Geeks.com, home of several cheap iPods, sent us in for a review an 8 GB iPod Touch 4th Gen for a review. Here's what we found.
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Member since:2006-02-15
Member since:2005-06-28
Member since:2006-03-27
Another way of looking at it is as the current evolution of the PDA. The Home Screen and way iOS operates even vaguely resembles the older Palm OS.
I use mine as a PDA/Music/Gaming device.
My phone is a 3G Nokia S40 candybar. I prefer having it separate for a few reasons:
- most phones I've tried have pretty crap sound quality, iPod is somewhat better.
- it's nice to be disconnected and _not_ have email/net/push everywhere. I have Opera Mini, if I do need to look something up.
- It's cheap compared to an equivalent converged device (iPhone). Both devices are relatively inexpensive compared to a smartphone with equivalent capabilities ($79 + $289), losing/breaking one or the other doesn't mean I'm $700+ out of pocket.
Member since:2005-07-06
Exactly. Only a year or two ago people were pronouncing the death of the PDA. (At this website, even.) I'd argue that the old view of the PDA was too narrow, and the old OS's were obsolete. Attempts to modernize and expand their domain came in fits and starts, but the popularity of the iPod Touch, and the growth of the tablet device, suggests that PDAs have not yet given way to smart phones. After all, not everyone wants, or can afford, an $80/month phone+data plan.
Edited 2011-03-22 15:09 UTC
Member since:2005-09-10
The first and the last imusic device I owned was the iPod Mini, don't even remember how long ago. Had a small black & white thing, bad quality earbuds, but it had 4 Gb storage and could be used as an external harddrive. It also came fee (I won it! first and probably last time I won something - had to send in some code on Coca Cola bottles, knowing the winning times helped 
)
Anyway, I would have been happy with it, but the first time I connected it I had to install iTunes. Which was fine by me BUT. Granted, I was careless, clicked yes YEEESS without really looking - and ended up with all my neatly organized music fsckd up. Then I realized that although I can use it as an external harddrive, I can't copy music to it normally. Sold it when the SonyEriccsson W800i came out - it had only 512Mb storage (extendable) but better quality earbuds with remote control... overall, it worked better for me. Ever since then, I used my phone to listen to music.
Now I'm shopping for an MP3 player again. I had tons of classes with listening activities. A single level from a single book has 3 CDs - I want to keep them separate from my music collection. I was eyeing the iDevices, they have a very competitive pricing (devices from Sony with about the same storage are basically the same price). My question is this: will iTunes screw up my music collection if I go for the iPod touch? I know it still needs iTunes, but has iTunes improved recently. I guess you still can't just copy files over, but I'm fine with that as long as iTunes doesn't mess with the way I organized my collection on my PC.
Member since:2006-03-14
iTunes will let you keep your music organised however you wish it to be. That has been an option since I don't know when.
Member since:2005-11-09
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Member since:
2007-09-22
So what is the iPod touch now really ? A smartphone without the phone part ?
I'm probably one of the few on this site, but I've never owned such a device so I really don't know. I would guess like smartphones they just 'evolved' into this.