All Articles Tagged third gen ipod touch

For our iPhone 3GS hardware review, we joked it was the same as last year, end of story. Thanks to Apple, we’re left with pretty much the same opening line here: the iPod touch G3 is the same as last year.

Except, of course, like the iPhone 3GS, that outward assessment doesn’t tell the inner story at all, and while Apple marketing didn’t see fit to call this the iPod touch S, that inner story is again all about speed.

Note: You’ll see a lot of “like the iPhone 3GS here” because, frankly, it is and we reviewed that member of Apple’s mobile platform family first. That also means we’ll focus on what differences there are, and we’ll also take a look at whether the iPod touch G3 is a good choice for those who want in on Apple’s iPod and App Store ecosystem, but don’t want an iPhone or smartphone contract. (Yes, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Android, and feature-phone users want an “App for That” too…)

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In typical Apple fashion, they announced the new third generation iPod touch 32GB and 64GB as being 50% faster than the previous generation (the 8GB is the same old bag as last year), with nary a word on what chipsets made it so.

Well, some digging has been done, and some benches have been marked, and the early word is… zoom zoom.

Macworld’s tests show some impressive gains. Boot went down from 31 to 19 seconds. Launching apps went from 12, 20, and 10 seconds to 7, 15, and 5 for Peggle, HR Battle, and Rolando 2 respectively. Web page rendering for the NYT site was down from 34 to 15 seconds, and the Sunspider JS test went from 34.2 to 15.6 seconds.

So, yeah, about 50%.

TUAW, meanwhile, went to the heart of the matter, and discovered that the new iPod touch shares similar, if slightly incremented internals over this year’s iPhone 3GS. More plainly, same Samsung ARM Cortex A8 processor (S5L8922X, however, as opposed to the iPhone 3GS S5L8920X). No word yet on what may be different, if anything about the PowerVR SGX graphic core, but as we heard already, the 802.11n potential is in the WiFi chip.

The second generation iPod touch was faster than the iPhone 3G, so it’s not hard to imagine lack of cell-radio concerns and slightly new components could push the third generation iPod touch across the finish line before the iPhone 3GS as well.

Everyone, including Steve Jobs, has very reasonable sounding theories as to why the third gen iPod touch camera was removed. Rather than rehash it again, however, we thought we’d let our minds wonder into parody, and consider what might have happened in a world only slightly more cartoonish than ours…

Steve Jobs, fresh from his recent leave of absence, comes crashing back into Apple’s Cupertino campus, and after fixing the typography on the iPhone 3G S 3GS, tweaking some pixels on the Snow Leopard UI, and spending time meditating deep in the iTablet vault, he heads over to the scorched closet that used to be reserved for iPhone A2DP testing…

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With Apple consolidating its Apple TV offerings this morning down to a single 160GB SKU at a lower $229 price point, we’re once again split between Apple axing their “hobby” or giving it a much-needed refresh.

If Apple does axe the Apple TV, however, something would need to take its place in the living room. Could that something be the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 and the still-mythic iTablet? Dock them properly to an HD TV, and could you have a solution with one heck of a built in controller?

We know the iPhone (and likely new iPod touch) can support 720p and 1080p out. We even hoped Apple would flip the switch on that feature last week in order to better position themselves competitively against the about-to-ship Zune HD. They could still flip it at some point, however, along with introducing new HDMI-based video output cables.

This would go a long way towards showing iPhone and iPod touch content on the big screen, but right now one of the Apple TV’s strengths is streaming rather than just storing and showing. You can attach an Apple TV to your HD TV and, without any local content, stream all the iTunes media you have on your Mac or Windows PC, and the potentially 2TB drives that can now attach to those (or more with RAID, Drobo, etc.)

Neither iPhone nor iPod have ethernet, and both are stuck on the older, slower 802.11g Wi-Fi standard (though the iPod touch G3 might be updatable to 802.11n).

That’s where an iTablet, presumably with much beefier internals and faster Wi-Fi (though we still doubt ethernet) comes in. Apple could position it as a dock-at-home, take it with you on-the-go solution.

Of course, whether you’d want to lock your iTablet to a TV rather than using it to surf and chat while watching TV is debatable, and could be a deal-breaker for many. Though better that than just trying to up-sell everyone to a Mac Mini…

Looking at it this way, it seems that even in an iPhone, iPod touch, and perhaps iTablet world, there’s still a place for an Apple TV in the lineup. If only for now.

We’d heard rumors that the iPhone 3GS would be getting fast 802.11n Wi-Fi to go along with that S for Speed, but that never panned out — except for the new third generation iPod touch.

iFixit has been doing their prerequisite tear-down of the brand new device, and MacRumors says:

One of the more intriguing differences uncovered so far is the inclusion of a Broadcom BCM4329 combination Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, which supports the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard in addition to 802.11a/b/g standards. The iPhone 3GS and the second-generation iPod touch utilize a different BCM4325 chip, which supports only the 802.11a/b/g standards. While Apple has apparently not activated 802.11n capability in the iPod touch and it is unknown whether it will choose to do so in the future, the new iPod touch hardware does appear to be capable of supporting the standard.

Speaking of rumored-but-not-delivered:

iFixit has also revealed that there is a small empty space at the top of the device (approximately 6 mm x 6 mm x 3 mm) where an iPod nano-style camera could fit. The iPod touch does not appear to be thick enough to adequately house an autofocus camera as found in the iPhone 3GS.

Would we have wanted an iPod touch with VGA video like the nano, but no 3mp stills like the iPhone 3GS?

Following Apple’s It’s only rock and roll, but we like it special music event, CEO Steve Jobs, fresh from his return to the keynote stage, sat down with the New York Times, and while several topics were discussed, here’s the “big question” (and answer):

POGUE: You put a camcorder on the iPod Nano. Why not on the iPod Touch?

JOBS: Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine. Because a lot of the games were free on the store. Customers started to tell us, “You don’t know what you’ve got here — it’s a great game machine, with the multitouch screen, the accelerometer, and so on.”

We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff — we need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.

So Apple would rather have cheaper third gen iPod touches than more feature-complete ones. Interesting strategy, given what the Zune HD will soon bring to the market (that, admittedly, Apple owns 73% of….) Is Apple’s 30% cut of App Store profits suddenly more enticing than their traditional ~30% margins on hardware? Because here’s the thing, not many people will see the 3rd gen iPod touch as much of an upgrade path from the 2nd gen, so Apple’s leaving that money on the table. Add a camera and mic, and, well, there’s that hardware upgrade gravy train that usually runs so regular-like from Cupertino Central. Or maybe they just think the cheaper entry price will get more than enough new buyers interested to make it worth Apple’s while…

Other questions asked and answered include Jobs’ opinion on the Kindle (people prefer integrated devices), why the new iPod nano doesn’t shoot stills (VGA quality stills aren’t good enough), and how’s he feeling (enjoying the ice cream!)

Check out the full interview for the full Jobs…

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Apple just announced the new, third generation iPod touch during their It’s only rock and roll, but we like it special music event. The big news?

Looks like the $199/$299/$399 price point for 8GB/32GB/64GB was spot on, and along with the OS 3.1 update, similar to what the iPhone is getting (including Genius Mixes, Genius App Recommendations, Voice Control, VoiceOver, etc.). The 8GB looks to be last year’s model priced to clear, like the iPhone 3G, while the new 32GB and 64GB devices get a 50% speed boost (iPhone 3GS got a 100% boost, by the 2nd gen iPod touch was faster than the iPhone 3G to begin with), OpenGL ES 2.0 for better graphics,

Apple Store shows they ship in 1-3 days (3 days for the 64GB monster).

The biggest news, however, is the stunning lack of a camera — something the new iPod nano received. It seemed like such a no-brainer addition, perhaps rumors of production problems forcing Apple to delay them were true? If so, delay them until when? Any time soon, and buyers of this version will be angry. Until next year, and everyone will be annoyed. What’s it going to be, Apple?

Of course, with the Zune HD about to be released, the loss of a camera and lack of HD-out (or OLED) are competitive disadvantages. However, the new price points and massive lead in Apps likely even things out.

What say you?