Quietly and secretly Steven Ambrose has been running around the past few weeks with an iPod Touch. Why the secrecy? Simple: iPods, iPhones and the rest of Apple's new lines must be the most hyped products on the market. Everywhere I went, people asked: “Is that the iPhone and can I touch?” The answer was always No and Yes. As a result, I spent far less time with the iPod Touch than I should have.
So out with it already: I have been touched. Simple as that. Apple’s latest iPod is available in 8GB, tons of music, 16GB, silly amounts of music, and the just-released 32GB, amazingly silly amount of music - in fact more music than you could listen to in six months solid, but add a few movies and a whole stack of your holiday pics, and you will appreciate the room they provide.
Specifications aside, it’s the form factor, thin and smooth, with an amazingly clear and bright screen, that first grabs you. Switch it on and the wow really starts. The interface is simply madly good. The actual sensitivity and smooth reaction to your every touch and gesture is smooth and responsive, and makes operating the touch an amazing experience.
Please stop me gushing, but Apple have excelled in this regard: the motion-sensing from portrait to landscape and back, and the smooth way the screens slide in and out, is wonderful to behold. It’s not perfect, but it is so good, so intuitive, and so responsive, it makes all other touch interfaces seem like yesterday’s news.
Specifications aside, it’s the form factor, thin and smooth, with an amazingly clear and bright screen, that first grabs you. Switch it on and the wow really starts. The interface is simply madly good. The actual sensitivity and smooth reaction to your every touch and gesture is smooth and responsive, and makes operating the touch an amazing experience.
Please stop me gushing, but Apple have excelled in this regard: the motion-sensing from portrait to landscape and back, and the smooth way the screens slide in and out, is wonderful to behold. It’s not perfect, but it is so good, so intuitive, and so responsive, it makes all other touch interfaces seem like yesterday’s news.
Just to show you I have not completely lost it over the Touch, I took it through the Gadget 5 Question User Test:
1. Is it ready to use?
Throw away the manual, plug it in, slide your finger along the bottom and off you go. You do need to install iTunes on your PC, and even the latest version is somewhat unstable on Microsoft Vista, this is not a big issue the programme simply shut down on occation and restarted with no problems, but on a Mac it was no problem. On any operating system, iTunes finds the IPod quickly, and transferring music is really easy. South Africans cannot as yet access the iTunes store – shame on you, Apple! – so rip all your legally bought CDs to your computer, and transfer to the Touch. Ready to use.
2. Is it Easy to use?
The Touch itself is a cinch: charge the Touch, switch on, slide to unlock and enjoy. The interface really needs no manual or instructions, and very quickly you will be navigating through the features and listening to music or watching your movies. The back button, or home button, on the bottom of the Touch is the only physical key, and once you have leanred to use it, it makes navigation simple. More technical issues, like setting up the built-in Wi-Fi connection, takes a little more understanding, but even here it is not very difficult. The Touch prompts you to connect, and takes you through the setup very quickly. I did find, however, that unusual wireless setups and old wireless routers did give a little trouble in getting working.
3. Does it deliver on its promise?
The Touch does so in a simple and convincing way: it is a great device to carry all your music, all your YouTube movies and other video files, as well as all your pictures. It is simple and intuitive to use and the Cover Flow interface, whereby you can swipe through your music and picture collection with your finger, is really intuitive and fun to use. The other outstanding feature on the Touch is the fully-fledged web surfing made possible by the built-in Safari Web Browser. Sites render really well and quickly and, best of all, you can navigate and zoom in and out with a few touches and strokes of your fingers; no stylus needed here. The latest software adds enhanced e-mail, Google maps, widgets, little apps you can run on the Touch, such as weather, and a fully customisable home screen.
4. Is it innovative?
The Touch writes the book on innovation, mainly in the interface and in how the Touch makes usage so human and so tactile. So yes, this product is truly innovative and sets the scene for touch interfaces to come on many other devices in the future. If the Touch can be so fully controlled by simple touch, then why not your laptop, your PVR, your fridge … oops, getting carried away again!
5. Is it value for money?
This is always a difficult question to answer, as cost is always relative. The iPod Nano, if all you want is a music player, offers far better value. There are also many other devices from other manufacturers that cost less and have very similar functionality. None, however, have the interface. So even though the Touch, in all memory configurations is costly, for what you get it is worth the money. So the question is not whether it is good value, but rather whether you can afford one.
In summary: I was truly not prepared for the Touch, and I was somewhat dismissive of all the hype around the iPhone and its interface. But Touch one and you will see: it really is great fun to be Touched.
Steven Ambrose
1. Is it ready to use?
Throw away the manual, plug it in, slide your finger along the bottom and off you go. You do need to install iTunes on your PC, and even the latest version is somewhat unstable on Microsoft Vista, this is not a big issue the programme simply shut down on occation and restarted with no problems, but on a Mac it was no problem. On any operating system, iTunes finds the IPod quickly, and transferring music is really easy. South Africans cannot as yet access the iTunes store – shame on you, Apple! – so rip all your legally bought CDs to your computer, and transfer to the Touch. Ready to use.
2. Is it Easy to use?
The Touch itself is a cinch: charge the Touch, switch on, slide to unlock and enjoy. The interface really needs no manual or instructions, and very quickly you will be navigating through the features and listening to music or watching your movies. The back button, or home button, on the bottom of the Touch is the only physical key, and once you have leanred to use it, it makes navigation simple. More technical issues, like setting up the built-in Wi-Fi connection, takes a little more understanding, but even here it is not very difficult. The Touch prompts you to connect, and takes you through the setup very quickly. I did find, however, that unusual wireless setups and old wireless routers did give a little trouble in getting working.
3. Does it deliver on its promise?
The Touch does so in a simple and convincing way: it is a great device to carry all your music, all your YouTube movies and other video files, as well as all your pictures. It is simple and intuitive to use and the Cover Flow interface, whereby you can swipe through your music and picture collection with your finger, is really intuitive and fun to use. The other outstanding feature on the Touch is the fully-fledged web surfing made possible by the built-in Safari Web Browser. Sites render really well and quickly and, best of all, you can navigate and zoom in and out with a few touches and strokes of your fingers; no stylus needed here. The latest software adds enhanced e-mail, Google maps, widgets, little apps you can run on the Touch, such as weather, and a fully customisable home screen.
4. Is it innovative?
The Touch writes the book on innovation, mainly in the interface and in how the Touch makes usage so human and so tactile. So yes, this product is truly innovative and sets the scene for touch interfaces to come on many other devices in the future. If the Touch can be so fully controlled by simple touch, then why not your laptop, your PVR, your fridge … oops, getting carried away again!
5. Is it value for money?
This is always a difficult question to answer, as cost is always relative. The iPod Nano, if all you want is a music player, offers far better value. There are also many other devices from other manufacturers that cost less and have very similar functionality. None, however, have the interface. So even though the Touch, in all memory configurations is costly, for what you get it is worth the money. So the question is not whether it is good value, but rather whether you can afford one.
In summary: I was truly not prepared for the Touch, and I was somewhat dismissive of all the hype around the iPhone and its interface. But Touch one and you will see: it really is great fun to be Touched.
Steven Ambrose
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment