iPod touch The new Touch is out of touch

[*~Kim~*]

The iPhone isn’t getting the design innovation like it used to either.

It used to change every 2 years, but it’s been largely identical since the 6 with the possible exception of the 8. Now it seems that the X style is the one to be used again and again

 

[bodonnell202]

Nothing wrong with the A10 from a performance standpoint, it's just seems odd putting a close to 3 year old chip in a "new" device. I'm a little worried about how the battery life is going to be in this new iPod.
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Yeah true, the newer chips may use more power at peak if all six cores are in use, which may be more than the iPods tiny battery can handle. Then again, they had to downclock the A8 for the 6th gen, so I'm interested to see what they did with the A10 to make it work in the same chassis, and what battery life will be like. I imagine peak clock speed on the big cores will be lower than the iPhone 7 and 2018 iPad.

Looks like it has been underclocked to work in that chasis - based on the Geekbench it looks like it's running at 1.6 GHz and has CPU performance more inline with the A9 (so performance inline with the 6s or SE), but it does have 2 GB of RAM at least. Still curious if it does any better on battery life than the previous generation though.

 

[bambooshots]

No, it’s not.

It just doesn’t appeal to you.

It suits the purposes of plenty of other people.

 

[Shirasaki]

Yes, you're missing that this company is no longer innovative outside of the iPhone. This is just one in a long line of products that Apple allows to stagnate. iMacs, MacBooks, Mac Mini, iPad, iPod Touch etc

They allow things to be sold for launch prices for years after release without any changes and when we finally get an update they put in a CPU from an iPhone 7 released in 2016. It's a joke. As is the Mac Pro, as is the iMac with its 6 year old design and bezels as thick as a CRT from the 90's.

As I said, all they care about is the iPhone.

Any amount of innovation, whether it is under the hood, or on the surface, is innovation. It’s just certain group of people demand certain type of innovation and they don’t see those. This iPod update is an example of that.
Apple can never please everyone, on top of the always premium price. And innovation can come to a stall for a period. Creativity also needs a recharge sometimes.

 

[Quu]

Any amount of innovation, whether it is under the hood, or on the surface, is innovation. It’s just certain group of people demand certain type of innovation and they don’t see those. This iPod update is an example of that.
Apple can never please everyone, on top of the always premium price. And innovation can come to a stall for a period. Creativity also needs a recharge sometimes.

All they had to do was give it a screen the equivalent to an iPhone XR. Instead we get this huge bezel design from like 5 years ago? - That's all.

 

[bodonnell202]

All they had to do was give it a screen the equivalent to an iPhone XR. Instead we get this huge bezel design from like 5 years ago? - That's all.

The screen & design is actually just a few months shy of 7 years old!

 

[MBAir2010]

every new itouch should have that hall 'n oates song; "you out of touch"
or better yet:
a new TV commercial promoting that 70 year old designed itouch product with old people trying to shuffle a song or simply plug in a dongle and getting electrocuted. then that logo.....

 

[subjonas]

So how old/bad is that A10? My grandson has been wanting an iPod touch for a while, and I've been waiting for the new ones hoping to get him one. Stupid to buy?

If history is anything to go by, it will last about as long as the last couple iPod touches (ie. iOS 17 will probably drop support for it in 2023). This is because, though it’s almost a 3 yo chip, devices/chips are getting supported for longer.

I'm actually surprised they didn't go with an A12 so they can continue selling it as is for another 4 years.

I kinda had the same thought - but based largely on the fact this one is unlikely to stick around for 4 years (A16 will be the latest chipset by then!) so either the line is discontinued, they do another lazy bump at the 2 year mark to an A12, or there's a redesign coming in the medium-term.

I think people aren’t realizing that iOS drops support for chips slower than chips are being created. It drops about two generations every three years. At that rate, an A12 iPod touch could be sold for another 6 years and still have over a year left over of support. A11 could be sold for 4 or 5 years, depending when the skip year is, plus over a year left over. The A10 should be sellable for 3 years with over a year left over.

 

[Shirasaki]

The screen & design is actually just a few months shy of 7 years old!

Which means the design is proven and solid, just like old MacBook keyboard with enough travel and much less prone to dust and particles.

 

[sammy2066]

The iPhone isn’t getting the design innovation like it used to either.

It used to change every 2 years, but it’s been largely identical since the 6 with the possible exception of the 8. Now it seems that the X style is the one to be used again and again

Its been the same basic shape and external elements since the 6 - so let's not kid ourselves, there's been zero innovation on the design front.

 

[clayj]

The sole reason I just ordered a 32 GB iPod Touch is to run the Hue Camera app on it -- I'll be keeping the camera on the phone aimed at my TV full-time, mounted on a Lightning dock. I wish there were some other way to keep Hue lights synced with a TV (that DOESN'T involve a computer), but this is the cheapest way to get it done.

 

[retta283]

The sole reason I just ordered a 32 GB iPod Touch is to run the Hue Camera app on it -- I'll be keeping the camera on the phone aimed at my TV full-time, mounted on a Lightning dock. I wish there were some other way to keep Hue lights synced with a TV (that DOESN'T involve a computer), but this is the cheapest way to get it done.

Isn't there a way to make them auto-detect instead of needing to use the app?

 

[clayj]

Isn't there a way to make them auto-detect instead of needing to use the app?

Sadly, no. Everything I have found say you have to use either Hue Sync (which requires a Mac or a PC connected to the video source) or Hue Camera (which requires an iDevice running the app and aimed at the TV). There are also some third-party boxes which can do it, but they aren't cheap.

 

[iluvgadgets]

Has anyone purchased the latest iPod? What are your thoughts?

 

[Gav.Winters]

Apple continuing to use really old hardware is just disrespectful to the consumer. If they don't care about the iPod, kill it. If they do, at least invest some time and money in getting rid of the bezels and just generally making it look somewhat modern. It's like they know if an Apple user wants an mp3 player they've basically no other choice so they know they can just put any old garbage out.

 

[Traverse]

Has anyone purchased the latest iPod? What are your thoughts?

Mine arrived yesterday - Space Grey 256GB. It’s noticeably faster than my old 6th generation and the battery status doesn’t do that weird erratic jump from full to low. A fresh install, downloading a small handful of apps and ago it 2GB of podcasts along with settings and what not (so screen on) took it from about 92% to 78% which I think is good for about 1.5 ish hours of continuous usage.

Apple continuing to use really old hardware is just disrespectful to the consumer. If they don't care about the iPod, kill it. If they do, at least invest some time and money in getting rid of the bezels and just generally making it look somewhat modern. It's like they know if an Apple user wants an mp3 player they've basically no other choice so they know they can just put any old garbage out.

I don’t think the target market for the product cares about out bezels. They don’t impede the products use in any way. This isn’t the latest and greatest being compared to the newest smartphone. I bought mostly for music and will couple it with an external DAC. Small, light, and fast. It serves my needs well with the CS Music app.

I probably won’t go past iOS 13 (for dark mode) to keep it from slowing down.

 

[Aston441]

Mine arrived yesterday - Space Grey 256GB. It’s noticeably faster than my old 6th generation and the battery status doesn’t do that weird erratic jump from full to low. A fresh install, downloading a small handful of apps and ago it 2GB of podcasts along with settings and what not (so screen on) took it from about 92% to 78% which I think is good for about 1.5 ish hours of continuous usage.



I don’t think the target market for the product cares about out bezels. They don’t impede the products use in any way. This isn’t the latest and greatest being compared to the newest smartphone. I bought mostly for music and will couple it with an external DAC. Small, light, and fast. It serves my needs well with the CS Music app.

I probably won’t go past iOS 13 (for dark mode) to keep it from slowing down.

A different, possible better, and certainly less expensive solution for high quality music via external DAC these days is Rasberry Pi.

 

[Shirasaki]

A different, possible better, and certainly less expensive solution for high quality music via external DAC these days is Rasberry Pi.

But then there is no iOS. And raspberry pi cannot be carried around if needed to. Plus, no internal storage for raspberries Pi.

 

[Traverse]

A different, possible better, and certainly less expensive solution for high quality music via external DAC these days is Rasberry Pi.

That’s a good option for some situations, but I don’t want to lose my iTunes smart playlists.

 

[Aston441]

But then there is no iOS. And raspberry pi cannot be carried around if needed to. Plus, no internal storage for raspberries Pi.

It uses a microSD, cheap and any size you want.

 

[Shirasaki]

It uses a microSD, cheap and any size you want.

Ok cool.
Then it needs a power supply. I cannot just carry it around like carrying an iPod with built in battery and internal storage.

 

[cbautis2]

A different, possible better, and certainly less expensive solution for high quality music via external DAC these days is Rasberry Pi.

IMO, iPod Touch 7G's SQ is more than enough to make most people cry in awe when I demoed my "hi-res certified" earphones. All of them wiped their eyes after listening to just one song. Goes to show that iPod Touch 7G's sound quality is not to be underestimated.

 

[LizKat]

I was a little disappointed that they did not go with the A12 chip, but since I am going to use the device primarily just for music it really doesn’t matter.

I would’ve like to see Bluetooth five, but I realize that this is just a minimum spec update to keep the iPod touch functioning because they are clearly selling enough to some market to justify his existence.

Yah I also feel like it's basically a placeholder right now. But that seems better to me than if they just killed that product line

If I were looking for one though, I'd wait until it was available as an Apple refurb, so to knock something off the price... but still qualify for the Applecare+ to extend care for the extra year from point of purchase.

Personally I still even use a much older iPod touch upstairs to hear audiobooks or podcasts, it's almost always in a speaker-dock anyway so battery life isn't even an issue per se. But again, I do like the fact that Apple keeps that line of gear alive even if lagging behind the iPhone on capabilities regarding the chip. I got a 6th gen before they did the update but I don't regret that, since I don't game with the thing and it handles audio/video news and entertainment just fine.

 

[Aston441]

IMO, iPod Touch 7G's SQ is more than enough to make most people cry in awe when I demoed my "hi-res certified" earphones. All of them wiped their eyes after listening to just one song. Goes to show that iPod Touch 7G's sound quality is not to be underestimated.

sweet ears man

 

[Traverse]

I’ve actually packaged my iPod to return. It was snappy and really was a fine device, but the standby battery life was pretty bad and I just was kind of “meh” which is not what I want from a $400+ device.

I no longer had my iPod tough 6th generation and still want iTunes integration so I’m thinking of the iPad mini. I’ve always found it too small for tablet-y things, but for a music listening device with the bonus of maybe some games and books using dynamic type might be a good experience. It’s still super light, but I’ll miss the tiny footprint of the touch. Anyone here use the iPad mini for music?

If Apple had just tried marginally harder with the 7th generation, but I realize they did what the business market (which is the target audience). I would have absolutely loved and iPhone 5 style redesign maybe with a taller screen and bigger battery.