Apple iPod Touch
It’s this year’s latest must-have gadget and the first bona fide iPod to have built-in Wi-fi, the Safari Web browser, and the YouTube app iPhone owners have come to love. It looks just like the iPhone, with the same size screen but it’s thinner overall, and it borrows the multi-touch interface from the iPhone — it even has the same home screen. It also carries over the accelerometer that transfers the screen from portrait to landscape mode, the same 3.5-inch widescreen display and Wi-Fi, although it’s only 802.11b/g on the iPod Touch.That’s not the most groundbreaking aspect, though — this thing’s got a full version of the iTunes Music Store that you’ll be able to use for shopping right on the device. You can preview and buy songs that will sync up to your iTunes library when you plug it in back at home. The idea is similar to the Music Gremlin and the Sandisk Sansa Connect — which aren’t available in Oz — except you’re getting the added benefit of Apple’s entire online catalog.
Also groundbreaking is the inclusion of Apple’s Safari Web browser, which features the same functionality you get on the iPhone. For enterprising Web app creators, this is huge. Despite the iPhone’s somewhat prohibitive price point in the U.S. — even after this morning’s US$200 price drop — and users being locked to AT&T there’s been an explosion of Web apps that have been built specifically for the device, which is staggering. Companies have become so enamored with the idea of a special iPhone version of their site, it’s becoming nearly as prevalent as building a Facebook app.
Despite the inclusion of YouTube, there are two mysteriously missing apps from the iPod Touch. The Google Maps app, and the Mail app, which gives users first party support for popular mail services like Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL mail. Between the two, the mail app is the more important in conjunction with Safari, as users will have to use two separate windows and their favourite Web mail client to actually e-mail someone in Safari. The experience on the iPhone is a little more seamless, with the device simply opening up a new message in mail.
The iPod Touch is expected to arrive later this month in 8GB and 16GB capacities at $299 and $399, respectively.
Video: YouTube
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