If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my time writing about tech, it’s that while a good review might endear you, a controversial review is what really pulls in the page views. And it’s a tactic that has obviously worked for Business Week’s Cliff Edwards, whose coverage of the iPod Touch certainly errs on the overly critical. Edwards has a number of disappointments with the touchscreen PMP, seemingly focused on a poor set-up experience:
“As with the iPhone, when you first turn on the Touch, you need to connect it to an active iTunes account. This syncs it with information such as how much money you have available for wireless music downloads. I found this requirement a little annoying, since you can’t use the device until you do it” Cliff Edwards, Business Week
Waiting in the wings, however, is Anna over at IIGY Tech, replete with some scathing comments for Cliff. Turns out that his main problem - that a song he downloaded through the Apple WiFi Music Store refused to sync with iTunes on his iMac, and that the Apple manual is decidedly unhelpful regarding the issue - is actually clearly addressed by Cupertino’s support literature:
“Edwards was also irritated that because he “initially checked ‘manually manage my account,’ the Touch wouldn’t automatically sync downloaded tracks to my computer. The quick-start guide and online instructions were little help.” Apple’s online iPod touch manual clearly explains the painfully obvious (pages 8 and 9) that, if you choose to add items manually, you will turn off automatic syncing for iPod touch” IIGY Tech
Overall, Business Week give the iPod Touch 3.5 out of 5, saving a little final criticism for the lack of onboard speakers so that Cliff can preview potential music downloads with his friends and, presumably, avoid buying a track that they’ll later laugh at him for. Subjectively, he’s well within his rights to dislike the PMP, but comments like the following do work to undermine his credibility:
“[T]he Touch may be the coolest new kid on the iPod block, but it will appeal to a smaller audience than the Classic or Nano because of its limitations and inflated price tag” Cliff Edwards, Business Week
As a commentor at Business Week themselves points out, step into any Apple Store and it’s the Touch that is flying off the shelves. Seemingly there are others less picky than Cliff!
Written by: Chris Davies
3 Responses
I think he makes a valid point about the limited audience due to the technology being expensive, but limitations shouldn’t enter into the equation. Those who use the touch will realize what it was made for and does exceptionally well, and for the more adventurous, they’ll go through the jailbreak process and add whatever they want.
i think that guy is just a bloated tool who needs to shut his mouth.
he has the same problem that so many other people are having these days, they dont see the device for the revolutionary work of art that it is, they dont compare apple to apples by comparing, the zune, previous ipods, or anything of that nature to the iPod Touch, they only compare it to what it does, and what it could do, instead of comparing what its nearest predecessor does, and what the iPod Touch could do, everyone is seeing all this added functionality that’s out there for the iPod Touch and the iPhone and not looking at the already revolutionary devices they are.
I bought it first and foremost as a portable web browser. My son uses it most of the time at college now. He doesn’t listen to music on it though. But I was able to download a course from MIT on differential equations and we’re both going through the video lectures on it. The iPod Touch is a decent video player.
I don’t have an iTunes Music account set up for the iPod Touch so the person who said that you need one to get it working is wrong.
And I had to call three stores to find one. The third store said that they might have some in the afternoon. So is it a music player, video player or web browser? I already have a Nano for working out and wouldn’t use the Touch in the gym. I consider it a personal web device. If Apple came out with a bigger one, I’d buy it. It’s fine as it is but I could see a nice tablet computer of the same size that we’d leave in the living room for casual browsing.