ePathChina News:New iPod Touch more like iPhone 4

Steve Jobs noted during last week's unveiling of freshly designed iPods that the iPod Touch has been called "an iPhone without the phone," and an "iPhone without a contract." Now that it's even more like the iPhone 4, it's sure to remain the most popular iPod.
Touch is the standout among the trio of new iPods. The squished and square iPod Nano — $149 for 8 gigabytes and $179 for 16 GB — is awfully cute. But Apple (AAPL) has given and taken away. In: a multitouch display and a clip for attaching Nano to a sleeve or bag. Out: the click-wheel and video camera.

On the new postage-stamp-size Shuffle ($49, 2 GB), Apple brought back the click-wheel and physical buttons to complement the VoiceOver feature that announces names of songs and playlists.

If there was a disappointment in the new stuff Jobs introduced, it comes with Ping, the music social network inside iTunes 10 software. Ping isn't a complete bust. It just feels incomplete. A closer look at Touch and Ping:

•iPod Touch. The Touch arrives this week with features that bring it even closer to the iPhone 4 it is modeled on. For starters, there are front and rear cameras that let you make FaceTime video calls over a Wi-Fi connection.

Moreover, there's a sweet high-resolution 3.5-inch Retina display that nearly matches the screen on the iPhone 4 accessories. Touch doesn't quite have the wide viewing angle of the iPhone 4, which the latter achieves through technology called "in-plane switching." Side by side, the Touch appeared slightly dimmer than the iPhone.

Still, even teeny-tiny text on the Touch is supersharp and readable. And Touch has the same snappy A4 processor that powers iPhone 4. The power-friendly chip will help push battery life for audio up to 40 hours, Apple says.

Touch is thinner than the iPhone and a tad shorter. It is also more than an ounce lighter. But it feels substantial and is, well, comfortable to touch. With rows of familiar icons, if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were peering at the iPhone screen. And, of course, you have access to hundreds of thousands of apps at Apple's App Store.

But Touch lacks GPS Navigation, so I couldn't get turn-by-turn directions using a TomTom app that I had preloaded on the device or get as precise a fix on my location using the built-in Maps app. (Touch can determine location through Wi-Fi.)

You can record HD video (up to 720p), but there's no flash, and the rear camera isn't as good as on the iPhone 4. It won't be able to exploit a new photo feature included in the iOS 4.1 software upgrade coming this week that will let the iPhone 4 camera automatically combine multiple exposures into a single spruced-up image.

I doubt anyone will rely on Touch as a full-time cellphone substitute. Still, you can make Internet calls with apps such as Skype or Toktumi's Line2. And then there's FaceTime.

For now, you can make video calls only with another person who has an iPod Touch or an iPhone 4 upgraded with iOS 4.1. With a strong Wi-Fi signal, the video call quality in my tests was quite good. You can tap the screen to switch cameras. As on the iPhone, FaceTime is fun, cool and a boon for long-distance grandparents who want to see the newborn.

It's easy to make or answer a FaceTime call. Initially, you enter your Apple ID or e-mail address. After tapping a FaceTime icon, you can tap a Contacts or Favorites name or tap a listing under Recents. On the iPhone 4, some FaceTime calls start out as AT&T calls that are then handed off to a Wi-Fi network. There's no AT&T on the Touch, of course.

The absence of iOS 4.1 meant I couldn't test the social Game Center feature that's coming soon. Gamers will otherwise appreciate the gyroscope added to complement the accelerometer sensor.

•Ping. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. And Ping ain't got that swing yet. It's still a work in progress.

The general idea behind Ping is appealing if not original (think Microsoft's Zune Social). You can follow friends or favorite artists to get the lowdown on what they're listening to, recommending and buying, with charts revealing the most downloaded works among your circle.

I like that you can click in a Ping listing to sample a song a friend or artist is pushing. It's cool that artists post pictures, concert listings and videos as Bono did before taking the stage in Istanbul. The list of artists is slowly growing. Among others I'm following: Dave Matthews, Yo-Yo Ma, Coldplay and Lady Gaga. You can alert friends if you're planning to attend a concert.

In creating your own Ping profile, you can choose up to three musical genres you like — but why only three?

You can display all the music you like, rate, review or purchase, or manually pick the music to display. Through privacy settings, you can choose to let people follow you, or not, or require permission whenever a new person wants to do so. I wish you could more finely tune settings to let some people see some songs you've downloaded while keeping such info off-limits to others. As it is, friends will see only songs you bought from iTunes (or commented on), not anything you ripped from a CD or bought, say, through Amazon.

You can invite friends by e-mail to join, but connecting with them isn't nearly as easy as finding Facebook buddies. Integration with the world's most popular social network appeared to be in the cards but then fell apart. Too bad, because it'd be really useful to know which of your Facebook buddies are also Pinging.

In the first few days Ping went live, it seemed to be a magnet for spam, but Apple is apparently cleaning this up.

You can also access Ping on the iPhone or iPod Touch, but you can't search for new friends to follow. Apple says 160 million iTunes users around the world can sign up for Ping. Big number. But Ping isn't yet social enough.
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News from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2010-09-08-baig08_ST_N.htm