iPod Touch 3rd Generation Review

PC in Your Pocket

The iPod Touch is a little PC in your pocket. You can use it for email as well as surfing the web. Everything is easy to set up. Just press the Settings icon and you will be taken to a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 11. From there you can turn on the Wi-Fi and the iPod touch will automatically connect to the network of your choice. You can also change the brightness and other general settings in this area.

Figure 11: The Settings area

As mentioned earlier, there is now a unified in-box, which makes it easier to use more than one email address. Email is easy to set up and easy to use.

The built-in Safari web browser along with the multi-touch screen makes it easy to surf the web although, as with other Apple products, there is no support for Flash.

The touch has Google maps and navigation, but there is no GPS support. It will, however, use Wi-Fi triangulation to trace your location. While this is far from perfect, it certainly is better than nothing.

While there are plenty of apps for game-playing, there are also productivity apps that allow you to get some work done on the iPod touch.

The iPod touch uses the typical sealed-in rechargeable lithium ion battery. Apple claims up to 30 hours audio or 6 hours video playback. We found that we could easily use the touch heavily for an entire day without recharging. It has a fast-charge, which lets it get up to 80% charge in about 2 hours.

Apple continues its commitment to our environment with the iPod touch. It is made of Arsenic-free display glass. It is BFR and PVC-free. The LED-backlit display is mercury-free, and the stainless steel enclosure is highly recyclable.