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MP3 Players
All About MP3 Players & iPods
Here you can read the latest reviews and find out and compare various MP3 Players
iPods and eReaders. These MP3 Player, iPod and eReader reviews are all
independent reviews and are updated on an ongoing basis, |
Apple iPod Touch (second generation, 32GB)
Product Introduction
Apple has designed a new touch screen iPod media player. The features of the iPod are similar to Apples iPhone except for the capacity to make calls. Naturally, the price is low compared to the iPhone, but the best part is that it is lower than the previous version.
A lot of improvements have been made to the iPod, such as improved sound quality and flash memory. This is the first iPod to feature Wi-Fi facility from Apple. The iPod comes with an improved 32 GB flash memory. It is capable of holding up to 7000 songs, 40000 photos and 40 hours of video.The Apple iPod touch also has a Safari web browser and many other facilities including weather, calculator, maps, contacts, email reader etc. In short it works like a simplified palm top computer.
Design and features
The main attraction of this iPod is its fast touch screen interface. There are four rows of icons for basic functions like safari web browser, YouTube player, calculator and other settings. There are icons at the lower end for frequently used functions like music, videos, photos and iTunes.
The touch interface recognizes the swipe of two fingers at a time. Normal actions like resizing images, browsing through albums and navigating through the menus, can be easily done using the finger tips.
Even volume sliders and video navigation is shown through simple pop ups, and can be easily controlled using finger tips, without the use of the buttons. The Cover Flow feature, web page scrolling, rotating photos, playing music and albums, everything, in fact, can be managed quite easily with just a few elegant swipes with the finger.
Performance
The iPod touch has all the advanced features expected like Bluetooth and web based applications. The audio quality is excellent. As in other iPods audio file formats like AAC (16kb/s-320kb/s), Protected AAC, MP3 (16kb/s-320kb/s), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, & 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF are supported.
The video quality is also quite brilliant and is capable of storing huge video files. The battery lasts nearly 5 hours long. There is a 3.5 inch wide display screen with 320x480 pixel resolution. Apple iPod Touch can hold up to 30 hours of music playback.
There is a built in speaker, and the earphones are loaded with a specialized remote and microphone to record audio. Nike + iPod support is another additional feature. iPod touch 3.1 software is also a very useful addition.
Image file formats such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PSD (Mac only), PNG and TIFF are supported. MPEG-4 video files are also supported in M4V, MP4 and MOV formats. The overall video quality score given for the iPod is 75 %.
Main features of iPod Touch
The much expected Wi-Fi networking at last.
Safari web browser including Google and yahoo search.
Use of flash memory instead of HDD makes the iPod lighter and stylish. It is just 8mm thick and weights only 120 grams.
The 3.5 inch widescreen high resolution display is the most attractive feature. The videos and images could be viewed either in landscape or portrait mode.
Simple swipe or flick touch screen interface and very fast navigation between the controls are the main marketed highlights.
The good
The 3.5 inch display screen is the main attraction. Easy touch screen interface is the next notable feature. The ease of use score for the iPod is 72%. The much expected Wi-Fi support works absolutely fine.
Immense storage space and excellent audio quality are the iPods main benefits. Up to 7000 songs could be stored with 30 hours of music playback, and 6 hours of video playback. The audio quality is the best in market. It has scored 82% in sound quality tests.
The not so good
As in other iPods music could be transferred with iTunes only. There is immense video and audio playback support. But the device itself can not be used as a mass storage device for long periods of time. The 3.5 inch video display screen in wonderful to watch videos, but the video quality is not the best.
Areas that can be improved
The Safari browser could be modified to support adobe flash player. Music can only be purchased through iTunes. This should be expanded to include other music sources. Additionally the QWERTY keyboard functionalities can be improved.
Verdict
The apple iPod touch is quite economical and has all the advanced features which other iPods lack. The second generation apple iPod touch has 32 GB internal memory, email and web browsing facilities. Wi-Fi facility is available using which games and music could be downloaded.
Price: $549
Capacity: 32GB
Score: 76%
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