Apple iPod touch 1st Generation Black (16 GB) MP3 Player
- Number of Songs: 4100
- Usage: Music Video Photo Viewing Gaming / Apps Internet
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 3.5 inch
- Main Storage Type: Built-in Memory
- Operating System: Apple iOS
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Does Everything- And Does It Well
Pros
Slim, light weight design, apps, multifunctional
Cons
Poor battery life, no speaker or physical volume buttons on first generation
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
An excellent overall media player
Immediately after seeing the iPhone keynote address, I was mesmerized. The device was a brand new concept; it was a complete game changer. I wanted one, and I waned one badly. I did not, however, want that data plan and expensive phone plans that came came with one.
I was thrilled then to see the iPod Touch (1st Generation) released shortly after. It was like Steve Jobs had read my mind. It was a simple concept- an iPhone, more or less, without the phone bit. It just had WiFi as it's only data connection, working with no fee in any WiFi zone.
The iPod Touch is a slim, sleek looking device with a gorgeous glass screen taking up nearly the entire front. The screen measures 3.5" diagonally. The iPod is tiny, measuring 4.3" by 2.4" by just 0.31" thick. Packed in that thin design is a total entertainment power house, featuring a WiFi chip, an 8, 16, or 32 gigabyte flash memory card (I got 16gb), a gorgeous screen, a rechargeable battery rated at 22 hours of play time for audio or 5 hours for video, and a wealth of software design that makes you wonder how such a tiny device can do so much.
The iPod Touch, even in its first generation, is completely feature rich. It plays music and video, displays pictures, offers web access, includes several included apps, and has expandable functionality through third party apps available at the App Store on iTunes. Third party apps were added after the initial release and are arguably what makes this device so unique and sets it apart from other media players.
Design And Use
The first generation iPod Touch is controlled almost entirely through a touch screen. The entire screen is touch sensitive. It features only two buttons- a sleep/wake button on the top, and a circular button on the front that returns you to the main screen when touched.
The iPod Touch is easy to use, but will take getting used to as its functionality is so far advanced over traditional mp3 players. Icons on the home screen are touched to take you to a function, and touch buttons present within that function control aspects of that function.
Media is added to the device in two different ways. The first option is to add media through iTunes, by hooking the iPod up to a computer with the included cable. This is required initially to register the device through your iTunes account. It also allows you to place content you already own, such as songs and pictures on the device. It gives you the most control over which items go on your device. Secondly, when connected to WiFi with your iPod touch, you can use the included App Store app and iTunes app to buy content, which will automatically download to the iPod.
Music
Like any iPod, music is the devices first priority. Music is an icon that can be selected from the home screen. From there, icons on the bottom allow you to select to view your music by artist, songs, playlist, or albums. This can be customized and other options include composer, iTunes University, Genres, Podcasts, Compilations, and Audiobooks. A list of songs the shows up on the screen, and you can selet the song to play or select "shuffle." Once a song is playing album artwork becomes the backdrop on the Touch's screen, and touch controls come up to select next, back, pause/play, shuffle, repeat, and back to menu. Flipping the device on it's side landscape style enters "Cover Flow," and mode that allows you to flip through albums based on their cover art.
Exiting the music section, the music continues to play. Double pressing the circular button brings up music controls over whatever else is going on in the background.
There is no speaker in the 1st generation iPod Touch. Headphones are required for listening, or a music dock. The iPod music's quality is good, though it will largely be dependent on the quality of the speakers or headphones you listen to it on.
The small memory size of 16gb prohibits me from storing my entire music collection on the iPod Touch. I find the touch control interface to be prohibitive to using my iPod Touch for music in many of the situations I listen to music in- while cutting my grass, exercising, cleaning my house, driving, or reading. For that reason, I prefer a device with the traditional iPod click wheel interface over a touch screen interface for most music listening. The makes the iPod Classic my main music player, though I do keep music on my Touch and will listen to it if I don't have another iPod on me.
Video
Video can be added to the iPod Touch. Selecting "video" from the home screen will produce a list of videos on the device. The videos will play on the full screen in landscape mode. The video quality is good and doesn't lag. I find the relatively small storage space, poor video battery life, and lack of speakers on the first generation iPod Touch prohibitive to truly enjoying video on the Touch, and as I result, I do not routinely keep video files on mine.
Pictures
The iPod Touch has a gorgeous screen, and as such, it only makes sense to use it for pictures. Pictures can be added via iTunes. Selecting the "Photos" icon takes you to a list of picture albums. Photos can be displayed in landscape or portrait mode. They look great on the screen and the touch screen interface works well for "swapping" back and forth between pictures. The iPod Touch can take screen shots by quickly pressing both physical buttons. The screen will flash and the the screen shot will be saved in the Photos app.
Web Access
The iPod Touch can access the internet while in a WiFi zone. This can be used for apps, adding content to the device, and actual web browsing. A mobile version of Safari is included with the iPod Touch. It actually works surprisingly well for a touch screen interface on a tiny screen. It's not perfect, but it's usable. It's definitely slower than it would be on a computer on the same connection. The on screen touch keyboard takes some getting used to. Adobe Flash is not supported, rendering some websites unreadable. You can zoom in and out on web pages by pinching two fingers together on the screen or moving them apart. Safari supports several features like having multiple tabs open, book marks, and integrated Google search.
Included Apps
Apple includes several default apps on the iPod Touch. Included is Safari, Music, iTunes, App Store and Video apps as already discussed. There is also a Mail app, which allows you to check e-mail when on WiFi without going into the web browser. The Mail app is well designed for reading and composing e-mail on the small touch screen. It can integrate mail from several services all in one place, and provide notifications when new mail is received. It easily works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe, AOL mail, and Microsoft Exchange.
Calendar and Contact apps are included, which do just as you would guess. I have not tried these with Windows, but they integrate flawlessly with iCal and Contacts on my Mac computer. They also work fine on their own, allowed easy adding of important dates and contacts on the fly. Calendar has 3 view options- Day, Month, or List (which lists any upcoming events you've added). It's odd that a week option has been excluded. Events can be divided into different color-coded calendars, allowing you to give each of your children a color, or have a color for work events and personal events.
A simple Weather app is included. Weather is displayed by zip code in a simple 6 day format showing high and low temps and a simple icon depicting sun/rain/snow/wind/clouds. Several zip codes can be added, and flicking a finger across the screen changes to the next city. This app will only update when connected to WiFi.
A World Clock app is included, allowing you to see the current time in various cities. A stop watch, alarms, and timers are also included. Several sounds are given as options for the alarm, but I find it odd that you cannot wake up to music on the device. Perhaps this was added on later versions which I have not tried. A small icon displays on the top of the screen at all times if an alarm is set. Using the timer option, you have the option to play a sound or sleep the iPod when the timer is done.
A Notes app allows you to store notes on the iPod, such as reminders or shopping lists.
Stocks lets you check how your favorite stocks are doing on the go. This only works when connected to WiFi.
A beautifully designed Calculator app is included. In portrait mode it's a basic calculator. In landscape mode it's a scientific calculator. The display is crisp and the buttons are the perfect size and distance apart for the touch screen interface. I use this all the time.
A YouTube app allows you to watch Youtube videos when connected to WiFi. This is a nice feature to have as YouTube will not work within the included Safari browser. Clicking a link to Youtube when in Safari will open the YouTube app.
The final app included is a Maps. Maps is based on Google maps. It's well integrated with other iPod apps, allowing you to use contacts as a destination. You can view the map as a road map, satellite, or a hybrid. Traffic can be viewed. Driving directions can be obtained, and viewed as a list or on the map. All of these features only work while connected to WiFi, however, driving directions that are obtained while on WiFi can be viewed until changed, so I will often get the driving directions at home, then just take the iPod with me and look at the list as I drive instead of printing out directions.
Third Party Apps
I won't say a lot about these, since what apps you have will be different for everyone and dependent on one's tastes and interests. I will say that the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from is nothing short of very cool. There are thousands of excellent apps beautifully designed to add tons of functionality to the iPod. The apps are generally quite affordable ranging from free on up, with almost all being <$10, and many at the 99 cent price point. Examples of apps include cook books, specialized calculators (such as financial ones or medical ones), tons of games, online banking apps, internet radio apps, and movie apps. I can stream my Netflix movies on my iPod. I can listen to Pandora. I can play Doodle Jump til I'm blue in the face and have beaten my high score. I can check Facebook from the airport. I can have a ski map of all my favorite resorts readily available. The possibilities are endless and the apps are just going to keep improving.
Games are especially well suited for the iPod, many fully utilizing the iPod's gorgeous touch screen and motion sensor. Games more and more are utilizing the WiFi connection to allow you to share your high scores online, challenge friends, and play against others in real time.
Final Thoughts
Overall the device is well thought out, well designed, beautiful, and feels sturdy. I've had this for 3 years now and it is still fully functional. The back has visible scratches, but the screen is perfectly intact despite never having any screen protecter on it and routinely being thrown in a purse. The battery life was decent when it was new, but now is quite poor. Luckily, being an iPod, charges are easily found for it be it a car charger, dock, or wall charger. The default way to charge it is to connect it to a computer via USB.
Overall, this device is an excellent entertainment device and is good at many things.
I was thrilled then to see the iPod Touch (1st Generation) released shortly after. It was like Steve Jobs had read my mind. It was a simple concept- an iPhone, more or less, without the phone bit. It just had WiFi as it's only data connection, working with no fee in any WiFi zone.
The iPod Touch is a slim, sleek looking device with a gorgeous glass screen taking up nearly the entire front. The screen measures 3.5" diagonally. The iPod is tiny, measuring 4.3" by 2.4" by just 0.31" thick. Packed in that thin design is a total entertainment power house, featuring a WiFi chip, an 8, 16, or 32 gigabyte flash memory card (I got 16gb), a gorgeous screen, a rechargeable battery rated at 22 hours of play time for audio or 5 hours for video, and a wealth of software design that makes you wonder how such a tiny device can do so much.
The iPod Touch, even in its first generation, is completely feature rich. It plays music and video, displays pictures, offers web access, includes several included apps, and has expandable functionality through third party apps available at the App Store on iTunes. Third party apps were added after the initial release and are arguably what makes this device so unique and sets it apart from other media players.
Design And Use
The first generation iPod Touch is controlled almost entirely through a touch screen. The entire screen is touch sensitive. It features only two buttons- a sleep/wake button on the top, and a circular button on the front that returns you to the main screen when touched.
The iPod Touch is easy to use, but will take getting used to as its functionality is so far advanced over traditional mp3 players. Icons on the home screen are touched to take you to a function, and touch buttons present within that function control aspects of that function.
Media is added to the device in two different ways. The first option is to add media through iTunes, by hooking the iPod up to a computer with the included cable. This is required initially to register the device through your iTunes account. It also allows you to place content you already own, such as songs and pictures on the device. It gives you the most control over which items go on your device. Secondly, when connected to WiFi with your iPod touch, you can use the included App Store app and iTunes app to buy content, which will automatically download to the iPod.
Music
Like any iPod, music is the devices first priority. Music is an icon that can be selected from the home screen. From there, icons on the bottom allow you to select to view your music by artist, songs, playlist, or albums. This can be customized and other options include composer, iTunes University, Genres, Podcasts, Compilations, and Audiobooks. A list of songs the shows up on the screen, and you can selet the song to play or select "shuffle." Once a song is playing album artwork becomes the backdrop on the Touch's screen, and touch controls come up to select next, back, pause/play, shuffle, repeat, and back to menu. Flipping the device on it's side landscape style enters "Cover Flow," and mode that allows you to flip through albums based on their cover art.
Exiting the music section, the music continues to play. Double pressing the circular button brings up music controls over whatever else is going on in the background.
There is no speaker in the 1st generation iPod Touch. Headphones are required for listening, or a music dock. The iPod music's quality is good, though it will largely be dependent on the quality of the speakers or headphones you listen to it on.
The small memory size of 16gb prohibits me from storing my entire music collection on the iPod Touch. I find the touch control interface to be prohibitive to using my iPod Touch for music in many of the situations I listen to music in- while cutting my grass, exercising, cleaning my house, driving, or reading. For that reason, I prefer a device with the traditional iPod click wheel interface over a touch screen interface for most music listening. The makes the iPod Classic my main music player, though I do keep music on my Touch and will listen to it if I don't have another iPod on me.
Video
Video can be added to the iPod Touch. Selecting "video" from the home screen will produce a list of videos on the device. The videos will play on the full screen in landscape mode. The video quality is good and doesn't lag. I find the relatively small storage space, poor video battery life, and lack of speakers on the first generation iPod Touch prohibitive to truly enjoying video on the Touch, and as I result, I do not routinely keep video files on mine.
Pictures
The iPod Touch has a gorgeous screen, and as such, it only makes sense to use it for pictures. Pictures can be added via iTunes. Selecting the "Photos" icon takes you to a list of picture albums. Photos can be displayed in landscape or portrait mode. They look great on the screen and the touch screen interface works well for "swapping" back and forth between pictures. The iPod Touch can take screen shots by quickly pressing both physical buttons. The screen will flash and the the screen shot will be saved in the Photos app.
Web Access
The iPod Touch can access the internet while in a WiFi zone. This can be used for apps, adding content to the device, and actual web browsing. A mobile version of Safari is included with the iPod Touch. It actually works surprisingly well for a touch screen interface on a tiny screen. It's not perfect, but it's usable. It's definitely slower than it would be on a computer on the same connection. The on screen touch keyboard takes some getting used to. Adobe Flash is not supported, rendering some websites unreadable. You can zoom in and out on web pages by pinching two fingers together on the screen or moving them apart. Safari supports several features like having multiple tabs open, book marks, and integrated Google search.
Included Apps
Apple includes several default apps on the iPod Touch. Included is Safari, Music, iTunes, App Store and Video apps as already discussed. There is also a Mail app, which allows you to check e-mail when on WiFi without going into the web browser. The Mail app is well designed for reading and composing e-mail on the small touch screen. It can integrate mail from several services all in one place, and provide notifications when new mail is received. It easily works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe, AOL mail, and Microsoft Exchange.
Calendar and Contact apps are included, which do just as you would guess. I have not tried these with Windows, but they integrate flawlessly with iCal and Contacts on my Mac computer. They also work fine on their own, allowed easy adding of important dates and contacts on the fly. Calendar has 3 view options- Day, Month, or List (which lists any upcoming events you've added). It's odd that a week option has been excluded. Events can be divided into different color-coded calendars, allowing you to give each of your children a color, or have a color for work events and personal events.
A simple Weather app is included. Weather is displayed by zip code in a simple 6 day format showing high and low temps and a simple icon depicting sun/rain/snow/wind/clouds. Several zip codes can be added, and flicking a finger across the screen changes to the next city. This app will only update when connected to WiFi.
A World Clock app is included, allowing you to see the current time in various cities. A stop watch, alarms, and timers are also included. Several sounds are given as options for the alarm, but I find it odd that you cannot wake up to music on the device. Perhaps this was added on later versions which I have not tried. A small icon displays on the top of the screen at all times if an alarm is set. Using the timer option, you have the option to play a sound or sleep the iPod when the timer is done.
A Notes app allows you to store notes on the iPod, such as reminders or shopping lists.
Stocks lets you check how your favorite stocks are doing on the go. This only works when connected to WiFi.
A beautifully designed Calculator app is included. In portrait mode it's a basic calculator. In landscape mode it's a scientific calculator. The display is crisp and the buttons are the perfect size and distance apart for the touch screen interface. I use this all the time.
A YouTube app allows you to watch Youtube videos when connected to WiFi. This is a nice feature to have as YouTube will not work within the included Safari browser. Clicking a link to Youtube when in Safari will open the YouTube app.
The final app included is a Maps. Maps is based on Google maps. It's well integrated with other iPod apps, allowing you to use contacts as a destination. You can view the map as a road map, satellite, or a hybrid. Traffic can be viewed. Driving directions can be obtained, and viewed as a list or on the map. All of these features only work while connected to WiFi, however, driving directions that are obtained while on WiFi can be viewed until changed, so I will often get the driving directions at home, then just take the iPod with me and look at the list as I drive instead of printing out directions.
Third Party Apps
I won't say a lot about these, since what apps you have will be different for everyone and dependent on one's tastes and interests. I will say that the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from is nothing short of very cool. There are thousands of excellent apps beautifully designed to add tons of functionality to the iPod. The apps are generally quite affordable ranging from free on up, with almost all being <$10, and many at the 99 cent price point. Examples of apps include cook books, specialized calculators (such as financial ones or medical ones), tons of games, online banking apps, internet radio apps, and movie apps. I can stream my Netflix movies on my iPod. I can listen to Pandora. I can play Doodle Jump til I'm blue in the face and have beaten my high score. I can check Facebook from the airport. I can have a ski map of all my favorite resorts readily available. The possibilities are endless and the apps are just going to keep improving.
Games are especially well suited for the iPod, many fully utilizing the iPod's gorgeous touch screen and motion sensor. Games more and more are utilizing the WiFi connection to allow you to share your high scores online, challenge friends, and play against others in real time.
Final Thoughts
Overall the device is well thought out, well designed, beautiful, and feels sturdy. I've had this for 3 years now and it is still fully functional. The back has visible scratches, but the screen is perfectly intact despite never having any screen protecter on it and routinely being thrown in a purse. The battery life was decent when it was new, but now is quite poor. Luckily, being an iPod, charges are easily found for it be it a car charger, dock, or wall charger. The default way to charge it is to connect it to a computer via USB.
Overall, this device is an excellent entertainment device and is good at many things.
