Apple iPod touch Announced! Yes!
Well the Apple iPod touch has been announced and will ship by the end of September 2007 and I have to say I can’t wait. I bought my first iPod last year a 5th generation model and quickly fell in love with it. Not only is it like the ultimate juke box but with the video playback feature it is actually a portable entertainment system.
The new iPod touch besides having a larger screen is going to be able to handle widescreen videos better because when you turn it on its side the picture on the screen rotates just like it does on the iPhone.
With the new wi-fi capabilities getting music and video to the iPod touch is going to be a snap and with the new iTunes wi-fi update they just released iTunes 7.4 you can now shop, buy and download music and videos right from the iPod touch, this is going to be so cool (iPhone supported too.)
My only disappointment is the capacity of the two models of iPod touch. 8GB and 16GB are pretty good, but not nearly as nice as the larger capacities of the 5th generation of iPods. However we must understand a couple of things that help explains why Apple ended up with these capacities.
- The new larger screen on the iPod touch takes more power. LCD screens be they on a digital camera, cell phone, laptop, etc. are probably one of if not the largest power consumers on the device. So this had to be considered.
- A mini-hard drive like the 5th generation iPods have also consume considerably more power than the flash ram that the iPod touch uses. This power consumption coupled with that of the larger screen would have meant an iPod touch with very poor battery life and an iPod touch that was thicker and heavier too.
- To keep the iPod touch small, thin and light plus the need to address the power consumption issues meant that flash ram was a must. Otherwise we would have had a large device with poor battery life.
- Oh and lets not forget about the new wi-fi capabilities. This too consumes power and the hardware to pull this off also takes space in the unit. BTW a new version of iTunes is now available 7.4 adds wi-fi online shopping support for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download it here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
In the end Apple went the only route they could to offer the features and capabilities that they did with the size, weight and battery life they did. I for one think they made the best choices possible. Not perfect choices but the best they could with the technology we currently have. What we have to hope for now is that flash memory continues to grow in capacity, the prices keep dropping and that by the time the second generation of iPod touch comes out we will have 40GB and 80GB versions to choose from for less money than we are paying for the first generation. I think this could happen. I hope it does happen. Oh, there is one more advantage to the flash memory and that is no moving parts. This should mean the iPod touch is more reliable and impervious to storage damage and skipping if it is jarred hard, this was not the case with the hard drive based ones.
However, none of this is going to stop me from getting my hands on a iPod touch. I love my current iPod and fully expect to love the iPod touch even more.
