Touch-ed

Nerds everywhere (yes, I'm included) had their afternoon caffeine withdrawal interrupted by news from Apple Inc. via their "Beat Goes On" event. The iPod lineup just got much bigger, badder, and broader... with a new addition of the iPod touch, a.k.a. the much anticipated widescreen version of the iPhone. Additionally, said iPhone (here's an earlier recap) got a brand new price tag: the 8GB version (the 4GB is being scrapped) is now $399 instead of $599 (OUCH, that must h-u-r-t!).

So its immediately apparent that the Touch is bad-ass. Just like its brother/sister iPhone, the device is beautiful, sleek, and simple, with the added benefit that it doesn't put you in bed with AT&T. Unlike the iPhone, the new Touch does seem to add the obvious (and insanely missing) feature of using the flash USB drive for data storage, but that is overshadowed by Touch's weak capacity of 16 GBs (does this foreshadow a weaker than expected bump for the iPhone 2.0?). A couple of other announcements make the iPhone/Touch even more interesting, namely custom ringtones, a Sbux partnership, and a Wi-fi version of the iTunes store.

Ultimately, the only thing that Apple has really done today was to muddy up their lineup of music devices. Instead of 3 versions of the iPod that were different enough to satisfy a range of needs and tastes, now you have basically 5 that all have serious drawbacks. Having seen or held a iPhone/Touch, it would be hard to want to purchase the "classic" (was 5G video iPod), even though it now boasts an impressive 160 GBs of storage. Same goes with the Nano, though my money is on this model to be the real Touch killer (the new chunky size and screen are pretty sweet, if also skewed girly) even with its tiny screen. I'm also befuddled as to why the Touch doesn't seem to include Mail (wtf?!), which makes you wonder if the only reason Apple thinks anyone should go online is to buy iTunes music?

And with the overall improvements found in the Shuffle, Nano, and Classic, the iPhone's key downfalls (no tethered internet connection, no data storage, no 3G network, bad headphone jack, AT&T, and only 8 GBs) seem all the more odious, even though the price is getting better. Ultimately the iPod/Phone lineup is right in the middle of a big changing phase (can you hear the voice cracking a bit?), and a lot of us will continue to wait on the improved versions that must be on the horizon (especially considering the increasing coverage of unlocked iPhones).

Ed note: There was an expected "outrage" over the significantly dropped price on the iPhone, and not 24 hours later Jobs/Apple responded in a very classy way.

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Comments (4)

I bought the 8G iPhone the week it came out. The price drop sucks a bit, but you knew it was coming. I'm an impatient person so for someone with my mindset the $200 to get it a couple months early is fine. Although, I'm not crazy enough to pay $1000+ on ebay just to have it a few days earlier... especially when supply wasn't as scarce as everyone thought. I got mine for sticker price at the Apple Store about 5 days after it came out... right around the time ebayers were getting their UPS packages with the iPhone they paid $1000+ for on ebay :-) I did also have to pay $200 to get out of my t-mobile contract, but the phone is just plain worth it IMHO.

As for the new iPod Touch. I was surprised to see so many PDA/iPhone functions in it. But, the bottom line is its still an iPod. I think the lack of mail is important because they would really eat into their iPhone sales if it had email support. And, I'm certain Apple is getting some type of kickback from AT&T for iPhone sales and AT&T contracts. The iPods don't get that extra scratch for Steve.

The starbucks thing is not a big deal. Lame really... Oh boy, I can buy songs on WiFi while in Starbucks. BFD. I am a t-mobile hotspot user and I pay about $30 a month for it with a 1 year contract. So, when I heard a Starbucks deal I thought "crap, they better not have a cheaper WiFi arrangement!" (the main source of t-mobile hotspots are Starbucks) So, I was happy to hear it was just for downloading songs.

Ringtones are cool... but I'm not going to pay an extra dollar for a limited supply of songs that I've already paid for. I'll just pay the $15 for iToner and make my own ringtones.

All in all, the lineup seems cool. I would like to see some more updates for the iPhone though.

Oh, you know the feature the iPod Touch has that pisses me off: the headphone jack isn't recessed! That has got to be the worst design idea for the iPhone. There has to be some "we'll do this because we can get more money out of them" reason they did that. It's just plain bad.

Jeff

iToner is obviously the way to go, but as soon as I saw the ringtones thing I thought: fuck, they are going to make Millions off of this, even though its fundamentally stupid. Its one of the brilliant points of Apple's design and UI -- always include some little tiny thing that people swoon over (the same idea that some of the car companies copied when they added iPod harnesses).

The price was obviously going to come down, but that was a little quick. The headphone jack issue is universally loathed -- one of the worst design lapses that comes to memory in Apple's iPod era.

I look at all of these and think, man I just want one of the new shuffles. I would be afraid to cut the grass with my iPod Touch.

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