With the birthday money I got I wanted to spend it on something special, something that I would use a lot and wouldn’t just stick it in the cupboard at the end of the day. My younger sister’s birthday is 2 weeks after mine, and she wanted to buy an IPod, so I decided to give her mine for a little bit of money, and then buy this. She now is buying her own, new IPod so I’ve lost a little bit of money but I still brought this.

Purchasing

I purchased my IPod touch pretty quickly, I found a deal on Curry’s website which meant I had to pick up the IPod within a few hours, but it was worth it for the deal I got. I was willing to pay the £165 that you will pay for this item, but I wanted something else, something that made it worth spending the £165. Luckily the one and only day I checked the currys website, they had a deal on. If you Reserved and Collected the item, then you’d get a free Itunes Gift Card. This deal is still on till the 29th July, so if you’re reading this before this date, go check it out.

About the IPod Touch

I’m sure that almost all of you have heard of IPod’s now. Developed by Apple Inc back in 2001, whom are possibly one of the biggest names in music technology, they have now released many different types of IPod’s, all of which are suited to a specific user.

An IPod is a portable media player, it doesn’t run off AA or AAA batteries like MP3 players, it has a built in battery which you charge up using a number of different ways.

The IPod Touch released in 2007 is a not only just a portable media player, it’s also a personal digital assistant. It is the only IPod or anything of its kind really to have Wi Fi installed within the IPod itself. With the addition of Wi Fi it allows you to control Itunes on your IPod instead of on your computer as well, it also allows you access to the App Store, which allows you to download many different applications for your enjoyment.

Design/Look

When you get your IPod, you should get it in quite a small box. This small box contains everything you need, from a USB cable, headphones and IPod Dock adapter for the IPod Touch, as well as a very small and compact instruction manual. When you take out your IPod you’ll see it’s in a plastic casing. Once this is out, I have to say I was shocked at how thin it was, I had seen them demonstrate it to me, but really hadn’t looked at it.

The IPod is only 8mm thick, which is usual for most IPod’s but considering how much this IPod does I have to say I was expecting something a little bit more thicker. I am glad they kept it small and thin though.

The screen is 3.5” LCD colour display. The rest of the IPod at the IPod on the front is a very strong black, until you get your muggy finger prints on it. There is only 1 button on the front of the IPod, this button is the button you press to bring you back to the home page each time you need to. There is only four buttons on the whole IPod, the button on the front of the IPod, the on/off switch on the top of the IPod, and then, the volume buttons at the side of the IPod. They have kept the number of buttons very small, which is brilliant.

The back of the IPod is just like every other IPod I’ve ever seen, well other than the IPod shuffle. It’s a nice silver colour and is almost like a mirror, which is great for us girls, and even boys. However, one of the problems I found with my old IPod was finger prints and scratches on the back of the IPod and this IPod is no different. I’ve had it only a few days now and it’s covered in finger marks and already has a few scratch marks forming.

Touch Technology/Interface

This is what makes this IPod different from any of the other IPod’s that have been released. I remember when I went shopping for my phone, those hounds at Phones For You, were trying to get the most amount of money out of me that they could (which still makes me laugh considering I came out with a £50 phone) but they kept on showing me touch phones. I tried and tried but just couldn’t get along with the interface.

This is why I was a little worried with the IPod Touch, however as soon as I began playing on the IPod I noticed that the phones I looked at sucked, because this is true touch technology. It is just brilliant and

so easy to get along with. With my fingers being a little bit on the big side, when you have to use the keypad on screen, it does take a bit longer to get used to, but after awhile you should be completely fine.

Pre Installed Applications

One of the best things that I have found out about on the IPod is the applications that you get. When you first get the IPod you will have about 14 applications installed, these are all the basic applications that you would usually find on a phone, well if the phone had access to the internet. Here is my opinion on some of the applications that are pre-installed:

Safari

I have yet to really use this application, because I have also got a google application installed onto the IPod. Safari is an internet browser, which works pretty much works just like IE or Firefox. It’s a great little addition, however to use it you do need to access WiFi to use it, or it’s a waste of time.

App Store

The App Store requires you accessing a WiFi connection again, however it is just brilliant. It allows you to access the application store that Itunes provide. It allows you to search through all of the applications that they have come up with, paid or free applications.

Youtube

This is pretty self explanatory in my opinion, everyone has heard of YouTube and again as long as you have WiFi access you will be able to access YouTube all the time, without even turning on the computer.

The Four C’s

I didn’t want to spread these out, as I really think it’s a waste of your and my time by writing about each one individually here as they are pretty much self explanatory. You have a calendar installed onto the IPod, you also have a calculator and clock, and then as well as that you have contacts. This allows you to store all of your contacts within your IPod, which is a lovely little addition.

Mail

This allows you to access and manage your internet account, however again you do need WiFi to access this.

Added Applications

There are thousands of applications that you are able to have access to, some you will have to pay for, I think the cheapest that they are able to charge is 59p to about £2.99 for an application. I have yet to ‘pay’ for an application, as I’m not a huge fan of games, and get bored very easily of games, so paying for it seems a waste of time.

No I’m not cheating the system here, the App store on Itunes, provides free applications as well. Most of the time, these are just little teasers to get the user to buy a version, however I have got a lot of ones which are Free which are just brilliant, here is just a few:

Google/Hotmail/Facebook

You can download all three of these applications onto your IPod for free. Just go to the app store and search for them and tad a. All three require you to have wifi access however if you do, it’s so nice just to jump onto facebook and check your messages on there.

Wikipanion

Yes, this is Wikipedia. Even though I would have probably been killed if I had dared to use this at college, I still love it. I’m actually on it at the moment on my IPod. As long as you know how to use it reliabily, then this is a great application and will help you loads.

Google Earth

Again pretty self explanatory, this was the first extra application that I downloaded and I was amazed at the graphics that you got from this, the pictures are a little old now, considering that the picture was taken when the people next door but one lived there (trampoline in the garden, an old couple lives there now). It is still brilliant to check out, especially cause it’s free.

Other Apps

Some of the best games in my opinion that are provided are the following:

Waterslide- Makes great use of the technology provided, nothing great but it’s fun to play.

Tap Tap- If you’ve played guitar hero, then the game is pretty much played the same way but you tap instead. Not brilliant but good.

Unblock Me Free- One of the best games I’ve found. If you like puzzles then you’ll love this.

Dots Free- We’ve always called this squares, nothing special but great for a free game.

Knots- Play twister with your fingers. A lot of fun.

FS5 Hockey- Table hockey with your fingers, fun to play.

Bubblewrap- At my party this was the one game everyone loved, all you do is try and pop as many of the bubbles on the bubblewrap in a certain amount of time.

iReversi- This is Othello with a different name. Very enjoyable.

Deleting Apps

To delete any of the applications, all you have to do, is keep your finger on the app you want to delete until it begins to shake. Once it does shake it should come up with a X at the side and you just click that and it’ll be deleted.

Music

This is pretty much the same as you get on other IPod’s however you have the touch technology as well. When you click on music which is always at the bottom of the home page along with three other applications, you get taken to another page. Then you will find five different buttons at the bottom, these allows you to look through your playlists, artists, songs, albums or more. Just like you usually would get.

The touch technology is brilliant when you play music, the pause, play, back, forward buttons are all accessible just by one touch of the finger. You control the volume not only at the side of the IPod but also on the screen by scrolling it across.

The great addition that the second generation provides is the speakers installed within the IPod, they are not fantastic, but they do allow you to play your music out loud without using an IPod dock or anything like that.

Videos

I gave blood again today, and usually I have quite a hard time. Instead of 10 minutes it takes about 30-45 minutes to get blood out of me, so I took my IPod and lay down and turned on an episode of Bones. I so far only have 2 videos on my IPod, not only do they take up a lot of room, but they are a little bit more expensive than I really want to pay.

Pictures

Over the years I have taken millions of pictures, my wall is covered in pictures of family and friends, however with my old IPod because it was quite a small size at just 4GB I only had a small handful of pictures, however with this IPod so far I have included about 50 pictures and I’ve only had it a few days. It barely takes up any room on the IPod; well as long as you don’t have really large sized pictures then you should be fine. The picture quality on the IPod is just fantastic, which makes viewing your pictures just lovely.

ITunes

For about 2 years whilst I had my old IPod I completely boycotted Itunes. I didn’t like the idea of it for some reason, however just a few weeks before getting the IPod touch, I actually realised why people loved Itunes. With the IPod Touch or any IPod you need to download Itunes to allow yourself to put any music onto the IPod. It’s a free software, and doesn’t take much space up on your computer. It is just brilliant.

With the IPod Touch however, you not only need to download Itunes onto your computer, you will also find that you have Itunes pre installed onto the IPod itself. This means when you are in range of a wifi network point, you will be able to download music, videos, apps etc, all from Itunes, without even turning your computer on.

8 GB- storage space

When I said I was buying an IPod Touch, someone said get the 16 GB one, because I will find myself becoming addicted to downloading things onto it. I laughed him off, because I had coped with not even putting a real dent into my 4GB IPod for 2 years now, however I’ve had this IPod only a few days now, and I have already taken up 5GB worth of space.

8GB would usually be fine for me, it is a great amount of space, however you really do have to take into account, how much easily do you get addicted to downloading games, especially cause a lot of them are free, and how much music you will find yourself putting on in the future. I have only 500 songs on my IPod at the moment, two 1 hour videos, 32 applications and 50 pictures on it. This has taken up 5GB of space, if you think you’ll go over that by quite a bit then maybe the 8GB one will be a little too small for you and it might be worth investing in a more expensive but double the size IPod.

Speakers

This is a new feature for the second generation IPod touch, and it may not have the most fantastic sound quality or the best speakers in the world, but they are situated within a 8mm sized item. Unlike on phones, where they put speakers you get little holes allowing the sound to come through, Apple have not allowed that to happen with their items, and have just put almost a little black sticker on the back, which I believe covers the speakers.

For the best sound quality, put you IPod facing up on a hard surface, the sound becomes a lot louder than if you just hold it in your hand.

Battery Life

It says on the website that the battery life for the IPod touch is up to 36 hours. Well, this is a load of crap, I saw the IPod go from fully charged to nothing within 2 hours the other day, this was one of my first times on the IPod which meant I was playing games and playing with the applications left right and centre, but the only way I can see it lasting 36 hours is if you do nothing but play music straight, this means no interacting with the IPod, no skipping songs, just let it play straight out. I actually only have about 15 hours worth of music on my IPod so couldn’t really see if it worked.

Realistically, if you were to check the odd email, and play the odd game, but basically used this like you would any other IPod, then you would see a battery life of about 10 hours which is always good. I would however recommend plugging it in to your computer every time you go on just to keep it boosted up. The amount of times, I’ve got in the car with my old IPod, been prepared to plug it into the stereo and remember that I needed to charge it up.

The Good

I really do love my IPod touch, I was always a bit bored of my old IPod as the screen was way too small, which meant downloading videos onto it, with my eyesight would have been a bad idea. The 3.5inch display is just fantastic, it’s large enough but not too big.

The ability to connect to the internet is great, however when I go to uni, I won’t have a wireless connection, so I won’t be able to use the internet on my IPod Touch really until I go somewhere with wifi which is a bit of a bummer. The fact that the IPod is only 8mm thick, it slips easily into your pocket with no problems at all, it’s very sleek and very stylish because of this.

The touch technology is brilliant; it may take a little while to get used to, but it is still very easy to use and it makes the IPod worth the money that you have spent on it.

The Bad

I think the main problem with my old IPod was the scratches on the back of the IPod, they have not changed the back of the IPod at all, so I’m sure in enough time, my new IPod will face the same problem.

The problem that has really bugged me is the problem with fingerprints. It is a touch screen, so you should expect it to pick up finger prints, but I’m constantly having to wipe the screen just to see it, it picks up the slightest amount of dirt or anything from your finger. You can buy things to protect them, but again you are looking at paying a lot for this.

The price is another problem for me, it is a lot of money, and the only reason that I brought it was because for my birthday, my lovely family gave me mainly cash, so I wanted to spend it on something I really wanted. The only reason I brought it now, and not in the sale near the end of August is because they had a deal, where I got a free Itunes voucher for £15. Otherwise I would have waited for a sale, or would have maybe have looked elsewhere.

I know now that I’ve brought this 2nd generation version of the IPod touch, they’ll now bring out one with a camera installed within it, and with Bluetooth. Each of which I believe will make the IPod just perfect. All it needs is a camera and Bluetooth and it will be one of the best items I’ve ever brought. At the moment, it is missing things like that.

Another annoyance is when viewing facebook on my IPod, I was shocked that I wasn’t able to save the pictures off facebook straight into the pictures section on the IPod. This would have been brilliant and to be honest, I was kind of expecting that it did it.

This final complaint is one that I’ve not heard anywhere else, but it takes about 10 seconds to load up the IPod. To be honest, this bothers me only slightly, but with my old IPod I was expecting for it to load up straight away but it took a little longer than I would have liked.

Buying/Price

You can buy and IPod touch from a number of places, the two places that I really recommend is either Currys or the Apple website. Both of these add a lot more support and you really do get a lot more information if you buy from either of these. If you buy from Apple you are also able to have the item engraved, this is lovely, but means that it’ll be very hard to sell in a few years when they bring out a better model.

Here are the prices at the moment for the different IPod touches. You can see that if you were to buy the 16GB you are only paying £49 more. To be honest, if I had bloody taken my time and looked at this, then I might have gone for the 16GB, in hindsight for me, it is worth £49 more. Make sure you think about it before buying it.

8 GB- £165.00
16GB- £214.00
32GB- £282.00

Final Opinion

Despite the obvious problems that this IPod has, it still rocks. I have spent so much time on it, and it really is one of the best purchases I have made in a long time. The screen is not too large, but it still is able to show amazing picture quality. It was brilliant when I gave blood, and made the time go by so fast compared to normal.

The price of the IPod is a lot, there is no doubting that, however, I can’t see the price coming down as it is an Apple product and generally their prices always stay the same throughout the years pretty much. They have really created a brilliant product here; there is no doubting that, it could do with a few extras to it to make it a little bit more worth the price, like a camera or Bluetooth installed, then it would be just perfect.

If you don’t already have a docking station for another IPod you may have, then I would recommend getting one. Don’t go for anything too expensive, they’re not worth it, but I have found that they work brilliantly, especially with an IPod Touch. It’s not only allows you to charge up the IPod but allows you to listen to your music as well. The battery life is not brilliant, especially if you use the IPod for what it’s designed to do, however as long as you have a way to charge it, etc, then you should be fine.

The applications, especially the free ones are just fantastic. I have added apps from facebook, to google and even twitter, and I’ve never even used twitter before. It’s a brilliant idea to put all of these different applications onto an IPod, I really do think the free ones are just brilliant, for the fantastic ones, yes you are going to have to pay for them, however I’m sure you can find some bargains on the app store. It just takes a little while to look through and find the different apps.

A brilliant item could be better if they add things like a camera or Bluetooth, but at the moment, it’s good, and I haven’t put it down since I brought it.

(C) Kirsty 2009

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