You could easily be forgiven for confusing the iPod Touch MP3 player with its better-known cousin, the Apple iPhone. In fact, the touch screen is identical, and both units play music and movies in the same formats; and you can also surf the Web via a wireless Internet connection with both the iPod touch and the iPhone.
So it is easy to assume that the new iPod Touch is simply an iPhone — minus the phone. But in reality, the Touch is more than a “phoneless” iPhone. It actually has several interesting and useful features that are not available on an iPhone — or on any competing MP3 player for that matter.
Or example, dropping the phone components from the iPod Touch has made it possible to include more memory. Currently the largest model comes with 16 GB’s of memory, though there is room for even more. Another standout feature is in the ability to create lists and folders and associate your media files with each independently.
And the famous touch screen, while being virtually identical to that on the iPhone, proves much more useful on the iPod, allowing for sorting and moving of music and other media files between folders and lists easily. Plus it’s a great deal of fun to use!
Apple has hinted that the future of the iPod will follow the roadmap laid out by the iPod Touch. The old-style click-wheel iPod versions will begin to fade out, and new models and updates will undoubtedly use the more ergonomic touch-screen navigation.
Another big change from previous iPod versions is the move away from using miniature hard drives. The iPod touch uses flash memory exclusively, and it is likely that all future iPod versions will follow this route as well. As well as being at more reliable and providing faster access to media, using flash memory has the advantage of being infinitely more upgradeable.
For example the 16 GB iPod touch essentially uses a 16 GB flash memory stick, which, should the technology become available and affordable, could be replaced with a 32, 64 or even 128 GB flash memory. Such vast amounts of flash memory onboard would turn the iPod into much more than a music and media file player, allowing dozens or even hundreds of feature length high quality films to be stored on the unit at one time.
While many users will prefer to buy an iPhone, which includes most of the iPod Touch’s media playing features, Apple is betting that many users will still want to have a dedicated portable media player that is not attached to their cell phone.
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