After seeing a few bad screens and trying to figure out whether an iPhone would be better....I broke down and bought the 16GB Touch yesterday from Best Buy.
In many ways I am "wowed" and even more impressed that I thought I would be, there are a few things that are really annoying....enough so that I will try it for a few weeks and if I can't get over the annoying factors, will return.
First - out of the box the touch would NOT sync at all with my brand new iMac. After reading through support issues and what have you - changing the USB connection, restarting the iMac, re downloading iTunes was finally able to get the touch to throw an error which caused the firmware to be replaced.
Interestingly enough there have been quite a few complaints of this - but obvioulsy no where near the level of the negative black screens.
Before you ask - yes my display shows the negative black screen effect. It is ONLY noticeable in very dark scenes with the screen held directly in front of you at 90 degrees. It is very faint and no where near the level I saw with other screens in person. In fact - if I return this touch - it will not be for the screen which with the way I hold it etc - causes me no issue whatsoever. I just compared it to my co-workers iPHONE with several of the same video (we probably looked wierd huddled in a dark conference room
) and the ONLY difference we saw was in dark scenes as mentioned above. The iPhone displayed those scenes favourably regardless of the angle or direct view - the iTouch croaked in direct view.
Safari on this device is amazing. I spent 1 1/2 hours listening to music and surfing my fav forums. This was really just fantastic. The best mobile expereince I have ever had. Safari did crash once - but all else was fine.
Now to my second issue - really annoying, can I say even deal breaking. The battery life! After 90 minutes of surfing and listening to music - yes both at the same time - the battery died. Recharged it and was able to do other things later - but after another full charge - then played with youtube(fantastic), wifi store(bought two albums - really cool) and some video. 2 hours and 6 minutes later - the battery died. Charged it again.....early this AM - woke up to a dead touch.....Because my iMac sleeps and that DRAINS the battery if you have connected your touch. For pete's sake - I then connected it to a PC that doesn't sleep and let it charge. Still running 5 hour slater - although I have turned off wireless and have done just a few things with it. Mostly showing it around the office and playing tunes. Has about 50% battery right now.
Without an AC adaptor (optional) and being able to plug it into my main computer (because it sleeps at night) and with the abysmal battery life of the touch - the main drawback for me is not the screen - but the battery. This will not last a trip into the airport with a 3 hour plane ride. Your talking about aprox 5 hours total - with the first hour spent surfing wireless while awaiting the plane - then tunes then video on the plane. AT the rate this battery drains - won't last the trip.
Some other small pet peeves - inability to adjust the volume without diving into menu's. If you are listening to music and happen to be doing something else (like surfing the web) there is no easy way to adjust the volume. Several times Ijust yanked out the headphones cause it took me to long to find the volume adjustment.
Oh and the sound on this is amazing. No hiss - and through the various headphones I own - equal if not better than my nano and video ipod. Nice and clear, just very, very good.
In short - or long....I really, really like this device - my biggest issue is the battery life followed by some little nits like volume adjustment and the scratch magnet of the chrome back. It is a bit harder to grip because of the thiness as well - but all in all a really cool device.
It will be the battery life issue that causes me to return it. I will use if for awhile and see what the battery life ends up being once I am over the "newness".....
Therese
In many ways I am "wowed" and even more impressed that I thought I would be, there are a few things that are really annoying....enough so that I will try it for a few weeks and if I can't get over the annoying factors, will return.
First - out of the box the touch would NOT sync at all with my brand new iMac. After reading through support issues and what have you - changing the USB connection, restarting the iMac, re downloading iTunes was finally able to get the touch to throw an error which caused the firmware to be replaced.
Interestingly enough there have been quite a few complaints of this - but obvioulsy no where near the level of the negative black screens.
Before you ask - yes my display shows the negative black screen effect. It is ONLY noticeable in very dark scenes with the screen held directly in front of you at 90 degrees. It is very faint and no where near the level I saw with other screens in person. In fact - if I return this touch - it will not be for the screen which with the way I hold it etc - causes me no issue whatsoever. I just compared it to my co-workers iPHONE with several of the same video (we probably looked wierd huddled in a dark conference room
) and the ONLY difference we saw was in dark scenes as mentioned above. The iPhone displayed those scenes favourably regardless of the angle or direct view - the iTouch croaked in direct view.Safari on this device is amazing. I spent 1 1/2 hours listening to music and surfing my fav forums. This was really just fantastic. The best mobile expereince I have ever had. Safari did crash once - but all else was fine.
Now to my second issue - really annoying, can I say even deal breaking. The battery life! After 90 minutes of surfing and listening to music - yes both at the same time - the battery died. Recharged it and was able to do other things later - but after another full charge - then played with youtube(fantastic), wifi store(bought two albums - really cool) and some video. 2 hours and 6 minutes later - the battery died. Charged it again.....early this AM - woke up to a dead touch.....Because my iMac sleeps and that DRAINS the battery if you have connected your touch. For pete's sake - I then connected it to a PC that doesn't sleep and let it charge. Still running 5 hour slater - although I have turned off wireless and have done just a few things with it. Mostly showing it around the office and playing tunes. Has about 50% battery right now.
Without an AC adaptor (optional) and being able to plug it into my main computer (because it sleeps at night) and with the abysmal battery life of the touch - the main drawback for me is not the screen - but the battery. This will not last a trip into the airport with a 3 hour plane ride. Your talking about aprox 5 hours total - with the first hour spent surfing wireless while awaiting the plane - then tunes then video on the plane. AT the rate this battery drains - won't last the trip.
Some other small pet peeves - inability to adjust the volume without diving into menu's. If you are listening to music and happen to be doing something else (like surfing the web) there is no easy way to adjust the volume. Several times Ijust yanked out the headphones cause it took me to long to find the volume adjustment.
Oh and the sound on this is amazing. No hiss - and through the various headphones I own - equal if not better than my nano and video ipod. Nice and clear, just very, very good.
In short - or long
....I really, really like this device - my biggest issue is the battery life followed by some little nits like volume adjustment and the scratch magnet of the chrome back. It is a bit harder to grip because of the thiness as well - but all in all a really cool device.It will be the battery life issue that causes me to return it. I will use if for awhile and see what the battery life ends up being once I am over the "newness".....
Therese
