i sold out. my new toy, the iPod Touch 3G reviewed.

Yes, some may say I sold out. But I never said Apple sucks, just that it’s users are a little too over the edge. This post is about a new gadget of mine, the iPod Touch 3G 8gb. I will try to share with you my experience with the thing so far, also I will try to be objective, as hard as that will be.

Truth is, I always wanted an iPod. From the day it came out (and then when I saw it live @fazsoo back in 2003, I think). I’m an audiophile. I love music. I always wanted a digital audio player with memory. Never had one. And I always thought, the greatest MP3 player is an iPod. I always tested other MP3 players too, but none of them seemed to cut it for me. The problem with the iPod was that it was (is) expensive. Knowing that it’s expensive, I never really bothered to check out it’s new features and models and stuff, because an MP3 player is just an MP3 player, it’s not something you can’t live without and I have more important things to do with the money I earn. On top of that, I already have a hobby that’s pretty expensive too – photography. So iPod Touch and iPhone remained just some marketing words in my mind, a “thing that I will GET one day”, but I never really looked their features up.

But this summer, I had the chance to play with two of my friend’s iPhones and I really liked it. It was just what I thought it would be. But the thing IS too damn expensive, and I already have a phone that I love, the Nokia E50. And then sometime last month, while laying on the couch, chilling out – my mind was wandering – wouldn’t it be great to have a device, that you can use for Twitter and Flickr and Yahoo right there from the couch, without the need to carry the Thinkpad around the house. And wouldn’t it be great to have a device that has wireless, so wherever you are, you just need a Hot Spot and you can check mail, tweet or whatever. Yes I know, you can do that with MobileInternet, but the thing is, this is Romania, and they charge an arm and a leg for that, so it’s not a viable solution.

So, as I was lying there, staring at the dark, the thought just hit me – you should check out the features of the iPod Touch, it may have wireless too and it shouldn’t be so expensive as the iPhone. And I just did that. Then I learned that the new 3G series Touches were just launched this September and that the 8gig Touch is marketed under 200$. Well, with a little effort I can afford that, I thought. And the next morning I checked the price at our store (the firm I work for is an Apple reseller, well sort of), and yes I could get some discount of the price. And I ordered one. And boy, I’m happy that I did.

After two weeks, the thing showed up (Apple Romania’s sales department sucks ballz). I was happy as a little child on Christmas day. Maybe more. And the thing is, I still am. I don’t know about you, but I own stuff, that makes me happy over and over, day by day, simply by touching it. This is one of those things.

Because I bought the “cheepoo” version, it came with: a dock adapter, an USB charger cable, the cheapest headphones from Apple, a QuickStar Guide, 2 Apple stickers and a really nice packing. The only thing I mind about all this is the USB charger cable, because it forces me to have a laptop/computer ON and plugged in, while it charges, and a full charge is about 4 hours. This is inconvenient, so I’m gonna have to look for a wall charger, with USB.

First thing you have to do, after unboxing is to connect it to a computer that has iTunes on it. To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about this, because I would normally like to not depend on a piece of software for a separate device. And my cousin dtbsz, who also owns an older iPod Classic, didn’t help with his opinions like “Apple are communists, Steve the dictator with iTunes and syncing, you will hate that, yadda yadda yadda”. Well, clicking around in iTunes proved me, that there is nothing to worry about. I like the software and I don’t consider it obtrusive. The interface may look crowded at first, but after using it a little I find it logical and simple. I don’t mind it shows up, when I plug my iPod in – there is a setting which disables all this. And you can also disable all kinds of syncing too.

So, as the iTouch was charging, I started to gather some music in iTunes, and organize it. BTW, it can be a really nice media catalog software too – it has all the features you might need, MP3 taging, album art, lyrics and so on, and somehow the features of the iPod like cover flow and lyric display, makes you care more about your music collection. On the other hand, almost every device you buy nowadays, has a property software associated with it – like ActiveSync of Microsoft, PC Suite (and recently Ovi) of Nokia and so on. So I really don’t mind using iTunes.

The iPod is basically a music player. I mean, that is it’s main purpose. And listening to music it’s one hell-of-an experience on it. Browsing through your collection is not only a visual eyecandy but a really great experience. Seeing all the album art and info, and the ease and speed of finding the wanted song is amazing. You can feel that this is a feature designed by music lovers for music lovers. And I don’t think anyone else can do better. Yes, my Nokia, can also play music. But it’s a pain in the ass, to create a playlist, and browsing through music is a gruesome task. The only thing easier is to simply drop the files on your memory card. But that’s about it. Then you have to break your fingers to play a goddam song. Well, this is not the case with the iPod Touch.

Because of my job, I get to run around the county a couple of times a week. The company car doesn’t even have a radio, so having my music with me, is a great thing. In my own car, I have an OEM CC player only. I never wanted to change it, because it integrates so good with the dashboard. Now, I bought a Kensington LiquidFM – so on longer journeys I can plug my iPod in – and get rid of the cassettes from the car. Yeah. The cool thing about the LiquidFM is that it also charges my iPod, so I don’t run out of juice, if I’m, say, in a remote place and I don’t have my Thinkpad with me. And the price I got it for was a real bargain – about 12 €!!!

Besides music, the iPod can do a LOT of other things. I know, I said it’s a music player, but it’s really a pocket computer. It is really nice to have the internet in your pocket. It has all the apps you would need from a handheld device in 2009, by default. It has mail, browser, calendar, clock, weather, notes, contacts and so on. But when it comes to shine it’s when you hit the AppStore. Which for some weird reason, in Romania has a lot of the apps missing. So I ended up creating an USA account. Thumbs down for Romania, again… bleah. Fucking morons.

So, as I was saying, the AppStore is a great thing. It really unlocks your iTouch and gives it unlimited usage possibilities. And, just to be clear, I didn’t and won’t Jailbreak my device. Because with tens of thousand apps in the store, with many of them free, I don’t see the point in it.

I will share some thoughts about the apps I really love. First the defaults:

Contacts – I use it for having all the details of friends and people I know in one place – One thing I don’t like about the Calendar app, is that it doesn’t show the Birthday reminder of friends, even if I complete it in Contacts. Other than that, once you add someone in the Contact list, it becomes available throughout the device, for example in the mail app. This is very handy.

Clock – I really like the Alarm feature. It’s not like I don’t have another 10 alarm devices in the house. But the one in the Touch, is the most stylish. I’m a sucker for Cricket sound

Mail – Google and Yahoo integration for me. Works great. It also knows Exchange and other popular mail providers. Messages can be read offline, and also written offline, and those get sent at the first detected internet connection. Without user intervention. Which I think is great.

Convert – This little app by taptaptap is really handy, it can convert whatever you would need and it even has a simple calculator.

Twitterrific – This little app by Iconfactory is a gem. On top of that it’s free. The only social networking service I use regularly is Twitter. And it’s the great experience with this app.

Yahoo Messenger – really nice interface for the Touch by Yahoo – You should make the main client this beautiful too! Emoticons and sending pics and links is easy as a snap of your fingers. Thanks.

Facebook – I don’t use FB. Though many of my relatives and friends do, so I have the client installed, to check them out once in a while. And the client is a lot more organized and logical then the main site. Thumbs up.

Wordpress – Yes, I can approve comments, and even write a post from the client. It rules.

Free RSS – I read many interesting people’s blogs, but I’m simply having a hard time keeping up with them. So this little app is handy because it downloads the posts while online, and stores info in the device, so I can read while in a traffic jam or on the toilet .

Fare City – My favorite game so far. Controlling it fits the Touch, and the game experience is great, especially the jazzy soundtrack. Another game I have a lot of fun with is DoneDrinking.

Stanza – e-book reader. You can find literally tons of books for free online. I never thought reading on a handheld can be this good. Ligia’s favorite so far, along with Hangman Free by Optime Software.

So, as you can see, the limit is the sky on how you can use your iPod Touch.

Browsing on the Touch with Safari is another charming experience, tabbed browsing and all that. With more and more sites in mobile format (that’s why my new personal site, will have a mobile format too) and the double finger zoom feature on normal sites, I didn’t feel that it was a pain to read any webpage I visited. The user experience is great, concerning this is a handheld device, and that is mostly because of the great touchscreen.

Another thing I was nervous about with the Touch was typing. I had the chance to use dtbsz’s Nokia N97 QWERTY keyboard and that was great. So I didn’t know what the Touch would be. But after about 15 minutes using the iPod’s keyboard, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because of the Touch’s sensitivity is really easy to type fast after you get used to it. Characters are at hand, even Hungarian or any other language’s special characters. You just hold the similar character and the specials pop up. Really easy. An annoying thing is/was that depending on what Dictionary you choose, it tries to correct your typing. This is inconvenient, because I mostly type in Hungarian, and the Touch doesn’t have a Hungarian Dictionary yet (WHY on Earth not???) so it corrects my typing the wrong way sometime. But I left the dictionary on, because it learns the words you are typing, so in the feature it’s really easy to type your words. Selecting, cuting and copying text is just as easy, you just have to hold your finger on the text you want to edit, and it gives you the options. Nice.

Battery life, it’s a little worst than I expected. But that may be because I had this thing for a week or so and whenever I have a spare moment I fiddle with it. In time, when I will use it “normally”, I’m sure battery life will last more than 1,5-2 days ;). My findings so far, are that downloading and installing apps is a battery killer, along with 3D gaming. But as an MP3 player it has great battery life, listening to music hardly consumes any considerable amount of battery, and I’m sure the advertised 36 hours of music listening is real, based on my findings so far. Wi-Fi alone doesn’t seem to eat beyond expectations and what I observed was that it turns the Wi-Fi off automatically if you put it to sleep and you don’t have apps that require internet connection (like online radio or fetch mail).

So all in all, I don’t regret for a moment that I choose this device over others. Yes it doesn’t have Flash yet, and yes you have to use iTunes to get stuff on it, but the touching experience and the whole eyecandy thing makes it worth every cent. Considering the 199$ price tag, I don’t really see what can your other choices be in this league.