I recently splurged (been doing a lot of that lately) on a new Apple iPod Touch (16GB). As much as I hate Apple’s rigid video format requirements, it’s just a sleek and sexy device. I just love the multi-touch interface and the form factor. Having built-in Wi-Fi and the Safari browser are also quite useful. In fact, I used the browser late one night to order something on-line before a discount code expired. Admittedly, typing in all my information with the hunt-and-peck on-screen keyboard was a chore, but it beat getting out of bed and going to my PC.
The screen is gorgeous, the on screen controls are intuitive, and the Cover Flow feature is visually stunning. Since it uses flash-based memory, battery life is quite good. I’ve loaded up videos and movies for entertainment on some recent air travel, and after 2-3 hours of video and music, the battery still has plenty of life. Getting videos onto the device is pretty simple, although if you are putting your own videos on, there may be some converting involved. This is often the case for me, as I have a lot of video content that comes from either my ReplayTV DVRs or the .dvr-ms format from my Media Center PC. If you buy videos and movies from the iTunes store, they are already in the correct format and will easily load to the iPod.
I have two tools at my disposal for video conversions – AVS Video Converter (from AVS Media) and the excellent shareware tool, Videora iPod converter. I recently ran into some problems with AVS Video Converter after I upgraded it to the latest version… MPEGs I converted from files downloaded from my ReplayTV would have no sound. I worked with AVS support on this — and they gave me a work around using another tool in their suite, and that one worked perfectly. Videora also had an interesting glitch when it came to converting dvr.ms files — the sound on the resulting files was offset from the video playback. It converted MPEGs from my ReplayTVs fine.
While I like nearly everything about my iPod Touch, there are a couple things that are making me cling to my trusty old 60GB iPod Photo. For example, I have a remote control setup (Griffin AirClick) in my car for the iPod Photo that I cannot use on the on the iPod Touch. The same holds true for the Apple branded in-line remote control that I use sometimes when using an iPod when I’m outside in the real world. When the iPod Touch is safely tucked away in a pocket, it’s a hassle to have to dig it out to mute the sound or change tracks. The other reason I’m keeping my iPod Photo is that it fits my entire iTunes collection (sans videos of course). One pleasant surprise was that the iPod Touch does dock in my iHome clock radio…
So all in all, I’m pretty happy with the Touch… Apple did a great job designing the hardware and interface.