MacPinoy

All things Apple to a Filipino

Looking forward to iPod Touch in October

Inquirer.net reports that the iPod Touch will arrive on Philippine soil on October. The price tag? P19,090 for the 8 gigabyte version, and P25,490 for the 16 gigabyte version.

I am sure that it will mean bragging rights and that it will be a geek magnet. The question though is: Will the new iPod touch be worth the price tag?

As a media player, the biggest improvement is supposedly the 3.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display (the iPod classic has a 2.5-inch screen while the new iPod nano has a 2-inch screen). I toss the word “supposedly” because there are complaints on the video quality of the iPod touch. Walt Mossberg reports that Apple has confirmed and is fixing the problem and that it has affected a small number of units and is being remedied. “My two test units displayed beautiful images,” Mossberg claims. A relative of mine in the US did send me a couple of pics, and it does seem that the problem does not affect ALL units.

As what my relative said, “No need to squint.”

Here’s a picture of the iPod Touch under direct sunlight.

The other concern was on the 16GB disk space. A lot of people have commented that the disk storage is too restrictive. According to Apple, 16GB translates to about 3,500 songs. I personally translate it to 1MB equals 1 minute of play time (assuming MP3 compression and 128kbps bitrate), so 16GB roughly translates to 11 days of continuous listening. My relative claimed that a 1.5 hour movie will take up 1 GB. Will that be sufficient? I don’t have an extensive music collection and all of it is stored in my Macbook Pro. Music is not my life. I listen to music and podcasts when I’m in the car. In the office I have my MBP recycle a few hours of classical music for the ambiance. I can see myself watching a few TV shoes in the iPod. I know that there are a number of people who want to store their entire music collection in their iPod. The iPod classic with 10 times the storage capacity is best suited for them. However, the reality is nobody will be satisfied with disk storage, so the trick is to figure out and automate what one wants to be stored. I can forsee myself tweaking with the Smart Folders in iTunes to achieve just that. If I go on long trips, I bring my MBP anyway so it is easy to refresh the iPod’s contents. For those without the luxury, you will find that the Smart Folders can truly be your friend.

So will I buy one? The lack of a camera does not really bother me. I do have a mobile phone with a built-in digicam and I always bring that. I don’t always bring my iPod. The wi-fi feature is fascinating and I wonder if the Starbucks deal will carry over to Asia (I doubt). From what I have read, gmail works fine under Safari. Because if uses Flash, Gmail chat, unfortunately, will not work. More and more I find myself consulting my RSS feeds rather than reading newspapers, so the capability to catch up on the latest news from the internet will be useful. Elgato EyeTV hybrid So chances are yes, I will buy one–not so much for the disk storage, not so much for the wi-fi capabilities, but for the video capabilities. There are a couple of TV shows that I follow, but my work at times does not allow me the benefit of watching it by their schedule. So I am also considering Elgato’s EyeTV hybrid to record the shows onto my Mac for subsequent export to the iPod. But before I whip out my credit card, I will definitely test out the iPod touch’s video screen, just to make sure I don’t get the units with the poor darkened video.