This is the third post in the series on my experiences and impressions of the iPod touch look here for:
Part 1 and
Part 2.
Ok now that I've lived with the iPod touch for several weeks I thought it would be worth coming back and revisiting some of my initial thoughts on the product
What's great about the touch?
- Video Playback & Quality - this remains the biggest key benefit to the device so far in my view is the clear high resolution of the screen and the video playback capability. I've experimented with a variety of content (both podcasts and videos downloaded from our Canon Powershot SD800) and can say that the results are simply great. I haven't witnessed any of the issues mentioned in other reviews about the tone of solid blacks or greys on this device.
- Touch Interface - in short "IT ROCKS!" - while the smugs can be annoying nothing can replace the fun of endlessly flipping through pictures, double tapping, pinching and a number of other gestures that you quickly begin to realize this is what a user interface should be.
- iPod Functionality - a very solid audio player - definitely an improvement in terms of navigation and listening over previous iPods (the 1G & 2G Nano and the 3G Classic that I've owned).
What's Not So Hot?
- Safari & Web browsing in general - by all means this is far more useful than the browsing experience on other handheld devices (e.g., various Blackberries, Palm and Windows mobile phones/PDAs). Web browsing is still fairly limited and I continue to have issues with the touch dropping Wifi signals in areas where other machines are fine (maybe I just got a dud on this count).
- Lack of External controls - while this isn't huge its enough of a pain to make my list. For a firm that normally thinks and builds hardware that has a better handle of customer usage scenarios that most others in tech land Apple missed the boat on adding a number of very simple controls to this device.
What to Hope For In A Software Update?
While I've seen others comment and blog on the fact that this isn't an iPhone I think its important to keep in perspective that the iPod touch isn't meant to be a phone. I wouldn't expect Apple to muddy the waters between the different devices by stacking on a number of features that are meant to establish the iPhone as a SmartPhone including - phone, camera, email management. However, there are a number of things that come to mind that could make a good device even better but here are a few thoughts on what could make this a GREAT device.
- Open Access to Third Party Developers - I firmly believe that the functionality and innovation that will allow this next generation of iPods/iPhones to be fantastic devices will not come from innovation inside Apple. I think that the native apps included on the device are for the most part but in places feel somewhat rushed (read the missing Add function in the Calendar - although Apple is now calling this a "bug"). My take is that as a community the value of strong third party development brings much more to Apple's customers than the value of having a strongly controlled absolutely crash-proof device (which seems to be one of Apple's key arguments). My point is simply that the market has a clear want for third party apps and there seems to be a willing supply of developers interested in investing the time to work on an interesting new hardware platform. I urge you to click on the following link if you have a DIGG account and add your voice to those asking Apple to do the right thing for their customers.
Inundate Apple with your dissatisfaction
- Widgets/Dashboard for iPod touch - One way to make this device far more usable in my mind would be to enable the use of widgets for the look-up of specific information. For example, a number of times I've used the touch to quickly look-up things on the go such as phone numbers, directions and a map. Given that Safari on the Mac can sometimes be a frustrating experience (I remain a committed Firefox user!) and even more so on a smaller device the potential of dedicated Widgets seems to be a much cleaner solution.
