iLounge Reviews the iPod touch
The website iLounge has a 5+ year tradition of a journalistic approach to Apple iPod news; their reviews, articles, and regular news updates are completely devoid of snarkiness, instead focusing on facts and well-written leads. In short, they’re a well respected resource for Apple news. However, their review entitled “Apple iPod touch (8GB/16GB)” did nothing but attempt to reinforce the iLounge opinion that the iPod touch is a “downgrade” from the iPhone. Preoccupation with iPhone comparisons caused iLounge not to miss the boat, but miss the harbor on this one:
…you don’t just lose a cell phone by buying iPod touch instead of a comparable-capacity iPhone; you lose the dock, charger, camera, external speaker, microphone, battery life, screen quality, resilient back casing, Bluetooth, and several applications. Try to read that list aloud without taking a breath. You gain only a limited video-out feature, and a few millimeters of thinness, which we’d gladly have traded for superior performance.
By sequestering itself with a focus on the “iPod enthusiast” (à la auto enthusiast) end of the market, iLounge has lost sight of what an average iPod consumer wants. The iPod has never, ever, been about feature count; given their long review history, iLounge should realize that.
Comments
Nils
I think iLounge’s point is that the new iPod Touch is not an advancement on the current generation of iPods, not about the lack of tons of features. I certainly don’t think it is an improvement. Any gains in this new device are immediately overshadowed by its failings: poor battery life, poor capacity, glitches with the screen complimenting a very pricy unit. You could buy a video iPod and get about 3 times the storage space and an increased battery life. That said, it certainly looks cool.