drawback of a multi-touch screen. Typing is slower as compared to having a Blackberry style keypad.
9. iTunes. Same functionality as running iTunes on laptop / desktop. Album artwork, playlists, searching albums/genres/artists, sharing music with other iTunes users through a wireless connection etc. One advantage is you can now buy/download music and have it ready to play immediately on your iPod, on the go.
I asked a store associate (who seemed to be a gadget junkie) about the durability of the touch screen. He then proceeded to scratch the screen with his keys in front of me and that left no marks. He mentioned that he had heard the screen was pretty durable and could survive a couple of falls, unless you drop it 1 metre or higher, in which case it would break. It was not an Apple store but he mentioned that all the iPod Touches sold out right away. He also had a CDMA & GSM enabled Blackberry which in his opinion would still win over the iPhone as a business phone since you dont need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network to receive your email, the blackberry network comresses your emails and sends them to you over your data network. The iPhone / iPod Touch were better entertainment devices in his opinion.
My verdict - I kind of agree with him, I think Blackberry's are still better for corporate use, at least until Wifi / WiMAX newtorks become ubiquitious. If you're thinking of buying an iPod though, it might be worth it to shell out the $329 CD for the 8GB iPod Touch. I do think Apple has another great product and the yuppie-mac loving/mac converting market will lap it up.
Disclaimer - The opinions expressed here are solely my own, and pictures were taken from my cell phone camera with the permission of the computer store.
Disclaimer - The opinions expressed here are solely my own, and pictures were taken from my cell phone camera with the permission of the computer store.
