Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 06 September 2007 01:37
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The news that the revolutionary touch technology seen on the iPhone is now coming to what is called the iPod touch has sent the world into a frenzy once more, and quite possibly, was the worst kept Apple secret in history, largely thanks to the fact everyone has known about the iPhone for ages and couldn’t imagine Apple NOT launching an iPhone-like iPod.
Well, the wait is almost over – for the iPod touch is REAL, and the only additional waiting customers will have to endure is for stock to arrive in stores over the next few weeks! The iPod touch comes in 8GB and 16GB sizes, using only flash memory (instead of using a hard drive as in the iPod classic range), retaining the iPhone’s ultra sleek thinness of 8mm and the iPhone’s incredible 3.5-inch super smooth touch screen.
Effectively, the iPod touch is virtually identical to the iPhone, minus the camera and cell phone, but still includes music, video, and photo playback, built-in Wi-Fi, the same Safari browser as seen on the iPhone, the same YouTube video player, the same ‘Coverflow’ capability, the same ‘accelerometer’ that senses which way you are holding the iPod touch, a calendar and contacts list that synchronizes with your PC or Mac, just like the iPhone, and a calculator. The same ‘touch keyboard’ as seen on the iPhone is used in the iPod touch, but oddly, no ‘notes’ application is seen on the new iPod touch screen.
That said, the iPod touch is really a powerful computer running OS X, just like the iPhone, and there can be no doubt that Apple will release a range of software updates over the coming months that will deliver new software features for the iPhone with ease. Because it uses the massive touch screen and only offers one button, like the iPhone, if Apple want to release new features, they can at will. That alone is ultra cool.
Jobs boasted that the iPod touch is the ‘first ever’ music player to feature a browser, conveniently forgetting that the iPhone really was the first ever music player to feature a browser, but hey, seeing as he made that too, we can forgive him on this very, very minor point.
A final button on the iPod touch will also be available for iPhone owners and will take users to a wireless iTunes store. Here you can immediately buy music through iTunes, and immediately download that song through the air to your iPod touch. Once you connect your iPod touch to your PC, your wireless iTunes purchases will then synchronize to your Mac or PC's iTunes library. Hallelujah - wireless iTunes is here!
In a development connected to the debut of a wireless iTunes store is a deal with Starbucks, letting iPod touch and iPhone owners get free access to the wireless iTunes store when in any Starbucks coffee shop, so users can see a list of the last 10 songs played and easily purchase songs and CDs sold through Starbucks’ own music label.
Featuring 22 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video playback, but while no mention has been made of how many hours you can expect if just browsing the web all day over Wi-Fi, upcoming users will soon report this figure to us all.
The 8GB iPod touch will sell for US $299, while the whopping 16GB model will sell for US $399, and both will be available, at least in US stores, ‘later this month’, although the rest of the world is expecting to receive all the new iPods in time for the Christmas season, too.
To co-incide with the new iPod touch launch, the iPhone itself has seen some changes. Gone is the original 4GB iPhone model, leaving only the 8GB model in its place, which has come with a very compelling new feature of its own – a massive US $200 price cut, now dropping in price to US $399. New US $1.98 ringtones have also made an appearance, letting iPhone owners turn songs into ringtones to massively broadening the available ringtone library.
So, will we get a 16GB iPhone model in the note too distant future? And what hope for Apple's competitors to sell anything this Christmas/end-of-year holiday shopping season? Please read onto page 3 for the conclusion...
