Apple iPod Touch (first generation, 16GB)

September 20, 2007 04:23
Good
1.5/5
I bought mine today from the Apple store in Raleigh, NC. Basically I agree with the CNET review. It's a great device. Or at least it would be if it worked properly.

The screen is terrible. Dark scenes in videos from iTunes are unwatchable. It almost looks like a photo negative. Dark images within a scene are a problem too (for example. a person with dark hair). Darker images from the web also don't display properly. I'm no expert, but all that points to a problem with the display.

Apparently I'm not alone. A quick search on 'ipod touch dark scene' will bring up several blog entries. Here's an example:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/15/ipod-touch-having-display-issues/

The person I talked to at Apple tech support was not familiar with the issue. She was very polite and efficient though. I walked through the process of reseting, rebooting, and all that stuff. None of it worked of course. I then made an appointment to take it back to the Apple store. We'll see how that goes.

I hope this is just a manufacturing defect that's limited to a few units and not a design problem. I also hope they don't give me a hard time about fixing it.

- lstockett

September 7, 2007 03:46

4.5/5
For everyone without an iphone (really if you have an iPhone and want one of these, you really must have a spending problem) and just wanted an MP3 player, then I would get this. Many people on cnet posting their comments are upset about a couple of things. First, the storage (8 or 16 GM FLASH). FLASH is the simplest way to sum it up (it is superior to hard drives; only con SO FAR is storage space). 16 GB is so far the highest capacity available anywhere for FLASH and it has a few advantages over hard drive models. First, no moving parts which makes it 100% skip free unlike hard drive models which have spinning disks. Second, FLASH has faster loading times (overall speed is greater) and with FLASH, you can devices almost any size you want because since FLASH is so small, you can do many things with it (hence the thiness of the iPod Touch). Also, there are less techincal problems with devices that use FLASH over hard drives (you are more likely to experience problems with hard drives than flash memory). Yes, while 16 GB seems small, to many people it may not. Depending on how deep your music library is or depending on how many videos you play to keep on it, 16 GB may be sufficent for many like me. I have over 200 albums (most full) and I'm not hitting 10 GB yet. That goes to show it holds quite alot! At $399... it may seem like alot, but think about the whole product as a whole, and also remember that FLASH techonolgy is expensive; the price is a bargin. Other neat things is that it has blazing fast Wi-Fi (way faster than DSL which is fast enough lol), new iTunes Wi-Fi Store (very convient), and other stuff. Overall this tops the iPod line as the best and over the next couple of years, this is going to be the standard for iPods. Why a rating of 9 out of 10: no products are perfect and thats because (common sense): everything man made always has its flaws (meaning never 100% perfect).

- RonaldJr18

December 2, 2007 05:31

3.0/5
First let me say this: I love my touch and it is an excellent product. However I had to to buy and return THREE touches before getting one with a good screen. Tip: When buying a touch there is a way to identify if the item has a good or bad screen by looking at the box. Looking at the serial IGNORE the first THREE characters. Following that will be two numbers. These numbers tell you the week the touch was made. For example if it say "44" the touch was made in the 44th week of 2007. Only buy a touch with a 45 or above. I week 45 the touch shipped with updated firmware and you are guaranteed to get a good screen. (There were known screen issues with touches previous to this one.) Ideally buy the one with the highest number possible.
Now, the reason for this relatively low rating. When the iPod first came out its purpose was to provide more features than any other competitor product relative to it's price, and succeeded. It is obvious Apple did not use this philosophy when creating the touch. There are far better products for the price. For 400 dollars the features and storage are ridiculous. There are far better products according to a price:feature ratio. Anchos players have far more functionality, however they are quite frankly ugly and I do not like them. The storage capacity of the touch is honestly pathetic. Yes, yes, I know it's due to the flash memory, and flash memory is superior to hard disk based alternatives. But honestly for a PVP 16 gigs is not enough anyway you cut it. Granted a hard disk option would add to the overall thickness of the touch it would be a fabulous trade off. While I understand Apple's decision to not include bluetooth in the touch so as to not allow it to compete with it's iPhone, but it is a poor decision. If Apple hopes to stay competitive bluetooth is essential. If Apple wishes to distinguish its iPhone from the touch there are far better way to do it. Add 50 dollars to the iPhone price or something, but for damnit give us bluetooth and more storage space. I understand Apple leaving out the email, maps, and various other iPhone apps. Keep in mind, it is an mp3 player, not a phone.
To conclude when you buy a touch you are getting an excellent audio, video, and overall media player. You get seamless integration with itunes. You do not get the ability to carry all your music and videos with you and you don't bluetooth functionality. There are various other more minor features the the touch could have but none are really essential. It would be wise to wait until Apple releases a second gen touch when they will no doubt address most of these issues. However, purchase a touch, and you will no doubt be satisfied.

- trx1701

September 8, 2007 12:56

5.0/5
I get so tired of people rating a product when they don't even have one in their hands. This isn't a rate by what you have heard, it is supposed to be a rating for people that have purchased one and have hands on experience with the device giving their opinions. Come on people! And yes, I had to put a number in to submit this, so I gave it a 10 as the specs sound good!

- firefinder24

September 30, 2007 07:52

4.5/5
I bought a 16gb model the day this sucker came out and I have had no problems. I have had 3 ipods before this (2nd gen, 4th gen, nano) and this ipod takes the win. I can't believe how easy it is to use. The flick to scroll feature is outstanding, cover flow is simply beautiful and safari is just the icing on the cake. Wifi opens a whole new door. Simply find a hotspot and you can download music on the fly, which works amazingly fast. I also like to have youtube for those long lecture classes and how the sleekness allows this ipod to be tucked away neatly. Do not worry about jamming this into your pocket, the screen is almost bulletproof.

Now on the downside, the stupid metal backing that is probably the softest element on earth is still present, I was hoping for the backing like the iphone had. Also, Steve thought it would be cool to give you a keyboard and only be able to type in contacts (uh... for what?!?), url's and search topics. You have a calendar but can't type in appointments and the notes feature, which was totally useless before is now perfectly well adapted for this player, is gone. sigh...

so... if you weigh the good and the bad, the ipod touch is definitely worth your money (or college refund check in my case). Cover flow is simply the best reason to buy this and the widescreen video player. People who are complaining about the camera... seriously... EVERYONE has a phone with a camera on it... use it...

I say this is the best $421.79 I ever spent...

- David.C.

September 6, 2007 05:32

3.5/5
This is really all about marketing. Apple could have easily went with a hard drive and made a 80 and 160 gig version of the iPod Touch but that wouldn't be smart from a business sense. Not that I agree with what they've done but think about it...people are going to rush out and buy the Touch simply because it's cool and the new thing to have. Next year they'll release the updated version and it will double in size and the same for the following year and so on. Each time they release a newer version with more space the same people that go out and buy the 'must have' everything will shell out more cash to get the latest and greatest. In 3 or 4 years we'll all look back and laugh and say...can you believe the iPod Touch used to come in 8 and 16 gig. Why on earth would you buy that with such little space?

With 8 and 16 gig it's almost as if you'll need two iPods. One to watch videos on a wider screen and the 'Classic' version to store ALL of your music and videos on one device.

Does that not sound like marketing genius?

- djstein

September 25, 2007 11:10

5.0/5
To everyone complaining about the lack of storage: It's flash.
Flash memory ain't cheap and though, yes, there will be plenty of 32, 64, and eventually 100+ gb flash players out there, for right now this is more than decent.
I have 2000 songs, 4 movies, 10 TV shows, 40 podcasts, 300 photos and all of my addresses and contacts on my 16 gb touch (with just under 3 gb of space left) and I'd be surprised if that won't tide me over until the next time I'm able to sync it with my computer. I've had every iPod there is and we all must remember that hard drive based players eventually fail due to movement. I never had a problem with the 4 nano's I've had, nor the 2 shuffles. However, I've owned 7 different spinning hd-based iPods, and have had 3 of them kick it. I don't abuse my stuff, I just use it as a portable player. Is it nice to have one's whole library available at all times? Sure, but at what cost?
The video on the touch is more than great and the scrolling/tapping features and overall intuitive interface of this iPod make it the best yet as far as I'm concerned.
The only drawback? If there's a QWERTY keyboard for entering web addresses and the like, why is there no notepad or text editor of any kind. Oh well, hopefully some kind of software update will address this.

- joeink

September 14, 2007 10:09

5.0/5
OK, I just bought my iPod touch from the Apple Store this afternoon, I absolutely love it. It has everything I want in an iPod plus more! I'm just coming back from a mosh and it survived it without a scratch. I'd still recommend you get a case though, just to be safe. Its very simple and easy to use (Apple, of course) and everything works flawlessly. This is truly their best iPod yet, it looks like something that came out of a Sci-Fi film, but I assure you, its completely real. The flash memory is very quick and it was made for Safari. Web pages are clear and easy to read. The built in YouTube player was ingenious, and it works very well. I haven't tried the Wi-Fi iTunes store yet, but I have heard it is very good. I could go on and on about this amazing product. I have noticed that Apple sometimes uses cheap parts in their electronics, but this isn't one of them, the material is very nice and rugged.

- crazyJoe A81

September 14, 2007 05:38

5.0/5
I have to say that this device fascinates me. The iPhone fascinated me, i wanted to get one. But i wasnt gonna drop 600$ for one nuh uh, nor was i willing to do a 2year phone contract that was ludicrous anyway.

so BAM, here comes the iPod touch: everything that made the iPhone amazing, AND minus the phone part which i can totally live without, i already have a phone. its also THINNER, its as thin as my current Samsung player, which ive always referred to as annorexicly thin! so thats great!

features, yeah theyre amazing too! sure the iPhone has more, but this is "just" an iPod. and it has the iTunes music store! YOUTUBE! now i can just sit wherever (within wifi of course) and just watch youtube movies if i get bored of what i have. everything else thats major is all here. except for email and Google maps, which technically speaking i dont see why are not there. im sure the Touch could completely handle it. but my guess is that the business dudes at Apple guessed that yeah this is a substitute device that is going to draw a lot of demand away from the iPhone (ex: me) so lets keep some features iPhone only. so no Google Maps or email on the touch cuz they still want some people to be interested in the iPhone.

and alas. SPACE. 16GBs. ABSURD!! but wait.....is it???? is it really absurd?? perhaps for the ignorant out there it is(im not saying im not, im just sayin i understand why). Ok, the purpose of the iPod touch is to be a Super Advanced media player that was also small, sleek, and super sexy. the only way to go to meet that requirement storage wise was FLASH memory (which is much more expensive gig per gig than a hdd). it saves volumetric space and saves energy. plus its not as heat prone (that=better circuit usage).
so although i would be much happier with a lot more than 16 GB, at the same time im completely happy with 16GB cuz i KNOW that that number is Already a really high number to fit in flash (yeahhh i know some laptops have like 40 gig of flash but thats a laptop...not a 4 ounce iPod...).

plus....for the average user....16GB is Plennnnnty of space. and even for more moderate users, you can still manage with 16, its not THATttt bad. if you want more space....there IS the iPod classic that has 80 or 160 GB that does music and video. they made (in hindsight) it specifically for those people who would complain about the Touch's small capacity.

so yeah, in the end. Amazing device and will most likely be worth every penny (cuz i havent actually gotten it yet derr, but it has every symptom of it)

- burton _force_99

November 10, 2007 12:43
Good
1.5/5
Now I'm not really an audiophile but come on!! Sound quality on this really blows if you have quality earphones or headphones. Output volume is low and lack of user ajustments is mind blowing! Now, keep in mind that if you like sexy, this unit is awesome, but the fun stops there. If you want to hear quality audio this thing needs help. I have a set of Bose OE headphones and a set of Shure SE310's. Lets face it if you have a 200+ dollar PVP/PMP using stock or budget monitors you are not getting what your player can really do. For me audio is the number one feature players like these should focus on, I mean really why would you pay 300 dollars for an MP3 player that has a less than stellar sound processor and low amp rating?

So on that note if you want a way cool touch interface, a web browser, and less than average audio quality in your portable audio/video player... iPod Touch is for you.

- BlackBerry01