Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1490 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Apple
• Model: MB528BT/A
• Released on: 2008-09-10
• Dimensions: .35" h x 4.33" w x 2.43" l, .25 pounds
• Native resolution: 3.5 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163
• Display size: 3.5

Manufacturer's Description

The New iPod Touch
With a stunningly thin, contoured stainless steel design, iPod touch feels even better in your hand. And the new volume buttons and built-in speaker give you more to love. Groundbreaking technologies built into iPod touch — such as the Multi-Touch display, accelerometer, and 3D graphics — immerse you in the action. The new Genius feature turns iPod touch into a highly intelligent, personal DJ. With a few taps, it creates a playlist by finding songs in your library that go great together.

	More ways to play. iPod touch games and applications are nothing short of amazing. And the App Store is where you’ll find them all. The world’s best developers are taking advantage of groundbreaking technology, including Multi-Touch, the accelerometer, real-time 3D graphics, and 3D positional sound, to create games and applications made especially for iPod touch. So whether you’re a gamer or into something else — chatting, social networking, news, sports, finance — there’s bound to be something just for you.
	Volume controls. Volume buttons are built into the left side of iPod touch, giving you easy access to the most frequently used controls.
	Built-in speaker. A built-in speaker lets you hear the music, dialogue, and action without headphones, perfect for casual listening.
	Longer battery life. Now you can keep on rocking (and watching and playing) even longer. Improved battery life means iPod touch provides up to 36 hours of audio playback or 6 hours of video playback — enough to watch three or four movies between charges.
	Music Remember what it felt like to flip through your CD or record collection? Cover Flow brings that feeling back. Just turn iPod touch on its side and flick through your music to find the album you want to hear. Tap the cover to flip it over and display a track list. Tap again to start the music. Even view the lyrics while you’re listening. A musical Genius - say you’re listening to a song you really like and want to hear other tracks that go great with it. The new Genius feature finds the songs in your library that go great together and makes a Genius playlist for you. You can listen to the playlist right away, save it for later, or even refresh it and give it another go. Count on Genius to create a mix you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.
	Movies + TV Shows Everything’s a must-see. Carry hours of video with you and watch it on a crisp, clear 3.5-inch colour widescreen display. Download and watch TV shows from the iTunes store. Buy a single episode or an entire season’s worth all at once. While watching your video, tap the display to bring up the onscreen controls. You can play/pause, view by chapter, and adjust the volume. You can also use the new volume controls on the left side of iPod touch. Want to switch between widescreen and full screen? Simply tap the display twice. Need some entertainment for your next flight or road trip? With iTunes on your Mac or PC, you can sit at your computer and choose the TV shows you want to sync to your iPod touch.
	Internet iPod touch is the only iPod with 802.11b/g wireless access to the web. Whenever you’re connected via Wi-Fi, you can access you’re favourite websites to read news, check scores, pay bills, and go shopping. Pod touch syncs your bookmarks from your PC or Mac, so you can access favourite sites quickly. It has Google and Yahoo! search built in, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for on the web. Get a closer look at any web page by zooming in and out with a tap or a pinch of the Multi-Touch display. View websites in portrait or landscape. Rotate iPod touch 90 degrees and the website rotates, too. If you check a website frequently — a favourite newspaper, blog, or sports site — why not create a Home screen icon for it? Make Web Clips with Safari, and your favourite sites are always just a tap away.
	High technology Built to take full advantage of the large 3.5-inch display, the Multi-Touch touchscreen interface lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, zoom in and out on a section of a web page, and control game elements precisely. The Multi-Touch display layers a protective shield over a capacitive panel that senses your touch using electrical fields. It then transmits that information to the LCD screen below it. iPod touch software enables the flick, tap, and pinch. iPod touch features an intelligent touchscreen keyboard perfect for browsing the web in Safari, getting directions on a map, searching for videos on YouTube, finding music on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, or adding new contacts. It analyses keystrokes to suggest words as you type and correct spelling errors automatically. And because it’s software based, it changes its keys to support typing in multiple languages.
	Rock ’n’ run with Nike+. Pod touch now includes built-in Nike + iPod support. Just slip the Nike + iPod Sensor (available separately) into your Nike+ shoe and start your run. The sensor communicates wirelessly with your iPod touch, tracking your time, distance, and calories burned. It even gives you voice feedback on your progress.

Box Contents
iPod touch
Earphones
USB 2.0 cable
Dock adapter
Polishing cloth
Quick Start guide

Customer Reviews

Thinner Feeling, Longer Lasting, 2 New Buttons, Built-in Speaker
I reviewed the 1st generation iPod touch back in December 2007. The iPod touch has certainly come a long way since then. The iPod touch runs the same operating system as the iPhone, which is now up to version 2.1. iPhone OS 2.1 runs very smoothly, with fast installation of apps, minimal input lag, faster automatic backups in iTunes, and excellent stability.

With the 2nd generation iPod touch hardware, it is clear that Apple DO listen to their customers. Make no mistake, the 1st generation hardware was and still is excellent. But no product is perfect, and there's always room for improvement. So how is the 2nd generation iPod touch hardware different from the 1st generation? How is it better?

Thickness was never a problem with the 1st generation iPod touch. After all, how much thinner than 8mm do you need a pocket computer to be? Well, despite Steve Jobs saying "it's even thinner", the 2nd generation iPod touch is actually thicker. Yes, thicker. It's 8.5mm thick in the centre. However, it feels thinner in your hand because of the contoured design, borrowed from the iPhone 3G. Apple's big thing in 2008 is eliminating the sides of products, and replacing them with swooping curves that taper to a soft point. For the iPod touch this is a good thing, because it feels less hard and angular in your hand, making it far more comfortable to hold.

The Battery Life of the 1st generation iPod touch was already good at 24 hours for Audio, and 7 hours for Video. The 2nd generation iPod touch dramatically improves on Audio, now at 36 hours, but mysteriously drops 1 hour for Video, down to 6 hours.

The biggest problem for me, with the 1st generation iPod touch, was the lack of physical buttons. How many Consumer Electronics products can you think of that only have 2 buttons? It's a miracle the 1st generation iPod touch did what it did (e.g. Mail, Internet, YouTube, Maps) with just 2 buttons! However, changing the volume of your Music was unnecessarily awkward. First you'd have to tap the Home button to wake the iPod touch from sleep, then you'd have to double-tap it again to bring up the iPod Controls, then you'd have to slide your finger across the screen to operate the virtual volume slider. Fortunately, Apple have overcome their fear of buttons and actually added a physical rocker-switch to the side of the iPod touch. Press one end to increase the volume instantly, and press the other end to decrease it. Genius :-)

Let's be clear, the 2nd generation iPod touch still comes with Apple's normal, no-frills iPod Earphones. However, it will also work with Apple's brand new £19.00 Earphones with Remote and Mic. These are brilliant and actually an improvement over what's shipped with the iPhone 3G. There's a tiny white "block" on the cord of the Earphones that contains 3 buttons and 1 microphone. Squeeze the centre button and you can pause your Music. Squeeze it again and you can continue playing your Music. Double-squeeze it and you can skip forward to the Next track. Triple-squeeze it and you can skip back to the Previous track. The hidden microphone may not seem particuarly interesting at present. But it's worth noting, with this piece of hardware, the iPod touch is all-set to become a VOIP Wi-Fi Phone. All it needs is a Skype app on the App Store! While you wait for the official one, try Fring instead, which is free.

Finally, anyone that's used an iPhone will appreciate how useful it is having a built-in speaker. It's fun for playing video games, it's sociable for watching videos with friends, and it's essential for apps such as the French Talking Phrasebook. Well, the 2nd generation iPod touch now has a built-in speaker. The catch is, the speaker isn't as good as the one in the iPhone 3G. It's completely internal, with no visible hole or port, so the quality of the sound is weaker and tinnier.

An OBJECTIVE plus (+) and minus (-) review. Please read this if you're making up your mind.
This is an impartial review based on my experience of the iPod Touch 2nd Generation, and other Personal Media Players.

Strengths:

+ WiFi and Safari Browser. Superb mobile browsing experience. For example, you can stream BBC iPlayer to the Touch perfectly. A real joy.

+ Youtube widget for playback of youtube videos.

+ Integrated Nike + Support, so that you can use the device as a training tool for exercise.

+ App Store. You can download from thousands of Apps on iTunes, including games, and stream internet radio, for instance.


+ Superb capacitive glass touch screen. Older touch screens use `resistive' technology. These work on a different principle, and are less responsive. (The Archos 5 uses a resistive screen. The Cowon S9, however, uses a capacitive one like the iPod Touch).

+ Incredible User Interface. Beautifully conceived and implemented. Music and Videos are organised with an astonishing attention to the user's goals, and you regularly feel that Apple designers have read your mind when you go about tasks.

Here's an example: you wish to download a podcast. You go to an internet address in Safari. Safari automatically grabs the address, boots you into iTunes (on the device itself), and takes you to the podcast listing within the iTunes store. Two more clicks and you're downloading your content. That's the way things should be done.

+ Advantages over the previous generation include a dedicated volume rocker, slightly more curvaceous design, slightly improved battery life, integrated Nike + support and mini speaker.

Weaknesses:

- Very, very average sound quality. Now it is a mystery to me why so many users and reviewers overlook this issue. Having owned the Touch, I have come to the conclusion that it is stylish Swiss Army Knife whose MAIN BLADE is blunt.

It is true that many people will have no issue with the sound quality probably because their only reference point to the world of personal media players is the iPod brand. This is useful ignorance, because I would challenge anyone not to be thoroughly crestfallen with the sound of this device compared to something as cheap yet beautiful sounding as the Sansa Clip.


- Video playback. If you are happy to be locked into the iTunes universe, then you will love this device. You will endlessly pay for movies and will enjoy them on this device. If like me, however, you like to play your own physical DVDs in DivX format,in addition to a range of movie files in various formats and codecs, then the Touch is simply not your friend. It only supports a few video codecs, which means as a device for video playback, it is somewhat paralysed.

- Terrible battery life. Three hours of mixed use, and the Touch is wheezing for a recharge. It's great being a Jack of all trades, but Jack gets tired rather too quickly sometimes!

- Being `locked in' to iTunes. There are some Apple hating brand lunatics who simply disparage anything Apple for the sake of it. For me, I feel that iTunes is an excellent software (especially on a Mac) but it is also limiting. With iTunes organising my device, I can't just drag and drop files onto the Touch, and this is a bit of a pain. But you may feel different, so this one is up in the air...

Conclusion and buying advice:

Having owned it, the Touch is either superb or mediocre depending on whether you wish to buy it as 1) your mini WiFi web browser with an App Store, or as 2) your multimedia player.

1) As a mini browser, it is excellent. Browse the web, download podcasts, stream iPlayer, etc. (But remember, when you're not near a WiFi signal, none of these capabilities count for anything).

2) But as a genuine media playback device, it just does not cut the mustard. Think of it as a second rank device in a field of stellar performers. The sound quality for music playback is just average, and in some cases, embarrassing when listened to devices made by Cowon, Sansa, iRiver and Sony. And its Video playback is equally crippled by its lack of codec support.

So what is the bottom line?

Well, I owned this device but decided to sell it when I bought a £20 Sansa Clip and stopped listening to music on it because the sound quality was so much superior on the Sansa. This is not hyperbole, and I do not hate Apple. In fact, I love Apple, so do take this as objective advice.

I simply realised that my priority was sound and video quality, and that I would get all of the extra features of the Touch most important to me (namely WiFi and a stunning User Interface) when I buy a Macbook in the future.

I have since purchased a Cowon O2, which is a stellar sounding device (admittedly without the Touch's `extra' features) but in a league of its own in terms of sound quality for music playback, and movie playback. (It supports a cornucopia of music and video files and in this regard is a much more accomplished device).

So then, what are you after?

A mini WiFi enabled device with music/video as an extra? Well then buy the Touch! Go for it. You'll love it and enjoy its brilliance.

But if the answer is an audiophile experience of sound and video, do not buy this device. Start investigating a Cowon O2 or S9, or an iRiver Spinn.

Hope this helps.

- Written by a non-partisan audiophile.

My First bite of the Apple and I'm touched by its Quality
I have always been a Sony media player person and for a while I have been tempted to try an iPod. I kept checking out the iTouch and when I did go for this it was of course the 2nd Generation.

I have to say I am very impressed with its build quality and its features. There are also a surprising amount of free Apps you can download from iTunes direct to the iTouch and I have quite a few. I did buy a slim leather case to help protect it and its a shame it does not come with one but all the same it is such an amazing device.

Easy to configure to a Wi-Fi network to browse the web. I'm still finding out things it can do each week and would have to say its the best thing on the market if you want a music/video/internet device then this is it as you won't be dissapointed.