Apple iPod Touch Third Generation Review
We are pretty sure that you do not want us to say you that the iPod Touch is awesome. Lot of people, lots of them, are darned enthused; about 25 million consumers just cannot be wrong. This is the third edition of the iPod Touch and it is actually not an easy task to review something that is ostensibly identical to another that we have looked at before, but that is pretty much what we are faced by the third generation Apple iPod Touch. Its hardware has not changed dramatically from the second gen model, but neither has its status as the world’s most feature packed portable media player. The touch has evolved with so many features beyond MP3 playback that we can no longer call it just as a music player. Some choose Touch for its wonderful mobile web browser and email support, whereas others see it primarily as a portable gaming device and only some flock towards the Touch for good old fashioned music and video playback.
Design:
Virtually the same:
For good or bad, the first ever thing that you will notice after unpacking the iPod Touch packing is that, the design remains unchanged from the second generation model. We bet that you will not be able to make out any difference between both the models in just a couple of looks. Apart from the very minor differences in the etching at the back of the device, the second gen model and the latest one are just the spitting images of each other. If you have a look inside the casing, you will find that there had been a place for camera, which despite the photographic evidence to the contrary never made it to the final product, mainly because of the last minute technical problems. There is no change in shape and dimensions either, between both the models and it remains to be (H x W x D) 4.3″ x 2.4″ x 0.33″. The glass display on the front of the model is flat with a curved steel backing, which feels natural and comfortable in hands, but is wobbly when placed in a flat surface.
Said that, the Touch is truly a beautiful thing to be held in your hands, arguably more so than the iPhone with its even more svelte form and simply delicious weight. It just has the right size to slip into the pocket of your jeans and almost forget that it is even there; a breathtaking feat of engineering.
Display and ports:
Just as in the case of its phone sibling, Apple iPhone, iTouch also has a glass covered crisp, pixel dense 3.5″ touch sensitive display of resolution 480 x 320 pixels and 3:2 aspect. Though the device sports a touch interface, few physical controls are inevitable and they include the hold switch on top of the device, a slim volume rocker on the left edge and a home button just below the display. On the part of the ports, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack as in the case of the previous models and also a universal dock port piercing through the otherwise seamless expanse of chromed steel that wraps around the back and edges of the device.
Features:
The feature list of the iPod Touch goes on forever, and at the end of it, you will be confused if you are looking at a media player or a pocket PC. The feature list includes an awesome media player, video support that includes iTunes rentals and You Tube player, podcast support, a safari web browser, an integrated iTunes store for music and video downloads, an email reader that is compatible with Outlook, Exchange, MobileMe, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL or any of the POP e-mail services, an email reader and a host of miscellaneous applications which include clock, contacts, calculator, calendar, weather, maps, notes, stocks and voice memos. If you become efficient with the keyboard on the device, you will chuck out your pocket pc, if you own any.
Heart of the Touch:
Coming to the heart of the device, the CPU and the RAM, we can see that both have been raised to match iPhone 3GS and hence has been packed with a 833MHz ARM-Cortex 8 Processor that has been under clocked to 600MHz, which is most likely to protect the battery life.
Capacities are all not the same:
The Apple iPod Touch 3rd generation is available in three capacities of 8GB, 32GB and 64GB. But all the members of this family are not treated equally as the 8GB model still runs on the second generation hardware and has a slower processor than what is employed in the 32GB and 64GB models. In addition to this, the 8GB model also lacks support for some of the new features introduced for the 3rd gen models like, Voice Control, OpenGL graphics support and even the advanced accessibility features. This is going to be a major disappointment for those who are planning on investing on an 8GB model of the iPod Touch and this is because, as we had already seen with the first generation touch, the future updates of the iPod firmware may bring features that only the latest hardware can support. The budget price tags of the 8GB model makes the device attractive to the prospective consumers, but keep in mind that the lower cost comes at the cost of performance and some attractive features. The common features in all the models includes the iPhone OS 3.1 features including Bluetooth audio, Genius mixes and Voice memo recording.
Applications:
The Stocks application is just a starting point of the loads of applications that the Touch can offer you with version 3.1 of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch firmware. The iTunes App store that is accessible from either your system or the device itself allows you to download and install thousands of applications including games, social networking tools, internet video players and voice recorders. If you feel that you need some extras than what the Touch already has, its capabilities can be enhanced using the third party “made for iPod” hardware accessories such as the AV docks, speaker system and external battery packs.
Genius playlist:
The Genius playlist is a feature that Apple first introduced in the second generation Touch; and this is the feature allows you to create an instant playlist of 25 songs that are based on the musical characteristics of one song. The Genius feature is available in this 3rd gen model too, entertaining you with an easy and fun way of generating playlist if you have a good collection of songs to make interesting connections. The Genius playlists can be created and saved in the Touch itself and this can also be done by automatic syncing enabled in iTunes and just transfer them back to your PC. So, you might be wondering if there were any improvements made with this feature, considering that it is in the latest model too. Well, yes! Apple has broadened the scope of the Genius selections by including App Store recommendations and extended genre based playlists called as Genius mixes.
Genius in App store:
The Genius App picks will be available separately in the Genius tab of the App store and it has recommendations that are based on the previous app purchases that you had made. The Genius mixes have a very intuitive location in the lower sub menu strip of the bottom of the iPod’s music menu, along with the selections for artists, songs, playlists, videos and more. If you like the shuffle feature of the Apple iPod and use it often, then you are going to like the Genius feature too and would enjoy the way the Genius Mixes feature a more surprising and genre specific selection of tunes with minimal effort. But if you are more deliberate about the mood you are in and the kind of music that you would like to listen too, then there is always the “More” option where you can pick the menu items like podcasts, audio items and lots more.
However, an odd fact about the Genius and Mixes feature is that, it would refuse to work if the feature is not enabled in the iTunes software in the system. If you feel that this feature is too demanding of the resources of your system or even that it is too invasive of your privacy as the feature reports your listening habits to Apple, then you will have to live without the feature on your iPod as well.
Voice Commands:
As if the touch screen control of the iPod Touch is not futuristic enough, Apple has also included the capability to control playback using voice commands. In order to activate this feature, just press and hold the headphone remote control button until the voice control screen appears. Using the microphone that is built into the earbuds, you can call out a song or artist name or album or playlist, the iPod interprets your commands and plays the request. The playback features like Shuffle, play, skip and pause can also be controlled using voice commands. But we feel that this feature is simply unnecessary and just a gimmick. The earbud remote control is always available for you to perform these operations and performing these functions with voice control would make you look like a crazy person. However, one cool feature that we did love about the voice control is that, you will be able to steer in the Genius feature by calling out “Play more songs like this”, imagine the reaction of the person sitting next to you, who has no idea about the feature!!!
Voice command performance:
As far as the performance of the voice control, it was surprisingly accurate when it comes to the basic commands like “Play”, “Shuffle”, “Next song” and so on. But as you must have expected, you will not get the same response when you try to call out artists names with funky spellings, for instance, you will never be able to call out P!NK to hear her smash hit “So what, I m still a rock star”. Overall, the Voice Control is just a fun feature to have around and a great one to show off to your friends. This feature could have been a great hit if Apple had devised it in such a way that it can be controlled while it is plugged into a car stereo aux input. Who knows? You might find it in the fourth generation Touch.
A landmark in the Touch interface:
The touch screen interfaces are really a big challenge for the visually impaired consumers. But Apple has been kind enough to find a way out of this for these differently able personalities. By digging deep into the menus of the Touch, the users will be able to enable some special features like white and black reversal, screen zooming, home button triple click, mono audio and an automatic text reader that reads everything from mails to entire web pages. There is also a voice over feature that gives spoken feedback of menus and any item that is selected by touch and the apps launch with double clicks in this mode. This is a great move forward on part of Apple and for the users who otherwise felt locked out of the iPod Touch and apps experience. The inclusion of these relatively deep accessibility controls is certainly a great advantage over the previous models of the Touch and is of course a very promising direction for the touch screen devices generally. But the bad news here is that, the above discussed set of features is available only in the 32GB and 64GB versions of the Touch.
Nike + iPod:
Despite the changes that the fifth generation iPod Nano that saw it gain an integrated pedometer to calculate the footsteps of the user along with the support for an as yet un announced Nike + accessory called the Heart Rate Monitor, the new iPod Touch has not gained either of the features. It just remains capable of linking to the Nike’s Nike+ Sensor to track your movement just as you run and the device can also be used along with Nike wireless remote control wristwatches for the sake of music playback control. Though it is not clear if the Heart Rate Monitor support would appear in the software update of Apple, it is certainly a very likely possibility. In addition to this, the iPod Touch’s support for numerous non-Nike fitness applications guarantees that you will be getting more out of box stuff than what the Nano can offer you with.
iTunes:
If you own an Apple iPod or iPhone of any type, you must be well aware of the iTunes and its features. You will be able to browse, preview, purchase and download content from the new iTunes WiFi store and to take advantage of these facilities; you have to hop on to an available WiFi internet connection. The store allows you to search by songs, albums or artists in iTunes music catalogue. Along with music, you also get movies, TV shows, music videos, audio books, iTunes U educational content and podcasts. In order to do store purchases, you have to enter the password as a security measure. As soon as the download is done, the content will be immediately available for your use and will get transferred to your system the next time you sync. The feature works without the slightest kinks and even interrupted downloads pick up once the WiFi connection is re-established.
Performance:
The interface:
Let us move on to the Touch 3rd Generation performance factors. When it comes to touch screen performance and menu stability, there are very few devices that can even think of competing with the iPhone and iPod Touch. In fact when we reviewed the first couple of models of the Touch, there were literally none to compete, however, now we do have some potential competitors with the design of the interface and speed of the touchscreen and they include Microsoft, Samsung and Sony. And in order to maintain its dominance in the feature, Apple has made some serious efforts to push the speed barrier.
Speed:
The third generation Apple iPod Touch is equipped with a new OpenGL graphics processing system with about fifty percent increase in processor power, load time and even the responsiveness of the games on this third gen Touch has been given a dramatic makeover. The 3rd gen Touch is only the second Apple pocket device to include hardware support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 which is the latest graphics technology that debuted in the iPhone 3GS. This hardware gives the developers the ability to use programmable shaders in order to create much more impressive and realistic looking visual effects than the first two iPod Touch and even what the first couple of iPhone models were capable of producing. For instance, a game of Spore that took about fourteen seconds to load in the 2nd gen Touch took just 8 seconds in the latest model. If you love gaming, then the improvised speed and graphics will certainly please you; but as we had mentioned earlier, these enhancements are enjoyed only by the 32GB and 64GB versions of the Touch.
The undisclosed improvements:
There are also a couple of undisclosed hardware changes in the new Apple iPod Touch 3rd Generation that may not unlocked until the later software update. But we had heard that the 802.11 Wi-Fi chip inside the Touch has not only capable of the currently unlocked 802.11b and g wireless standards, but also the faster 802.11n standard. For consumers with the 802.11n only home networks would appreciate to stop maintain the much slower 802.11g friendly networks for the slower WiFi devices like Touch and for now, the ability of Touch to use the 802.11n networks has been locked. Yet another capability that has been kept locked by the hardware is the receiving and transmitting FM radio, which means that the new Touch could conceivably serve as an FM radio receiver as in the case of the fifth generation iPod Nano and it even has the capability to broadcast its own content wirelessly to car stereos and the other FM radios. As we had mentioned, unfortunately, both the 802.11n and the FM transmitting and receiving features are not supported by the current iPod Touch system software (3.1.1). So, they will start working if and only Apple releases a software update for its Touch.
Audio quality:
Unfortunately Apple has failed to step up the game of the audio quality of the player and has left it simply standstill. You would find an arsenal of sound enhancement settings packed into MP3 players of some of the leading manufacturers like Sony, Cowon and Samsung; while Apple leaves the audio quality unchanged with the marginally useful list of EQ presets included on the iPod. Having said that, the audio quality of Touch cannot be said as bad though and the balanced and smooth nature of the device will be certainly liked by majority of listeners. The disappointment will be stuck only to those who like fiddling with the audio controls.
Formats supported:
As in the case of all the other Apple iPods, the Touch also supports playback for MP3, AAC including protected files, Audible, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless. However, there is still no support for WMA music files, but you can always convert your WMA tracks to MP3 within Apple’s iTunes software.
Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming:
One of the most long awaited features of the iPod was the stereo Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming capability that has been included with the OS3.0 upgrade. With the help of this, pairing up of the iPod with the Bluetooth accessories like speaker systems, stereo headsets or the car stereo is pretty simple and the iPod also maintains a record of the previously paired devices in the Settings menu. Not only do the music files get transmitted with ease via the Bluetooth, the audio from the Video and apps are also done with a great deal of ease. It is just a little bit disappointing that Apple has not fully implemented the Bluetooth AVRCP control standard which would have allowed you to remotely control audio playback using the other AVRCP compatible devices. Something really curios about the feature is that Apple has offered support for controls of Play and Pause over the AVRCP but the other vital controls like skip and volume have not been included. You will not be able to play with this feature all day because keeping the Bluetooth on is going to take a toll on the battery life of the device.
Video quality:
The iPod Touch is a great device to take with you if you are ever considering about video on the go. The Touch can be loaded loads of video podcasts, TV shows, iTunes movie rentals and the best part is that, you will be able to watch endless amounts of video clips using the included You Tube widget or even the other third party video applications. We have to point out the fact that the viewing angles were not as good as they were on the second gen model; however, there is a significant improvement to the colour balance and contrast. Hence, we can say that it has been made up. The colour balance seemed to be much cooler and natural and also looked less washed out at the higher ends of brightness settings.
Battery performance:
The battery performance of the Apple iPod Touch Third Gen has reduced from what was the case in the second generation Touch. And the reason for this is quite obvious; it is mainly because of the increased demands of the faster processor and even the inclusion of some of the latest technologies like Bluetooth. The music playback has come down from 36 hours to 30 hours and the video playback is steady at six hours.
One strange, but great pleasure of all the Apple iPods is that, they arrive charged and ready to go. We must accept that there is nothing quite like the agony of having to wait for about eight hours for the gadget that you just bought with great excitement, before even you are allowed to turn on, particularly after all the excitement for getting it home in the first place.
Inside the box:
The accessories that come along with the 8GB iPod Touch includes an Apple universal dock connector USB cable, a pair of white ear buds that includes a microphone and remote control on the cable and also a molded universal dock insert to be used with any charging or speaker accessories. So the difference is that, the earphones with “Remote and Mic” is new and is similar to the one that is packed along with the iPhone 3GS. It includes a hard plastic headphone plug shell that is thinner and much more slippery than the prior models that have thicker soft rubbery coating. Otherwise, there is no much change as they look, sound and work the same way providing 2 volume buttons, a multi function play, pause and track skip central button.
Warranty:
Apple offers its third generation iPod Touch one year standard manufacturer’s warranty.
Verdict:
The iPod Touch Second generation was one of the best iPods that has been ever made and the only thing that was holding us back was that this model had weak storage capacity for the dollar. Apple has certainly fixed this with the reduction in prices and if you are asking us if you should upgrade to the 3rd gen model, then our answer will be no, unless you are really looking for some performance upgrades, voice controls and the accessibility features of the 32GB and 64GB models are particularly compelling. But if you do not have any of those touch sensitive models of Apple, then you have to get one of these. You must also be aware of the fact that if you are upgrading your MP3 player to iPod Touch from an older Mp3 player that has only the basic capabilities; you might be in a technological overload. If you have simple needs and complex features like email, internet and games all seem to be like overkill, the iPod Nano will be a better choice.
The lack of a camera on Apple’s third-generation iPod touch is disappointing and will rightly make many people wait until the next update before splashing out their cash. But, for those who do not want or need an on-board camera, this version’s much faster processor helps make sure that it remains far and away the best portable media player currently on the market.
Apple iPod Touch 3rd Gen - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Apple |
| Model Name | iPod Touch Third generation |
| Device type | Portable media player |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.33 inches |
| Weight | 4.05 oz |
| Colour | Black |
| Display | 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display |
| Display resolution | 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch |
| Capacities available | 8GB, 32GB and 64GB |
| Supported audio formats | AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless,AIFF, and WAV |
| Supported video formats | H.264, MPEG-4 |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) Nike + iPod support built in Maps location-based service7 Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR |
| TV | Support for 480p and 576p component TV out |
| Input and output | Dock connector 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack |
| Battery | Music playback time: Up to 30 hours when fully charged Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged |
| Battery charge time | Fast-charge time: about 2 hours (charges up to 80% of battery capacity) Full-charge time: about 4 hours |
| iTunes version | iTunes 9 or later |
| System Requirements | Mac : Mac computer with USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later Windows: PC with USB 2.0 port, Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later |
| Box contents | iPod touch
Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic – (only for 32GB and 64GB models) |
| Warranty | One year |
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:07 am
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