Face-to-face — anywhere in the county
With mobile phones, text messages, and e-mail, there are more ways to talk to someone than ever before. But despite these relatively new technologies' incredible levels of convenience, they just can't replace the value of a face-to-face conversation. However, the technology on the new iPod touch can allow you to have a meaningful face-to-face chat with someone, even if they're across the country. It's called FaceTime, and it will completely change the way you communicate. Each new iPod touch is equipped with two cameras — one on the back for shooting HD video or snapping stills, and one on the front for FaceTime. Using a Wi-Fi connection, you can call anyone with a new iPod touch or iPhone 4 and have a live video conversation. FaceTime not only lets you hear the tone in a person's voice, it lets you see the subtle facial expressions they make. FaceTime is a much more personal way to talk to people on the go. Of course, both cameras on the iPod touch are dual purpose, and you can easily switch between them during a call. So, for example, if you're telling your friend about how you re-organized your room, all it takes is one quick tap and you can show them, too. Then, when you're done, you can easily switch back to the front camera and resume talking. The front camera is designed to make your face look great during normal use, so you can also use it as a really handy self-portrait camera; no more holding the camera at arm's length, hoping the shot is lined up right, then apologizing to your friend when the picture you posted on Facebook only showed half her face.
Speaking of . . .
We briefly mentioned that there are two cameras on the iPhone, but we mainly just talked about the front camera. But, the back camera certainly deserves some attention too. You see, while the front camera will shoot still photos or 30 frames-per-seconds movies in standard definition, the back camera will shoot 720p, 30 fps video, or take 960 x 720 still photos. Neither of those figures is particularly astonishing with today's technology until you consider the size of the iPod touch. The smallest ever, the new iPod touch is only 0.28" thick and weighs less than a quarter of a pound. With the new iPod touch, you can easily fit an HD camcorder in your pocket. Now that is astonishing. With it, you'll have one less thing to carry, since bringing a bulky, or even a compact camcorder to film something is a thing of the past unless you're making professional productions. After all, there's a good chance you would have had your iPod touch with you anyway. With e-mail, web browsing, music, videos, games, and of course, any of the more than 250,000 Apps available through the App store, you won't want to go anywhere without this portable pal. Speaking of Apps, that's another way the new iPod touch sets itself apart from the dozens of home camcorders on the market today. In addition to its much smaller size, the iPod touch is capable of editing and publishing your video without ever plugging anything in. Just download the iMovie App for $4.99 and you can quickly, easily add transitions, titles, and effects to your footage, then upload it to the world wide web, without ever leaving your seat. Just try finding such quality video capabilities on another camcorder, much less at this size or this price!
All the detail you can handle . . . and then some
One problem with a lot of mobile devices is that the screens are, well, more than a little underwhelming. Something about being able to see every pixel on your mobile's screen when we live in an HD world just seems primitive. Always on the cutting edge of technology, Apple agrees, and they've got a solution. They call it the Retina Display, but you'll call it amazing. First debuting on iPhone 4, the Retina Display has now found its way into the latest, greatest iPod touch, and trust us, once you use it, you'll never want to go back. The Retina Display packs an impressive 960 x 640 pixel resolution into the iPod touch. Now, while that's not quite what's typically considered HD, it's a lot more pixels than standard definition (more than twice as many, and more than four times as many as the last iPod touch). And, since Apple is squeezing all those pixels into a screen that's only 3.5" diagonally, the picture on this iPod touch is actually more impressive than the HD video you'd see on your TV. How can we say this with such certainty? Because the Retina Display's 326 pixels per inch is actually more than the human eye can distinguish between. So, when we say that this iPod has a clear, detailed screen, that's not just hype. The Retina Display makes reading and viewing your iPod touch much better than ever before, whether you're browsing the web, watching a video, viewing photos, playing a game, or even just browsing the menu.
Don't be dull!
All work and no play is no fun. That's why, even though the iPod touch makes a great tool for working, Apple devoted plenty of design time to making it as fun as possible. The new iPod touch takes that concept further than ever before when it comes to gaming. Whether you're the kind of person that pwns noobs all day long on the console or you enjoy the occasional game of cards with friends, the iPod touch has something for you. There are over 250,000 Apps available through the App store, the largest category of which is games. And now, the iPod touch is making even better use of all those games. The new touch implements Apple's A4 Processor, which was previously reserved for iPhones and iPads, to enable fast, powerful gaming while minimizing battery use. Of course, the Retina Display enables your games to look better than they ever have on a mobile device. Better still, Apple has added a three-axis gyroscrope. Paired with the accelerometer, this allows the iPod touch to feature what are by far the best motion-sensing controls of any mobile gaming platform ever. Perhaps the best gaming addition the new iPod touch features, though, isn't a hardware upgrade; it's a software feature. The new Game Center allows you to add friends, then compare the games you've played and the achievements you've earned. Better yet, hop into a quick game with them, or if you'd rather, play against strangers from around the world. No matter how hardcore you are when it comes to gaming, the Game Center will help you have fun in whole new ways.
Throwing caution to the wind
Conventional wisdom says "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." After all, as many popular web sites learn when they change their interface, "improvements" aren't always well-received by people who like whatever's being changed. However, Apple has never paid much mind to that particular, and we can all be thankful for that. Perhaps that success comes from the fact that they don't feel the need to completely re-tool something every time they make a small change. Take their mobile operating system, for example. People love it. So, when Apple transitioned to iOS 4 from their previous mobile OS, they kept it mostly intact. The Multi-Touch gestures, intuitive keyboard, awesome programs, and basic interface all stayed the same. But, the OS did receive some slick improvements. Notably, multi-tasking is now enabled, so you can run multiple Apps in the background while you concentrate on one. Of course, since Apple designs the hardware and the software, they've designed it so that the Apps running in the background don't slow down your foreground App or kill your battery life. In addition, they've made it more accessible than ever before, so people with disabilities are still able to enjoy the iPod touch. iOS 4 is also made to work well in most places around the world with many languages built-in. Sure, it's packed with cool new features, this is still the same great iPod touch people fell in love with when the first generation came out.
