BusinessWeek’s Cliff Edwards searches long and hard for drawbacks in his recent review of Apple’s iPod touch and comes up with “no built-in speaker” and “no dedicated volume button for music.”
Edwards is also upset that iPod touch users must first connect to iTunes, explaining, “As with the iPhone, when you first turn on the Touch, you need to connect it to an active iTunes account. This syncs it with information such as how much money you have available for wireless music downloads. I found this requirement a little annoying, since you can’t use the device until you do it.”
Edwards is also annoyed that “if you happen to have more than one iTunes account, you’ll have to remember to log into the desired one on your computer before you sync the device.”
Edwards was also irritated that because he “initially checked ‘manually manage my account,’ the Touch wouldn’t automatically sync downloaded tracks to my computer. The quick-start guide and online instructions were little help.”
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s online iPod touch manual clearly explains the painfully obvious (pages 8 and 9) that, if you choose to add items manually, you will turn off automatic syncing for iPod touch.
Edwards continues, actually finding something good to write, “With just two buttons on the device—one below the screen for calling up the home screen and one on the top left edge for turning off the display—the icon-based touch screen makes navigation both a snap and a pleasure. As with the gee-whiz features of the iPhone’s screen, you can use a finger to zip through music playlists, or finger tabs and pinches to zoom in and out on a Web page or photo.”
Edwards writes, “Perhaps more than anything, I was sorely disappointed by the lack of built-in speakers, since the key feature distinguishing the Touch from other iPods is its ability to wirelessly download music. So for example, because there are no speakers, you can’t sample a new clip with a companion who might offer that extra advice on whether you should shell out 99¢ for the track.”
Full article here.
Edwards either got up on the wrong side of the bed the day he pecked out his iPod touch review or he stumbled upon an unfortunate, yet all-too-common trap into which reviewers sometimes fall: trying way too hard to find faults with what is an excellent product overall. And, lest you think that we believe the iPod touch is perfect, we also would have liked to see dedicated physical volume buttons on the touch for manipulating levels without having to take the device from your pocket. Edwards’ other quibbles, however, border on the ridiculous. Perhaps Edwards should read the very publication for which he writes, as Stephen H. Wildstrom reported in BusinessWeek on September 20th that Apple’s iPod touch is “in a class by itself.”
If the idiot wants to listen with a friend he can give them one of the earbuds. If they are worried about cooties then they aren’t a real friend, so screw ’em.
kaekae,
But what if the videos could begin to play after you download a certain amount of data? Hell if not I could always just let it download in the background while I do other things.
Video on the iTunes WiFi store is a must. I could see myself blowing countless money downloading TV shows and maybe a movie or two on the fly. It would be great at keeping the iTunes/iPod system ahead of the competition.
I can see it this time next year with a 32gb iPod touch, iPhone, Newton, Mac portable, whatever new hardware Apple’s got up its sleeve.
Oops – he said companion. Not the same. Never mind.
The main problem with the Touch is that its screen is ideal for movies, but its storage is ideal for music. Doh. Basically it’s a glorified nano.
I almost bought an iPod touch, but I realized that it didn’t have a camera. I’m waiting for them to put in a phone, that’s what I want out of it. Speakers would be nice, but they’re not a big selling point to me.
Gripe, Complain, Gripe, Complain——-
I think that says it all.
Zune Tang-
Do you or have you ever worked for a political party? If not, you should apply.
Your ability to keep the shine on a turd is outstanding.
@bob
“The main problem with the Touch is that its screen is ideal for movies, but its storage is ideal for music. Doh. Basically it’s a glorified nano.”
Given the small size of movies in iPod format, I think that unless you have a lot of music (like 10GB or more) you still still have plenty of room for movies. After all, it’s not as if you need to store your whole movie collection on you iPod.
Just like a couple of thousand other dumb-asses I have had the dis-pleasure of meeting, Edwards did not read the manual.
Such fools come in to the store and claim that their products “don’t work” or are “defective.”
Must be related to Zune Tang.
Zune Tang: Nice try, Apple, but you <strike>lose</strike> loose again.
i honour of this thread … fixed that for you ZT.
p.s. – no mention of Zune Points? I call shenanigans on this impostor. Bring back Sputnik …. errrr …. the real Zune Tang
yeesh … you spend all that time closing your tags and then make a silly typo.
That should be “in honour” not “i honour”
Actually, my friend, Zune Tang was right – it should be “lose again”. Lose is a verb, loose is an adjective (as in, “these jeans are too loose”).
Critics are paid to be critical, that is, to find fault. MDN is just overly defensive as usual. I’m starting to think the folks at MDN have some kind of inferiority complex.
Any idiot can do a glowing review of the iPod touch.
It takes a real pro to find major problems with the little marvel.
Critics should find faults, not relate about their tastes which is what MDN was actually pointing out. If your read MDN comments: “And, lest you think that we believe the iPod touch is perfect, we also would have liked to see dedicated physical volume buttons on the touch for manipulating levels without having to take the device from your pocket.”
Which is probably all you could say as ‘faults’ with the iPod touch. The rest, lack of camera, lack of external speaker, disabled automatic sync if you check the “manual sync”, that is if you disable automatic sync…
The above is not a critic’s article, it is a coffee-table chat from your moron friend Joe-6-Pack trying to bash you on your latest purchase, all while he’s burning with envy.
tastes are fine to be reported but should be clearly state as such, otherwise you sound, and rightly so, a moron. Who cares if you would have preferred a camera on the iPod, this is your liking, not a defect or a fault in the design like in “I have attention disorder deficit and can’t focus more than 20 seconds. All while I am listening to my favorite tune I suddenly have the urge to take a picture. Why the damn iPod touch does not allow me to do it?”
It is not a fault in the iPod touch design. From my perspective, even a camera on a phone is just a gadgetry: Those pictures are worthless in terms of quality, which is my quality personal appreciation. For others they are OK: I would buy the phone model WITHOUT camera if that would lower the price and if it was available. I hate to pay for something I know I will not use.
I can understand why the iPhone may need an external speaker, because sometimes you need to use hands-free to speak to people.
But the iPod touch… why on earth would you have one?
Makes no sense.
If you’re watching a movie or listening to a song, I don’t want to hear it whilst your doing that on a bus or the next cubicle of the toilet.
I have an iPod Touch and the single biggest gripe I have is that it is the only iPod (not counting the iPhone which is in a class of its own) to not allow Disk Use. As I have used every iPod I have ever owned to hold a select but important number of documents and templates and other data this is a major drawback for the way I work.
Now if I want to use the Touch to listen to or watch while commuting I need to also carry a more conventional USB Memory gadget. This is pointless redundancy and a step backwards. It is no use saying why not use .Mac as most corporate firewalls where I work would exclude .Mac and iDisk from being accessible whereas selected USB devices (and their users) can be cleared for use on the local desktop.
C’mon SJ, give us back our Disk Use on both the Touch and the iPhone.
I also think (and this is not a gripe) that the micro switch on the iPhone ear buds that allows pause and skip to next track would be great on all iPods.
iPodTouch…
My experience with mp3gain was it took away a lot of the ‘oomph’ or bass from a lot of the ‘heavier’ tracks. Whereas making seemingly no difference to the softer songs. I was listening to an ACDC track and it just sounded flat and lifeless and realy needed to be cranked up a notch but I was at full volume. In the end i decided Tori Amos will always sound quiet next to Motorhead anyway. So rather than ruin the music (some say having them at 128k is bad) i’ve stopped using it.
I wish recording studios would somehow standardize the way they make the music, especialy with volume level.
perhaps apple can add volume control on the headphones (ex. a little button like the iphone headphones)? that would keep the design of the touch the same.
Nothing is perfect, problem is MDN is so far up Apples ass it can see otherwise
Hopefully an iPod Touch Hard Disk version will be out soon and they can correct all the initial faults in the iPod Touch when they do that product.
to tastes: I did say not having a camera was a fault in the product, merely that it’s what I’d like to have in it. True the pics wouldn’t be great but I like taking shots of places and people as I’m out and about. It’s fun, and that’s what the iPod touch should be about. That doesn’t sound too mornic to me.
@scottm4321
That’s not what the iTouch is for. Get an iPhone or someother cell phone with a camera. No iPod (until the iPhone) has had a camera.
MW-trouble-Putting too many “things” into one device is trouble!
some headphones have volume controls. if it’s that important to you to not have to look at your ipod when you adjust its volume, get a set of those.
if apple included built-in speakers on their ipods, people would complain about them sounding tinny or distorted. they’d also bitch about battery life.
i don’t see either of these as being a problem. but that’s just me.
i bet some clever soul will come along and program something to solve the first problem once the SDK comes around anyhow…
I bought the 8 gig iPod touch a week ago. This thing is amazing! I love the large screen, beautiful GUI, and WiFi. Being able to read e-mail in bed and surfing the Internet with a full browser (Safari) is awesome!
And the iTunes WiFi store is unbelievable! One touch to preview and 2 touches to see the full album list. When you preview, the song number “flips” and a “buffer circle” starts rotating. As the preview plays, the preview circle “fills up” like a stopwatch. When all is said and done, the preview circle flips back to the song number. Forget radio! It’s so much fun having access to 6 million song clips anywhere you got a WiFi connection.
And web apps add more functionality and funI http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/webapps/
I played Bejeweled, Sudoku, and Missile Command (yes, I’m old skool). Optimized for the iPod touch’s screen.
Believe the hype!