4 posts tagged “ipod”
So to start with, I really like my iPod touch... I'm super glad I bought it. It is so nice to use. Sorry old iPod... It's not you... It's me... We've grown apart over the past few months and while we had shared some good times, I think it's best if we move on. Don't make it hard on yourself. And just think, in another couple years, you'll probably forget about me and all that...
Anyway, the thing about this iPod is that I usually try to charge it up when it tells me it's at 10% battery power. It pops up this somewhat ominous dialog box to warn you, and even the battery meter turns a scary red. So I diligently plug it in to keep it alive for another couple days.
But recently, I tried something new.
Instead of immediately trying to charge it up, I let it run on 20% battery life. So far, it's lasted for a couple days. It sorta then begs the question, what's up with that annoying prompt about low battery life? It obviously still has some longevity. And what's even more funny is that sometimes, the battery meter goes back up! Like, dude, iPod touch, either you're at 20% or you're not. Don't gotta lie about that shit, bro... Old iPod never lied to me about battery life...
Another battery that is jerking me around is my laptop battery. I got a Dell from work. It's now telling me that it needs to be replaced. What the hell man... Thanks a lot Dell. You make a killing on selling inferior fourth rate crap to big companies. I'd never buy a personal Dell after this experience. They're like throwaway computers. I bet they melt if they get wet too...
Well, there ya go... A rant about batteries... Sorry to have wasted your time, but I guess as devices scale upwards in power consumption, batteries should also scale upwards but it seems like they're not. Maybe devices need to learn to be more efficient? Damn technology... *shakes fist*
Well, it's Tuesday... I almost forgot to make one of these things...
You know, it seems like all I do on here is write crappy movie reviews and post these really weird comics... And then in between those, I complain about the cold or the snow or other stupid stuff. I guess there could be other, more productive things that I do with my time, but then I'm usually pretty productive throughout the other umpteen hours of the day. So I suppose doing these crazy things helps balance it out... ???
By the way, January is almost over... Bogus...
A while back, I posted that I was considering starting a Web comic. But I didn't bother with it because I didn't feel like I really had much to say... Well, nothing really interesting to add to the Web comic space... But some of the feedback from that post was to write about what I know. So, here it is... My first Web comic... (You might have to click it to zoom in or whatever...)
DISCLAIMER: Apologies for the blurry pics but I forgot to turn on the macro setting, and you know, I just didn't want to reshoot... So deal with it...
So I got a new iPod... The 32 GB iPod Touch. I can now (inappropriately) touch my music, videos, photos, apps, and whatever else I'll put on here... Molest away! The last iPod I had was the 1st gen iPod clickwheel... Thing was a warhorse... Battery still holds up. Plays music... What more did you want?? Had the B/W screen too... So having a little device like this that does more than just play music is pretty sweeeeeeeeeet.
I actually got this thing pretty soon after it was released but I didn't want to post a review of it until I had a good amount of time to play around with it. So yeah... It's been a couple weeks that I've had this thing and well... Here's my sort of semi-useful review...
First Impressions
The touch screen was the first thing that I thought I may or may not like. I've played around with it in the store (of course) but how would it fare under heavy usage? Would I still find it useful? What about the wi-fi? Another big selling point for me was the wi-fi connectivity and OF COURSE the mobile iTunes/App Store features...
My Response
So the touch screen is still quite nice after a couple weeks of using it. I was used to the whole click wheel method of operating the device, but I found this interface paradigm to be very natural. A big drawback is that you can't escape getting fingerprints all over it. Why do companies make this glossy shit? When will this trend go away? People use stuff and stuff gets dirty. Making everything shiny and glossy only makes it more apparent how gross and disgusting and dirty we all are... [end rant] The thing I don't really like is the keyboard. The touch screen is fairly sensitive. I haven't yet found a way to lower the sensitivity. And because the keyboard has no haptic feedback, it's really really easy to type the wrong thing. Apple has a pretty shitty software workaround that often suggests the wrong word or strange words when you type the wrong characters. My fingers are fairly slender, and I do find I have trouble typing with this thing. I can't imagine how someone with thicker, stubbier fingers would fare with this device...
Networking on the other hand, is really simple and easy. The actual UI is pretty well designed. So setting up and connecting to wireless networks is really straightforward. I should also note here that there was no instruction manual included with this thing. So most of what I know how to do has come from just using it. But that's not that bad. It's very natural and easy to get used to... So with a few taps of the screen you can basically get up and running into a wi-fi network. No real complaints here... Oh and Safari is really snappy. Pages load pretty quickly. I have a PSP and that thing, not only does it suck trying to "type" stuff into the address bar, it seems like it doesn't have as much RAM or something, so pages take longer to load on the PSP.
The wireless downloading of apps from the App Store is pretty nice. I like the ability to pull up the App Store, browse around for a few minutes, and pull down something cool. The bad part is how much crap is in the App Store. Policing user-generated content is something I am familiar with, and nobody has really good methods of how to handle it well. You open the door to everyone and you'll get people hanging about that you don't want. That's just how the game works. So my advice is when browsing the App store, be a little cautious about what you download....
The Battery
If there was one thing to say about this that needs work, it's the battery life. Pretty much anything other than music (which is a lot! Video, apps, mail, even browsing iTunes!) will absolutely fucking devour your battery. My old iPod was really good about not burning down power. I could charge it and play tunes for days... This thing, if you actually want to use any of the other features that it provides, be prepared to have to charge it in a couple minutes. I find I have to charge it just about every other day. And because Apple doesn't want to give power adapters with their music player products anymore, I have to plug the damn thing into a computer to be able to charge it. The iPod is a nice device, but FUCK YOU Apple for not giving me a $0.50 power adapter that you're charging people $30 to own.
The Final Tally
So how to sum this up. I like this new iPod. It's a really cool device. The interface, which I was leery about, is really outstanding (another really good example of good UI design). It does take a little bit of time to adjust to how it works, but it's really great nonetheless. Just get ready to have to charge this thing fairly often. What's the point of having a portable device if you have to constantly tether it to a computer??
If you want a number, I rate it overall, a 8/10 (the battery/constant charging thing really bugs me...)
One last thing... Apple is totally missing out on an awesome marketing opportunity here. There was a song written in the '80s that they should totally use in their commercials. I'll let the song speak for itself...
