Another Look at the iPod touch

I’m psyched for iOS4 update later this summer. In anticipation of that release I just upgraded my 2nd generation 32GB iPod touch to a 3rd generation model of of the same size. Since only the newest 32 and 64GB models will fully support multitasking and the other features of the new OS, I wanted to be ready to take full advantage. What surprised me, however, is how impressive a lot of the updates found in the 3rd gen. really are, even without the new OS.

First of all, there’s the speed. The processor in the two larger iPod touches is the same as the one in the iPhone 3GS. Rendering webpages and just launching apps is already noticeably faster, which surprised me. It’s not a huge improvement, but it’s there. With games, however, the difference is huge. On my old iPod touch Plants vs Zombies” would slow way down towards the last wave, making it hard to deal with replacing plants or dropping cherry bombs (if you don’t know what I’m talking about you owe it to yourself to go buy Plants vs Zombies). On my new iPod, the action stays smooth with only a minimal stutter towards the end. It makes a huge difference.

The other feature I’m finding incredibly useful is voice control. Yes, you can control your 32 or 64GB iPod touch with your voice. Using any set of headphones with a mic (it comes with earbuds but I used my Urban Ears Tantos) the iPod will recognize commands for a specific artist or album, standard playback commands, or even creating a genius playlist from the current song. I’ll admit I probably look a little silly walking down the street and saying in a mechanical voice “play songs by Dragonforce.” But it’s no worse than the average Joe talking on his bluetooth earpiece. This feature has been particularly useful when I’m riding my bike and want to change to a different artist. I no longer have to reach down to my pocket and pull out my iPod. This successfully bypasses one of the biggest limitations in the iPod Touch’s navigation, you can’t navigate it without looking at it. In particular I find voice control to be a faster way to create a quick genius playlist than scrolling through all the various menus to find an artist and then trigging genius.

The accuracy of the commands is pretty impressive too. Longer band names seem to be easier for it to recognize than shorter ones. Even the genius command is the very natural “play more songs like this one,” which is very satisfying. All in all, I’m really happy to have updated my iPod touch, and look forward to the new features later this summer.