The iTou… I mean the iPod touch

I love my new iPod touch… I’d post a picture of it here but that would be stupid since there are much sexier ones at the Apple web site. Some things to note:

  • Multitouch is cool but sort of overhyped since it is currently only used for zooming within Safari and Photo viewer, and in both cases the double-tap is more generally useful anyway. I’m waiting for a multitouch fingerpainting application.
  • Screen is 3.5" diagonal with resolution 480 x 320 (about 150 DPI)
  • No microphone and no way to get audio to play through the built in speaker (which is more a beeper than a speaker). Even though the quality would be poor I’m hoping someone releases a hack to make this possible, because sometimes I don’t care about audio quality, I just want to be able to hear things, especially podcasts or videos.
  • No Bluetooth, so no Skype/Wifi phone funtionality possible.
  • Very easy to "jailbreak" in order to install additional software, just visit jailbreakme.com and follow the instructions.
  • No disk mode from host computer OS! This is a really big bummer, since that’s something I relied on with my previous iPod. There are other ways to synchronize data to it but they are more complicated to arrange.
  • Doesn’t have the recessed headphone socket everyone was bitching about with the iPhone.
  • Built-in accelerometer seems pretty sensitive/accurate, should be some cute games for it soon.
  • Significantly thinner and slightly shorter than the iPhone.
  • Apparently the quality of the iPhone display is superior, even though they are supposed to be the same.
  • Very nice shiny front panel which is aparently glass, and does seem virtually scratch proof.
  • Stupid mirror polished metal back (rather than brushed or anodized). Definitely not scratch proof and makes you feel like you need to wash your hands obsessively.