iPod touch - not good enough

Steve Jobs just announced the iPod touch today. I don't like it, because...

1. 16G ?
For a 80G iPod user, I am already filled my 5.5G iPod with over 60G of Apple Lossless audio files. How could I accept an brand new iPod with 16G space? OK, the new iPod Classic has 160G. But we need a better PMP. Only the new iPod touch can deliver this. So should we buy both iPod touch and the iPod classic together? Hey Steve Jobs, I want an at least 80G iPod touch!

2. WiFi?
May be in States this is practical. But in HK, only having WiFi is not enough! Give me bluetooth for both network access and A2DP!

3. iTunes WiFi store?
Where is it? (in HK)

4. Starbuck?
All I can see the plans for implementing "Starbuck" music feature is in the States. Where is it?



As iPod get more functionalities builtin, I am more tempted to perform a comparison with my Dopod U1000.

a) Both can play music
iPod has better UI and audio output quality. But U1000 can play much more variety of audio types. (ogg, flac, wma...)

b) Both can play video
But U1000 can play more video types (DivX, Xvid, wmv...)

c) Both have WIFI

d) Both have browsers
May be the user experience in Safari is more pleasing. But Opera Mobile is not that bad!

e) Both can play YouTube

f) Both is touch screen, and wide screen
Just that iPod is multi-touch, and U1000 is argh...single touch. ;)

g) a2dp?
U1000 only.

h) gps?
U1000 only.

i) HSDPA?
U1000 only.

j) Camera?
U1000 only.

k) Install new applications?
Urgh...as iPhone will soon be able to easily to have this. I think iPod touch will have the same chance. But installing new application for Windows mobile is just a piece of cake, plus there are so many applications out there...

l) Storage size?
iPod touch has 16G. U1000 has 8G (microdrive) + 4G SD = 12G.

m) price?
Oh....iPod completely wins in this category.

So as I have an U1000, I don't need iPod touch. :)

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Video iPod

For the past week, everyone is talking about new iPod. Newspaper said many people will die for this thing because of its low price and video capability. But to me, I think it's just an intermediate product from Apple. Given there are already few PMP supporting 640x480 screen, having good support for DivX and Xvid, I can only see the video support in iPod just as a bonus instead of a great feature for main use.

The battery leads to great disappointment too. The official spec. states the 30G version lasts for 2 hours while the 60G lasts for 3 hours in video playback. Not to mention it probably assumes a fully charged and healthy battery condition.

If video support in iPod needs to be as attractive as music support, I think at least the following features need to be found in future iPod generation:

• Great battery life for video playback (> 10 hrs)
  
• Direct support for DivX and Xvid codecs alike. rmvb support would be great too (just dreaming.)
  
• Bigger screen

Bigger screen could be difficult to design, in order to retain the original iPod style and click wheel. But after I saw iRiver U10, Apple should be able to come up with a better idea on their own.

Some rumors say Apple is actively developing a Wi-Fi enabled iPod, with builtin mobile Safari for browsing and even buying tunes in ITS. No matter this rumor is true or not, but network enabled iPod is really a great feature that I personally die for long time ago. Imagine you can listen to Internet radio in public places where WiFi is available. At home, you can stream your bigger music collection from iTunes to your iPod similar to Airport Express. And best of all, we will probably have WiFi headphones to free ourselves from cable. I remember Jobs once thought Bluetooth can't deliver good quality music wirelessly to hp. But I strongly believe WiFi can make this come true. Besides, a builtin mobile Safari means a brand new portable device experience just like PSP does. Besides usual web browsing, I know PSP can now even do remote control through VNC, may be iPod can do similar thing to control your Mac remotely? OK, I know it's already too far away.

How about a Dashboard widget style of APIs for iPod? Imagine all cool things you can do with widgets now can easily ported to iPod. Hmm...

Back to real. Right now, the new Zen Vision would definitely be a better choice for PMP than iPod. Let's see which direction Apple will go in their next step in iPod.