[Review] iPod Touch 2nd Gen

By Prosidius
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Grand Master

Prosidius

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The iPod iTouch, Apple's answer to those wanting an iPhone without the phone is a great device and sure to please those with small-moderate music collections. However it's not perfect by any means.

Design: A-

The iPod touch looks exactly like the iPhone pretty much. Pretty much in that there are some differences. First off the back of the touch has a stainless steal back like the iPod Classic and not the plastic one of the iPhone. While it looks good at first you'll find it's a breeding ground for scratches. The front of the iPhone features the stainless steal trim from the back and a glossy black front which is dominated mostly by the 3.5 inch screen. On the bottom of the front contains a single button. The dock connector and headphone port are also at the bottom. There is a black plastic power button on the top and black plastic volume controls on the left side of the unit towards the top. Overall the touch is very well designed and fits well in the hand.

Setup: A

Setting up the iPod consists of plugging in the included USB 2.0 cable into a pc and the dock connector on the touch. Install iTunes if you dont have it and iTunes will walk you through the rest when it reconizes the iPod. Depending on how much music you have, syncing could take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.

Screen: A++

Upon turning on the iPod touch my first time and seeing the slide to unlock screen, I immediately said "wow", the screen is gorgeous. The scratch resistant glass screen is very bright and crisp and you'll fall in love instantly with it. All other devices will be a chore to watch stuff on upon using the touch. If the screen is too dark or too bright for you, it's adjustable in the settings. You cannot however adjust the contrast.

The Firmware/OS: A+

The iPhone OS is the jewel of the touch. The touch comes with 17 applications preinstalled that cannot be removed. Said applications are: Safari(web browser), Calendar, Mail, Contacts, YouTube, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, App Store, Music, Videos, Photos, iTunes. As of the 2.0 firmware, you can install more applications, both free and paid ones using the App Store(more on that later). I'll go through each app seperately:

  • Safari - Safari is the default browser that ships on macs, however the version on the iPod touch is a toned down version but it still reinvents the way you use the internet on a mobile device. Gone are "mobile sites', safari renders websites in full like it's desktop brother. It generally does a good job at this but some sites may not work 100%. Flash, is sadly not supported nor is there any way to install it. Safari features a URL bar and search bar at the top, and a back/forward, bookmarks, windows buttons on the bottom of the interface. All the buttoms work as advertised so I wont bother going through them. Typing is done via the onscreen keyboard which can be used in Landscape or Portrait mode. Overall it's a solid browser and you'll never return to cell phone browsers after using this.
  • Calendar - A calendar application that lets you add events and set appointments. You can sync them back to iTunes as well. You cant create multiple calendars. Nothing really to say here, pretty basic.
  • Mail - An application that lets you check your email(suprise!). Supports all the methods you'd expect. You can also send email but because the onscreen keyboard is not that efficent, I wouldnt reccomend it.
  • Contacts - Manage a contact list. Allows for adding a picture of the contact and adding custom fields.
  • YouTube - Search for videos on YouTube and watch them. You can also view the top 25 videos, featured videos. Able to make videos "favorites" too, so you can save them for later on. All videos are played of course in landscape mode. Decent app.
  • Stocks - Powered by Yahoo!, you can view stocks here. Has a nice graph thing and you can select a timespan to see how a stock did over it.
  • Maps - Powered by Google Maps. This little application can, with the press of a button pinpoint your exact location. You can get directions to a place you wanna go as well. Has multiple map views including a satellite view(think google earth).
  • Weather - An application that shows you the weather in a city. You can see a 7 day forecast and the current conditions. Pretty basic.
  • Clock - Find the time in any area of the world you want. Again, pretty basic.
  • Calculator - An alright calculator that has a scientific mode when turned in landscape mode.
  • Notes - An extremely basic program to jot notes down.
  • Settings - Not really a program, just lets you change the settings of the touch.
  • iTunes - This little app lets you browse the iTunes music store and buy songs. You can search for them, view the featured songs, or the top 10's of a specific genre. You can also download podcasts too and redeem a gift card for credits. Very good application overall.
  • Music - This application lets you play music, it's the iPod application. View songs by artists, songs, or albums. Supports playlists as well as the new genius feature. Turn the touch into landscape mode to get coverflow. When a song is playing you it will show you the album art. Rating songs is also supported. Extremely nice application. To prevent wasting the battery, when playing a song and you dont touch the iPod touch, the screen will turn off. Press the home button and unlock the touch to change the song then. The quality of the music is generally excellent and I fine the iPod touch's has a higher max volume. Like double from the regular iPods. Theres an equallizer available too if you wish.
  • Videos - I dont have any videos so I dont know about this one
  • Photos - Lets you view photos in landscape or portrait mode. Has a few slideshow transitions. Photos obviously look very good on the screen.
  • App Store - Added with the 2.0 firmware this application lets you access the app store to buy/download new apps. There are thousands of apps up, both free and paid. There is an application for everything pretty much. You can search for an app, view the featured ones, view the top 25 overall or in a specific category. The app store also keeps your apps update and downloads new updates if neccessary. Downloading an application, even if free will require an iTunes account. Once you download an app, it will kick you to the home screen and an icon will appear for your new app and a progress bar for the download/install. You'll be able to use the application right away. Alternatively, you can get apps using the desktop version of iTunes and then sync them to the touch. It's your call.

Few Other notes

The iPod touch doesnt feel cheap(except for the volume, power buttons). It has a considerable amount of weight.

The iPod touch has a build in speaker that judging by the sound, is near the dock connector. The quality is crap but it's nice to have.

On the back of the iPod touch(top left) is a black token of the sorts that looks ugly. I assume its for the wifi attena.

You can select what apps to show on the main homescreen/dock and create another one if need be. Put your finger down on an app icon for roughly 1-2 seconds, the icons will begin to wiggle. From here you can rearrange the icons or move them to the far left or right to a new home screen.

Final: A-

It's a great device but is expensive. The 8GB will run you $230, 16GB $300 and the 32GB a whopping $400. I'm definately glad I got it and has alot of other uses besides the main iPod one. I highly reccomend the Touch if you can afford it(or cant afford the montly iPhone plan).

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Edited by Adamb10
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Grand Master

Rob2687

Posted
Posted

The volume and power buttons don't feel cheap at all to me.

I turn the speaker volume all the way down but some times when after I unlock it and start typing I can hear the clicks. I haven't investigated it much yet. It seems to happen randomly.

The screen is very nice indeed.

Veteran

Unto Darkness

Posted
Posted
I've got the 8GB 2nd gen touch and I couldn't be happier. :)

:whistle: (<-click)

That is what you would get after tinkering with Photoshop to make it look good.

What we want to see is the real deal.

I also want to know more about the audio quality. I heard Apple was going down in the sound department.

Grand Master

+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹

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I bought a 32GB one last week from the Apple Store, but took it back on Sunday. unfortunately Apple in their infinite wisdom have decided to remove the album shuffle function, so the only option is to shuffle a whole playlist and thus hear a random selection from all albums, where as my old ipod classic had the album shuffle mode which would play an album in its entirety and then play another random album afterwards.

I was told that I could jailbreak it and download programs to do this for me (not by the Apple Store staff I should say), but I would rather have the money back and buy something else. The Apple Store guys did say to use the album shuffle feature in the itunes app, but that only shuffles the albums on the PC not the ipod.

I know some would say thats being picky, but I have a lot of albums that are meant to be played in order, Tangerine Dream albums for example, and to have it spoilt by this feature removal is not acceptable for me :(

I know I can just select an album and have it play that album, but then I would have to then manually select another album when that had finished as it would either loop or stop depending on the option set :(

That said I loved it, the wi-fi options, the apps store, email on the go (via wi-fi) in fact everything about it except the one feature I wanted :( Even the apple forums suggested jailbreaking it to get the function, but as mentioned 2nd Gen isnt broken yet, and I don't see why I should have to resort to such measure to get such a simple feature back :(

Grand Master

bdsams Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
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Question: I have 2g touch like you, the lint free cloth that came with the Ipod, can you wash that or clean it somehow? It worked really well the first month I had it but it has gotten a little dirty and doesnt clean as well as it used too....can i run it under water or will that ruin it?

Veteran

Unto Darkness

Posted
Posted
Question: I have 2g touch like you, the lint free cloth that came with the Ipod, can you wash that or clean it somehow? It worked really well the first month I had it but it has gotten a little dirty and doesnt clean as well as it used too....can i run it under water or will that ruin it?

If it is micro fiber, yes. But if it is normal cloth, I have no idea.

Grand Master

Quillz

Posted
Posted
Question: I have 2g touch like you, the lint free cloth that came with the Ipod, can you wash that or clean it somehow? It worked really well the first month I had it but it has gotten a little dirty and doesnt clean as well as it used too....can i run it under water or will that ruin it?

I don't think it's micro-fiber, but rather a type of neoprene, which I believe will be alright to wash with warm water and soap. But why not just spend $5 or so on a pack of micro-fiber cloths that are much larger, machine washable and better at cleaning?

Grand Master

.Neo

Posted
Posted
Question: I have 2g touch like you, the lint free cloth that came with the Ipod, can you wash that or clean it somehow? It worked really well the first month I had it but it has gotten a little dirty and doesnt clean as well as it used too....can i run it under water or will that ruin it?

You can clean it with water just fine.

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