What Is An iPod Touch?
For a long time, the iPod reigned supreme over the portable media player market. Its design struck the portable media player industry like a lightning bolt, altering it forever. Now, with the advent of the iPhone, Apple’s paradigm of design has changed once again - to multi-touch screens.
In answer to their own innovation, Apple has created the iPod Touch, or, as it is known to its friends, the iTouch. While we could describe how it is different from the traditional iPod (now re-branded as the iPod Classic), it is easier to compare it to the iPhone, its bigger brother. The iPod Touch is basically the same as the iPhone, minus a few key phone features.
First of all, it cannot make phone calls. It does not have the ability to connect to either a cellular voice or data network. It does, however, have a WiFi antenna, so it can connect to local wireless networks. Also, it lacks any of the new hardware features in the 3G iPhone.
The technical specifications can be found here, but here is a brief overview:
- It has a “Music” button, comparable to the iPhone’s “iPod” button.
- It has Safari for browsing over WiFi.
- It can connect to the iTunes Store over WiFi (it will presumably be able to access the App Store this way, eventually).
- It has the iPhone “Mail” application.
- It has a YouTube viewer.
- Google Maps.
- Almost all of the same hardware, but it is thinner and lacks any “phone” features.
Overall, this is the next generation of the iPod. This is undoubtedly the way all mobile devices are going and early adopters of the iPod Touch are really ahead of the curve. The touchscreen capabilities change the way you can interface with your mobile device and makes it much easier to control and use.
