Ipod Touch Review

I've been holding out on purchasing any Apple product for quite sometime, but I finally had a use for it.  I don't really listen to music unless I'm in my car and majority of the time, my drives last less than 5 mins and the radio will suffice for that.  Once Apple took off with their Ipods I knew there must be some good in their products, well I finally experienced it first hand.

Cosmetically
I want to say this device is very thin, and fits very well in my hand.  The screen is very well built and has very good manufacturing to it.  The back is silver and you can scratch it very easily.  Also the whole thing is a finger magnet, but you can't really get away from it since its a touch screen.  If you don't like stuff scratched up, I recommend you buy a case and screen protector right away.

Itunes
Everything needs to be synced with itunes for any type of media to go onto your device.  This is where they have total control of your device.  I cannot just drag a new song I just downloaded into my device.  I am not really a big fan of itunes and find it annoying having to sync everything.  My album art didn't come out properly and was a big disappointment.  I can really live without it, and prefer just drag and drop method.  I haven't done too much due to the ease of use right out of the box.  I'm sure if I played around it for long enough I can figure everything out.  One thing I noticed or haven't figured out is, if all my music is in a folder, and I add songs to that folder, Itunes does not automatically add those files to my library, kinda annoying.

Apps
I think this is what makes this device so awesome.  The number of things made for this device.  I think most apps are just shortcuts really to things we can find on the web.  Also so many websites are built for the ipod screen resolution which is great when your surfing.  There is no other smartphone out there that has this many apps.  The only down side is that I cannot have many apps open or running that is not a native, which is kinda annoying like if you have ebuddy running, it closes everytime you switch to another app.

Web surfing
One of the reasons which made me want to pick up this device was the ability to surf the web.  It is very easy to navigate through the web, there are many websites built for this which makes surfing so great.  The scroll and the screen is very responsive.  Some websites takes a bit longer to load due to the complexity of the sites now a day, which is cause by the slow cpu on this device.  The worst thing is not being able to see flash content.  Haven't ran much into that because the website creators have developed pages optimized for the ipod, but it does get kind of annoying not being able to see what I'm use to on my desktop browser.

Wifi
It is pretty easy to get connected, but the connection manager is really not that great.  It doesn't hold the signal very well, it will jump from full bars to one bar right away.  It also doesn't have a good manager to see all the saved wifi hotspots you've been to.

Typing
Coming from a blackberry keyboard, surprisingly it wasn't that hard to get use to.  Without calibrating the screen, I got the hang of it very quickly, but sometimes the suggested word is so small and hard to hit the button.

Music and Video
I have to say, its been pretty easy and straight forward, the sound quality is pretty good and the headphones isn't as bad and cheap as they look.  I guess after years and generations of ipods, they should of perfected the skill and interface design that everyone wants.

Final Words
Well, I am happy with my purchase except that the fact that my headphones didn't come with the mic and I needed to upgrade to the 32GB version to get.  It has crashed on me a few times and froze, so its not as perfect and crash free as apple claim their products are.  Task manager is actually a good thing to have so I can stop a specific thing, but I guess if there isn't multi tasking, there is no need for that.  Good job apple, I do applaud the marketing team and the amount of content you guys are able to get for your product, without it, it wouldn't be so useful.

Thanks

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Choosing Smartphones

Blackberry Bold 9000



As of late I've been very interested in smartphones. Back in the day these devices was referred as PDAs, but thats an outdated term. What makes these phones so smart? I'm not going to look it up but give my definition of what a smartphone is. It needs a giant screen, a way of inputting text either via a touch screen or a keypad, and the ability to connect to data services.

So I can only recommend 2 brands of phone if someone was to ask me what type of smartphone to choose. The Apple Iphone or a Blackberry. These two seem to be the most popular devices at the moment. So the first thing you need to ask yourself is what you use the phone most for. If you only do texting, instant messaging and emailing I would recommend you get the blackberry. You can do other things on it and use simple apps if you have a data plan, but its strong point its keyboard. It has a media player but its no where near as good as the iphone.

So, if you already own an ipod, and don't want to carry a phone, then this is the phone for you. You will need some practice getting use to the touchscreen keyboard but you will grow use to it. Its great for music as it is also an ipod with itunes to help sync and also give you access to content. Apple has the largest app store, and you can find some great things on there, but not everything on the app store is excellent. You can play lots of great games, and more gaming companies are developing stuff for the iphone. If you need to surf the web, they have the best browser around for a smartphone. And you can also text, IM and email too. Did I also mention that it looks very slick and thin?

So its basically very simple. If all you do is messaging then you should pick up the blackberry, and for everything else, I would recommend the iphone since there is lots of other things you can do with it.

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Apple not the fruit, but the makers of the ipod

I would like to come out and say I'm not really a apple lover, nor do I hate their products. So I was looking on influences of the past decade and I do have to agree that apple has revolutionized the world. When the first ipod came out, I just thought it wasn't going to succeed and it was just going to be like any other mp3 player. But look where it is now, everyone in north america has one, and now it has evolved to be one of the most used and popular phones on the market.

I recently took an interest to discover why the masses are flocking to apple products and started to want an iphone. Sex sells. And so does sexy products sells as well. People in North America has bought into the white computers and ipods they come out with. Its cool to use an apple now. I see lots of people buy into apple products very frequently wanting the newest and latest of their product lines (reminds me of cars and computers). Owning an apple product now stamps you as being with the times, and their marketing dept has done a very excellent job selling apple the brand to their users.

Itunes, the store where people buy and download digital goods has to be the main reason why it has become so popular. The songs are so affordable at 99 cents. and the collection is so massive. Sure people know where to get songs for free, but there is sometimes the hassle of searching of them, and downloading them using software that might have spyware, or they might end up downloading virus, but with a store like itunes, there isn't much to worry about. Even your grandmother can easily pay for a song and start downloading it. (if she knows how to use a computer)
The other companies which makes mp3 players failed was there wasn't a support for users to download songs even for a cost. They just cared about the player and users needed to find their own way to obtain the content. Also, they probably just thought it would just be another mp3 player. By that time, I'm sure it was too late for other companies to compete as the ipod followers had huge market control. I keep on mentioning north america. Well ipods aren't that popular in asian countries, and someone correct me, but I suspect that the itunes doesn't have a great collection, and even 99cents can seem alot to people who don't have alot of money or who works in sweat shops.

And the final thing I want to point out is that apple is the leading consumer smartphone manufacture at the moment in north america. All other brands are playing catch up, and my personal favourite android is looking good, but its just trying to at least match the iphone, then maybe then it can take over, but right now, its still playing catch up. The app store has very affordable apps, and there are free apps out there as well. Of the 3 smartphone app store, apple is ahead by alot, and many developers are developing things for the iphone because of the masses that can use their software. (useful or not thats another thing) Its like having a computer without the internet. The smartphone are for people who do more than just talk on the phone. In the future I will talk about blackberry and the iphone in comparison.

Apple has created a very popular brand, and everyone is buying into their products. Although their products are much more expensive than the competition, they don't have to worry. They know their products is much more sexier, and has better functionality, with a giant marketplace for content. Bravo Apple! but how long will it be till I own one of your products? Oh, I don't even use quicktime which is made by apple.

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