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iPod touch my review of iPod touch-hater?

clevin

clevin

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 6, 2006
9,095
1
ok, i admit "hater" is to grab some attention, altho somebody might call me hater, i don't reject a good product.

I hot my 8G this morning from Bestbuy, their sales told me they just got in last night, 5 of them.

I will mainly use it as a PDA, so my assessment is focused on those non-PMP functions

1. screen. it is dark, I played same video on my MB, palm T|X, and iPod Touch, Touch's color is darker than the other two (not brightness related)

2. wi-fi battery life, I started browsing internet around 12:20P, at 3:10P, it reported 20% battery left. So my estimation of Touch's wi-fi battery life is about 3.5 hrs. which is better than my Palm T|X's 2hrs.

3. MobileSafari, its indeed a very good mobile browser, however, I can't put it on the top when compare to the one I have (Blazer and opera mini 4 beta on my palm), the reasons are:

3.a. It is slow, the speed of mobile safari is like 1/2 or 1/3 of desktop browsers. altho OM4 and blazer isn't faster neither, but still kinda disappointing since I expect this to be almost as good as desktopSafari..

3.b. the fit to width function, in mobileSafari, if you increase the font to certain size, the web content will be out of the screen, I know this is to mimic the desktop browser. but the truth is, operamini 4's full page zoom, altho gives you no control of size of font. will wrap the web content to fit the width of the screen. which saves you from scrolling page left and right.

3.c forward/backward is slow compare to opera mini 4. I thought it just read page from cache?

4. The device is running pretty warm after 1.5 hours. Much hotter than Palm T|X

5. It is indeed have very limited functions, Im sure I will invest some time for the hacks.
 
You have to give it a little credit though. You're comparing it to a PDA. The touch is supposed to be an iPod, and THEN a WiFi device.

That being said, yes, most of your observations are true. I am waiting for the hacks as well.
 
chicagopepper said:
safari easily quits on me on this thing. Anyone else experience this? If not I might want to exchange.
Click to expand...

Yeah safaris crapped out in me a few times. Its a software bug, and should be fixed in an update. If it does crash on you, the next time you sync it, it should ask if it can send crash data back to apple to help fix these issues.
 
chicagopepper said:
safari easily quits on me on this thing. Anyone else experience this? If not I might want to exchange.
Click to expand...

yes, it just quit suddenly w/o me pressing anything, mostly a bug, hopefully will improve in next software update
 
just add 2 pics
1391988024_02de8f0f08_d.jpg

1391093909_6a30e6098d_d.jpg

PS. Palm T|X's bottom is a little bit thicker than its body.
 
clevin said:
2. wi-fi battery life, I started browsing internet around 12:20P, at 3:10P, it reported 20% battery left. So my estimation of Touch's wi-fi battery life is about 3.5 hrs. which is better than my Palm T|X's 2hrs.
Click to expand...

Ouch.

Have you tried it idle, without browsing (so it's just scanning for access points in the background). What's the life like then?
 
TonyHoyle said:
Ouch.

Have you tried it idle, without browsing (so it's just scanning for access points in the background). What's the life like then?
Click to expand...

no, i was doing browsing nonstop..... im not sure if it does scan hotspot in the background at all
 
From page 19 of the manual "Once you've joined a wi-fi network manually ipod touch will automatically connect to it whenever the network is in range"

To do that it needs to be on the lookout for these networks appearing, meaning the wifi would be constantly scanning (although only receiving not transmitting, which uses less power).
 
taylorwilsdon said:
"My push scooter is an awful substitute for my Ducati"

ITS NOT A PDA.
Click to expand...

Yes, and that's what sucks about it! I want it to be a Ducati, so to speak. It could have easily been a great PDA if Apple had just chosen to put and editable calendar, notes, and E-mail on it (all of which exist on the iPhone and are ready to be installed on the Touch). So, apple CHOSE to make it a push scooter (in the PDA-category).
 
s57 said:
Yes, and that's what sucks about it! I want it to be a Ducati, so to speak. It could have easily been a great PDA if Apple had just chosen to put and editable calendar, notes, and E-mail on it (all of which exist on the iPhone and are ready to be installed on the Touch). So, apple CHOSE to make it a push scooter (in the PDA-category).
Click to expand...

i dont really understand why u are compairing it to a pda. Its an ipod, I don't think they wanted it to be a pda. Its an awesome iPod that has the added benefit of being able to get on wifi ect. I'm sure it will have plenty of hacks in the future (and maybe even some updates)
that will allow for calender editing and note taking ect.

I use yahoo for email anyway so that isn't an issue for me.

Honestly, the fact that u feel the need to compair it to a pda instead of an mp3 player speeks well for the touch. IMO
 
tangent7 said:
i dont really understand why u are compairing it to a pda. Its an ipod, I don't think they wanted it to be a pda. Its an awesome iPod that has the added benefit of being able to get on wifi ect. I'm sure it will have plenty of hacks in the future (and maybe even some updates)
that will allow for calender editing and note taking ect.

I use yahoo for email anyway so that isn't an issue for me.

Honestly, the fact that u feel the need to compair it to a pda instead of an mp3 player speeks well for the touch. IMO
Click to expand...

I am comparing it to a PDA because (a) I want it to be a PDA as well as a media player (that's just my bias, but there are others, I am sure, who see it that way - see below), and (b) because it could be a beautiful PDA if only they had included a few pieces of software that already exist, so it is kind of crying out for that comparison, if only to shame Apple into putting mail, iCal, and Notes on the Touch.

Web mail might work for some but it doesn't work for everyone (including me) and I am not sure that Apple will allow a hacked calendar to be synced with iCal throuh iTunes. It would, after all, be a pirated piece of software.

I realize that it is not being marketed as a PDA, fair enough. But I would buy it if it had the added capabilities. There have been a fair number of posts on this forum by people who are eager to replace their Palms with something that is tightly integrated into OS X and does not come with a $1600/2 yr price tag like the iPhone (not because I'm cheap but because I simply don't use a cell phone enough to make that worthwile). Make an iPhone with a proper pre-paid plan available and I will happily buy one.

The fact that there are millions of Palm handhelds to be replaced should at least register on Apple's radar.
 
ps49556n said:
LOL why are you people making this comparison???? ipod touch is NOT a PDA!!!!!!
Click to expand...

please, what is an iPod? what is a PDA? apple says its an iPod, then its an iPod? apple can points to an horse and call it a donkey, does it make the horse a donkey?
 
ps49556n said:
LOL why are you people making this comparison???? ipod touch is NOT a PDA!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Yes, it is (it has some basic PDA functionality). It's a really bad PDA right now, but, as was said over and over again here, it could be the best PDA ever made.

To go back to the Duccati analogy: It's like buying a Prosche Cayenne (a big honkin' SUV). You get a sports car and an SUV in one. The iPod Touch's lack of mail, iCal, and notes is like Porsche just decided to artificially limit the speed to 75 mph - it's still an SUV, just no longer a sports car. I think Porsche buyers would demand that take away the unnecessary restrictions on the engine, and that's what we're doing here.
 
The iPod line will always trade additional functionality for small size and style, so comparing it to PDAs is somewhat unfair. Also, Steve Jobs has said several times that he is reluctant to add features to the iPods because people would keep asking for more, leading to software bloat.

Personally I like the notion of keeping the iPod line simple - music and movies. The wifi is a nice addition, but the EDGE network isn't up to the task really.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
The iPod line will always trade additional functionality for small size and style, so comparing it to PDAs is somewhat unfair. Also, Steve Jobs has said several times that he is reluctant to add features to the iPods because people would keep asking for more, leading to software bloat.
Click to expand...

thats so lame an excuse, SJ has absolutely no confidance in apple developers' ability?

why users can't ask for more if the machine is capable? thats anti-users in the bright sun shine, and people buy into that?

Less functions leads to stability? then why the hell my mobileSafari crashed more times in a day than blazer did on my palm in 9 months?

Its 100% market strategy, don't take whatever SJ said and treat it as truth.


OK, another complain about the device

compare to Palm T|X, Touch's functions are little bit difficult to access. you generally need to push more buttons at different place to reach the functions you need. Also, there are only two ways to reach "home" screen, 1. home button, 2. safari crash; so if in any case, something wrong with the home button, what we gonna do?
 
rorschach said:
But that was never what it was intended to be.

The Touch is a *better iPod*, NOT a *crippled PDA*.
Click to expand...

Yes, we've established that it was not "intended" to be a PDA. It started out as the iPhone, which they've taken the software and form factor from, and then stripped it down.

That's fine in terms of the hardware - it made it thinner and cheaper to produce. But on the software side, they've Microsofted it. You can see this from the fact that the instructions initially said you could edit the calendar and later they decided that, "no, iPod users don't need to edit their calendars, let's take that option away from them". Are we just not professional enough to want to edit our calendars on the road?

So, if they'd developed it from the ground up, they would have the excuse that they just didn't have the resources to develop the other applications. But they exist and would run on the Touch, so they decided to cripple it.
 
Easy, buddy. I'm just repeating what I've heard. :)

For one thing, I think it is fair to say that less features generally means a more stable product (though the one certainly does not guarantee the other). You complain about Safari...what if there were a dozen additional apps on the device, each with their own teething troubles? The whining would shake the foundations of Cupertino.

At any rate, the iPod Touch is not a Palm TX. It's a media player with wifi in a very small form factor.

I don't think it's wrong to point out the device's faults (there are several significant ones), but come on people - Apple releases a powerful media player with a stunning form factor and tons of functionality for a media player, and people complain that it doesn't have all the functionality of <insert PDA brand>. If you want more apps, get a Palm.

And to be honest, no, I don't think Apple wants to see a lot of third party development for the iPhone, at least yet. This shouldn't be news to anyone who has been a regular Apple customer over the years.
 
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