Listen To This! The Great JAMM Portable Media Player Showdown. Part 2: Hardware

When I started thinking about this series, one of the hardest things to wrap my brain around was where to begin.  Then, I thought about Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.  “Start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start.”  You know what?  That is excellent advice.  So, rather than getting into some of the more complex areas like playing music or videos, I thought we would start with what you see right out of the box.  Usually, the battery is dead or near to it when you buy a new media player, so the first thing you are going to do is not watch a video or play some music.  The first thing you will do is tear through that box and examine the hardware (pining for the ability to use it while it is charging.)  So, I thought it made the most sense to start there…right out of the box.  And we will do that in a few initial articles.

Today, I am going to take a look at the players themselves.  Turned off, and just looking at the hardware and construction.  The next two installments will look at the rest of the contents of the respective boxes, including earphones and accessories.  We’ll then wrap up this initial section with a look at the controls on each of the devices.  Then, we’ll start to look into what happens when you turn these things on and start playing with them.  So, let’s jump right in and start at the very beginning.  You slowly and carefully remove your new device from the packaging…

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The iPod Touch 16GB Review. Part I: Unboxing, Hardware, and Controls

Recently, I had the opportunity to purchase an iPod Touch, and surprised myself quite a bit by jumping all over it.  I say surprised myself, because I have spent the last couple of years using and reviewing almost every portable media player out there except the iPod.  In fact, I have never owned an iPod in the ten years since it came out (well, I did actually own an iPod Shuffle for about an hour).  So, why the sudden change of heart?  There were a few reasons.  First, after hearing so much about it, I was really extremely curious about the iPhone/iPod apps store.  I saw some of the apps available over at What’s on iPhone, and was thoroughly impressed.  But that can’t be the only reason.  I mean buying a whole new platform just so you can shop at their store would be pretty silly.  The main reason was that I have reviewed almost every high end portable media player out there (I am still hoping to get ahold of the Samsung YP-P2), however, I feel that without at least evaluating the iPod Touch, my understanding of the industry is severely limited.  Plus, it just looked really cool.  I opted for the 16 GB version (there are also 8 GB and 32 GB versions) mostly because I stumbled upon a good price for a refurbished model.

Of course, the iPod Touch is a pretty complicated device.  As Steve Jobs might say, it is a media player, a PDA, and an Internet communication device, all in one.  There is far too much to discuss in just one post.  So, I decided to break it into a series of smaller posts, over the course of the month of August.  Today, we’ll just get acquainted with the iPod, and take a look at the hardware and controls.  In later posts, we’ll look at:

• The iPod Touch as a portable media player
• The iPod Touch as a PDA/pocket computer (including the new Apps Store)
• The iPod Touch as an Internet/email device
• iTunes
• And then we’ll wrap it all up

Once we’re all done taking a look at the device itself, watch for plenty more reviews from the all-new iPod Touch/iPhone Apps Store.  For now, let’s get started with an unboxing and overview of the hardware and controls.

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