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iPod touch How thin is too thin??

P

peestandingup

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 14, 2006
248
0
Its starting to become clear that Apple is running out of room for the controls of these devices, esp the new Touch. They had to seat the volume rocker in a weird, curved way & the opening of the dock interface itself is actually too big for the thinness of the device (they curved it back as well, so that any dock inserts never fully "seat" in the back). It works, but looks odd.

I think they're gonna have to come up with a new, smaller interface pretty soon. After all, that dock is pretty old now. Im sure they didnt imagine such thin devices when they came up with the design.
 
peestandingup said:
Its starting to become clear that Apple is running out of room for the controls of these devices, esp the new Touch. They had to seat the volume rocker in a weird, curved way & the opening of the dock interface itself is actually too big for the thinness of the device (they curved it back as well, so that any dock inserts never fully "seat" in the back). It works, but looks odd.

I think they're gonna have to come up with a new, smaller interface pretty soon. After all, that dock is pretty old now. Im sure they didnt imagine such thin devices when they came up with the design.
Click to expand...
The thing is, I'm afraid that I'm gonna drop it and its gonna snap in half because it's so thin. I wouldn't mind it being thicker, I don't think anybody would, but Apple apparently doesn't like to listen.
 
I got big hands and the iPod Touch does seems very thin for them. I would certainly like something a little thicker so that I could grip it tight enough so that I do not have fear of dropping it.

I would certainly need to be very careful until the case I order arrives.

While at it, it be nice if the back plate is not so scratch-friendly. ;) Something matted would certainly be nice.
 
When I got my iPT G1 I was very sure I'd snap it. Now it's been sat on so many times and still working well. As for replacing the dock connector, I don't think Apple will be doing that soon, as it is a very nice universal connector for all of their iPods back to the 3G.
 
I actually wish they would have made it "iPhone 4 thickness". I think its just about the perfect size for almost everyone, all the controls are flat/easy to get to & not in these weird curvy shapes, etc.

I normally don't rock cases with any of my gadgets, but Im seriously gonna have to invest in one for this new Touch JUST to thicken it up. And my hands arent that big.

Intell said:
When I got my iPT G1 I was very sure I'd snap it. Now it's been sat on so many times and still working well. As for replacing the dock connector, I don't think Apple will be doing that soon, as it is a very nice universal connector for all of their iPods back to the 3G.
Click to expand...

True, but eventually, they will indeed run outta room for that connector. I think they'll pretty much be forced to maybe make a "mini dock" for all of their iDevices soon.
 
i feel the same way with the macbook air. it feels as if I hang it halfway off the table gravity will snap it.
 
ill tell you what is too thin, the ipod 4g. its like really does anyone want it this thin nope, i dont like how the screen is so close to the glass, i think they could have added more battery, if they left the thickness alone and the given us retina display with last years body. im starting to think the engineers dont think about what they are doing until its too late and its already in production. Hey next time test it before you put it into production.
 
What's all these Apple's obssession with making their ipod smaller and thinner ? I wouldn't be surprised if the iPod Touch 5G which be half the thickness of the current 4G and 6G may be paper thin.
 
eddy2099 said:
What's all these Apple's obssession with making their ipod smaller and thinner ? I wouldn't be surprised if the iPod Touch 5G which be half the thickness of the current 4G and 6G may be paper thin.
Click to expand...

At some point though, it will just become impossible to hold. Personally, the shape of the 2G didn't work with my hands and it just felt awkward to hold compared to my 1G. I may look into a new one, as I think mine is slowly dying, but if it's too thin, I may have to go for something else
 
The truly sad part is, had they not been obsessed with making it razor thin, they could have put a better camera inside the 4th gen.

I remember reading a quote from one of Apple's top PR guys that the call to put such a low quality camera in it was more because of the thinness of the device & not a cost issue. *facepalm*


eddy2099 said:
What's all these Apple's obssession with making their ipod smaller and thinner ? I wouldn't be surprised if the iPod Touch 5G which be half the thickness of the current 4G and 6G may be paper thin.
Click to expand...

Thats what Im saying. At the rate they're going, they'll basically have to give up the current dock system. It just wont be small enough. Maybe they'll have OTA iTunes syncing & a new powering system (like the Palm Pre had w Touchstone) by then & just do away with the dock (but then that leaves out a bunch of 3rd party accessories)
 
Anything below 1in thin is way to thin. It doesn't matter how long it is, if it's not thick enough then there won't be much point in using it. Everybody will laugh at your "pencil"
 
i already thought the 2nd/3rd gen was way too thin haha... so i'm not even going to bother with the 4th :p plus i think the iphone 4 is the perfect size for me :D
 
peestandingup said:
I actually wish they would have made it "iPhone 4 thickness". I think its just about the perfect size for almost everyone, all the controls are flat/easy to get to & not in these weird curvy shapes, etc.

I normally don't rock cases with any of my gadgets, but Im seriously gonna have to invest in one for this new Touch JUST to thicken it up. And my hands arent that big.



True, but eventually, they will indeed run outta room for that connector. I think they'll pretty much be forced to maybe make a "mini dock" for all of their iDevices soon.
Click to expand...

I agree. I like my new iPod Touch, but I do wish it was more like the new iPhone in shape.
 
I actually wish the new iPod Touch had the thickness of the iPhone 4 as even though I wouldn't buy one due to it being too expensive (and besides, my HTC HD2 does a much better job than a iPhone 4!:D), the design is actually not too bad; not too thin, not too thick but just right from a design viewpoint.

So why in the name of Hell didn't Apple use the iPhone 4 case for the new iPod Touches, I don't know...:mad:
 
GekiRed said:
So why in the name of Hell didn't Apple use the iPhone 4 case for the new iPod Touches, I don't know...:mad:
Click to expand...

The same case would indeed help reduce cost on Apple's part but I guess the reason why they wanted the casing different is to differentiate the two products.

What Apple could do is to make the iPod Touch exactly like the iPhone but just without the phone components.
 
I can't wait till apple

Makes such a thin device that it's just a piece of multitouch glass. Now wouldn't that be awesome? Just a simple see thru multitouch screen that's like 3 millimeters thick? I think it would be.
 
Anything thinner then the Zune HD I believe my Zune HD is too thin sometimes.

battlekid said:
Lol. I have the second ipod ever. Gen 2. The BRICK. It's AWESOME! 10GB hard drive. Over an inch thick. Built-in firewire 400 port. Aah, the good old days.... Lol.
Click to expand...

You want thick!
zune-30-01.jpg


Zune 30 had a white one I wanted a brown one ,but got a white instead :( \, very nice player actually.
 
peestandingup said:
At the rate they're going, they'll basically have to give up the current dock system. It just wont be small enough. Maybe they'll have OTA iTunes syncing & a new powering system (like the Palm Pre had w Touchstone) by then & just do away with the dock (but then that leaves out a bunch of 3rd party accessories)
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that the EU was forcing smart phone manufacturers to standardize charging so at least the iPhone will be moving to micro USB. I'd guess Apple would want to standardize across the iPhone and iPod lines so if that happens they will get rid of the dock.
 
I hate this whole obsession with thin, i would much rather a squarer ipod touch, the same thickness of the last gen touchm with more ram, or Storage or something.....
 
eddy2099 said:
The same case would indeed help reduce cost on Apple's part but I guess the reason why they wanted the casing different is to differentiate the two products.

What Apple could do is to make the iPod Touch exactly like the iPhone but just without the phone components.
Click to expand...

Actually, iPhone case is troublesome and expensive to manufacture from what I hear. Something about the dual glass and the specially formed/machined outer antenna.

As far as the question of what is too thin - I think the current iPod touch is too thin. If it starts limiting features such as camera quality (e.g., autofocus capability), battery life, etc., then it's too thin.

I think only Steve Jobs cares about thinness. He basically equates thin with being beautiful. He said as much in the iPod event and spent more time on the thinness than any other feature. Seriously, does anybody even care that the new iPod is thinner??
 
eddy2099 said:
What's all these Apple's obssession with making their ipod smaller and thinner ? I wouldn't be surprised if the iPod Touch 5G which be half the thickness of the current 4G and 6G may be paper thin.
Click to expand...
It's all about the money :) It's just more cost-efficient to include smaller battery capacity and lighter outter shell. That way parts cost less for Apple, while price for cunsumer remains unchanged (229$ - that's actually even slightly higher price, 299$, 399$ respectively) = bigger profit margins for Apple. At the same time Apple can advertise a new product as super thin, suggesting it's actually an advantage for consumers. The only beneficient here is in fact Apple. I bet 90% of customers wouldn't mind a bit thicker iPod with better battery and possibly higher resolution camera. Apparantly Apple is so greedy they want to make as much money as possible, even for the cost of inferior parts. They know iPods are gonna be selling very well, because of the brand and popularity od iOS software and iTunes and the AppStore, so they don't have to sell better products for given prices.
 
peestandingup said:
I think they're gonna have to come up with a new, smaller interface pretty soon. After all, that dock is pretty old now. Im sure they didnt imagine such thin devices when they came up with the design.
Click to expand...

It's called Micro-B USB and normal manufacturers already use it. Apple's problem is greed. They can't make money off non-proprietary accessories.
 
liamkp said:
The thing is, I'm afraid that I'm gonna drop it and its gonna snap in half because it's so thin. I wouldn't mind it being thicker, I don't think anybody would, but Apple apparently doesn't like to listen.
Click to expand...

It should be as thick as an iPhone. At 0.37", the iPhone is one of the thinnest phones out there. Why does Apple need a device thinner than that?
 
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