iPod touch: Flawed from Conception
by Steve Pan • 10/01/2007
at 10:34 AM
Have you tried the new iPod touch yet? I did last Saturday, and I have to tell you it probably has most orgasmic user interface ever designed, implemented, and put into mass production. We’re talking about stuff that even Space Age engineers with an eye towards the future would not have been able to predict. I’m sure that your average scientifically literate individual in the 1950’s would not disagree that storage would eventually get cheaper and smaller to the point where thousands of megabytes of data (in the 50’s putting 50MB in a configuration the size of a fridge was considered impressive) could be stored cheaply and efficiently without bulky mechanical parts. Had you told your scientifically minded friend that instead of turning a dial or flipping that switch to interact with your devices, one could simply and without much effort glide around an electronic touchscreen no bigger than the rearview mirror on his car, he probably would accuse you of being a “shiftless hippie” and would have you out on the street in no time flat. However, friends, this is not going to be just glowing coverage of the iPod touch. In fact, the few words above are about the only praise, though well deserved, that I will shower onto the new product.
Longtime Steve Pan fans will remember the terribly late review I did of Doom 3 for Macteens a while ago. I ranted and raved that the game’s design was schizophrenic; it often wanted to do x when really it was a half-assed job of y with a smattering of z. Judging from the launch of the iPod touch, I would have to say the same identity crisis is present. The dilemma is classic; what do you do if you invest millions into one product that offers a boatload of features, but isn’t selling because everyone wants a similar product sans a few of the features that no one but a select few desired and at a much lower price point? That’s not to say that everyone hated the iPhone, but the “true” video iPod had been in the hearts and minds of obsessive Apple watchers long before rumors of an Apple branded phone hit the streets. Simply put, Apple gimped the “iTouch,” maybe even beyond what was really necessary and prudent. After all, if I wanted a damn iPhone, I would’ve bought one. This heavy-handed attempt at differentiation doesn’t offer buyers a well-defined leisure device and more business-orientated tool. Rather, it drives an artificial cleavage between two devices that fundamentally share the same brains and guts, as well as the same buyer demographic. Instead of feeling like something that should naturally be left off the feature list because of hardware absurdities, such as Safari on the iPod classic, the removal of the iPhone mail app and the other goodies from the iPhone seem like overkill.
That’s not to mention the other controversies over the iTouch that have made its launch contentious even for an Apple product. From the beginning a common complaint from many has been the comparably paltry storage size of the device. To tell you the truth, I was expecting a 16-32gb device when we really got an 8-16gb device. With the rest of the iPods pushing the storage limit towards the stratosphere, it seems strange that Apple wouldn’t wait for bigger NAND chips to reach mass production to at least match the former lower end iPod storage sizes. That, coupled with the screen issues (now remedied with the 1.1.1 update) that left many owners angry and distraught. I’ve heard stories of people trading in four or five iPods before getting one with an acceptable screen. The crisis deepened to the point where proud Apple neckbeards were coveting and hoarding iTouches ending with “38C,” indicating a defect-free iTouch made in the 38th week.
Needless to say, I am shaken by the recent turn of events. Even the laissez-faire attitude towards device firmware hacking hasn’t survived unscathed by the recent iPod line refreshing. When a particularly daring and cunning hacker known as Martyn posted the contents of the iPod touch RAM disk to his private server it was slammed with a takedown notice from Apple. The team has virtually clammed up. The iTouch dev wiki hasn’t been updated in over a week and despite my probing on IRC the team won’t even give vague hints. For the first time, Apple has stopped thinking different and has started to adopt Microsoft-style tactics in terms of sloppiness and authoritarian control. Astute readers will know that, while history doesn’t repeat itself, patterns do emerge. And like the East India Company, Standard Oil, and in the future maybe even Microsoft, eventually it’ll come to an end.
Steve Pan reminds you that Windows isn't evil, just bad. Mr. Pan doesn't mind incessantly bugging editors to publish his articles, just to be faced with photos that are... let's just say less than eye-pleasing.
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Just thought you should know that 16 GB flash memory only just became affordable enough to be included in a device like this. Apple will sell you the regular iPod if you want bigger storage size.
Apple is taking the lead here, being the first to bring a compelling enough product to market to allow 16 GB memory manufacturing to reach levels that will fund 32 GB flash in next quarter or after. Instead of criticizing Apple, you should be thanking them. The high gigabyte iPod touch you are craving will be here that much sooner because Apple took the initiative necessary to let the flash makers sell bigger flash memory modules sooner—rather than later.
very true. 16GB flash is expensive and uncommon. You can’t have a thin touch screen device that has a long battery life, and at the same time a 160GB Hard Drive. It just won’t work. I have an iPod Touch, and I love it. I only have a 600 song library of about 4GB, but that’s the music I actually LISTEN to, as I deleted a lot that I honestly never listen to. I mean, do you REALLY listen to 160GB of music unless you’re using the lossless encoding (which does a number on the battery life due to buffering anyways). The 160GB in my opinion is best for videos, but even that; I mean, who needs every episode with them all the time? One or two episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on there at a time and I’m good. The only downsides to it that I’ve found so far are that the volume is sometimes hard to change quickly, the Wi-Fi tends to drain the non-user-replaceable battery if used endlessly (but think of laptop battery lives and you’ll understand why), and that I can’t use it easily during the winter, as the touch screen doesn’t work through gloves. But that may be solvable with a remote of some type. It definitely is the best ipod I’ve ever owned, from the Internet to the actual iPod features that are easy to navigate, and I actually prefer them to the click wheel, especially the smaller iterations like the one on the 3rd gen nano.