The iPod touch review, Invisible Shield review

After a week of extensive testing, I have finally come up with results for the iPod touch, as well as the Invisible Shield. But let's start with the shield first.


An important to note is that this is a newer packaging than before. It used to be a hard plastic shell with a piece of a paper inside that said "Invisible Shield" but I guess now that they're making much more money (in part due to the popularity of the touch and the iPhone), they decided to invest some of that in the packaging. I was really pleased and quite surprised by how nice it looked.


Inside comes with the shield itself, a rubber squeegee, and a spray bottle with some "special solution".

The one very, very, very important thing you need to realize when applying the Invisible Shield is that you need patience. Lots of it. I took me close to an hour to get the shield on, and even then I still had a few imperfections. What you do is basically spray the hell out of the shield with the solution and then just apply it direct onto your device. Then squeegee out any bubbles and you're pretty much done. But trust me, it's a lot harder than I made it sound.

The Invisible Shield Review

Once on, your device is impervious to scratches of any kind. Even if you have an ass of a friend who tries to scratch it with a key, it stays protected. But how does it fare against liquids? Not so well. Though it does cover 95% of the iPod, water will still seep into the buttons but the screen and back are safe.

Now say you're at school watching a video on your iPod and some fag starts throwing carrots and burgers in the air. Would you shield yourself with your iPod? I sure would. Even if the screen gets shit on it, you can still clean it off as if nothing happened because nothing did happen. Under no situation will your screen ever be exposed to the harsh environment at school.

The iPod Touch Review

So in the review, I looked at 3 things. 1) Practicality and Usability. 2) Aesthetics. 3) Real life situations.

Aesthetics 10/10


There's no denying that this thing is unbelievably sexy. There's no other MP3 player that comes even remotely close. There's only 2 buttons on the entire thing. The power/sleep and the home button. Other than that, everything else is controlled via the huge touch screen.

Practicality and Usability 9/10

I really do like how everything just seems to work. The cover flow is an amazing and unique way to view your songs, pictures look great, and there's even Wi-Fi to boot.

Safari makes surfing the web so enjoyable compared to other mobile devices. Mail is an excellent way to quickly send/receive e-mails from multiple accounts.

The calender and the ability to make new events makes organizing your to-do list easy. I don't find stocks all that useful, especially on an iPod but at least it works.

Maps is EXCELLENT. It works much better on the iPhone but it still works pretty well here. The ability to pinpoint your location and find nearby stores and map it on the fly is extremely handy.

The Clock is... well a clock.

Weather tells you weather, pretty neat feature.

Calculator does what it promises.

Notes is wonderful. I'm always forgetting stuff so having a place to jot my thoughts down is great.

The iTunes store works fine but I don't use it. You can preview and even purchase songs through your iPod, however you do have to have an iTunes account in order to use it.

Overall, great applications but I wish they had more useful applications like a mobile iChat. I guess we'll see that when the SDK is release soon, hopefully tomorrow.



A note: you need to use iTunes if you want to use this, but then again if you've ever owned an iPod, you probably already know that. There are a few programs out there that will enable drag-and-drop function to it, but I'd just stick with iTunes. Since I'm on a Mac, iTunes is built in so it doesn't bother me as much. Windows users may be wary though, I hear iTunes sucks balls on the PC.

Real life situations 8/10

As great as having a touch screen is, some things should be made into a button. One example of this is the volume buttons. On the iPhone, there are two buttons that control the volume which is nice when you have it in your pocket and don't want to pull it out. But every time I enter an intersection where cars are speeding, a baby is crying while the mother doesn't care, and a dozen or so foreigners are talking in Chinese really loud, I have to reach into my pockets, unlock the iPod, then slide the meter to increase the volume. Then when I enter a library, I have to reach inside it again, unlock it, then decrease the volume. If only there was a volume rocker like on the iPhone, it'd make things REALLY handy.

One great thing about putting this in your pocket is that it's so thin. If you have a wallet and a bunch of keys in your pocket, you can shove the iPod in there without causing your pockets to bulge out. This is really great for those who wear jeans.

In school however, the touch can be a little hard to use. If you're trying to listen to your iPod in class, it's hard to adjust the volume without actually looking at your iPod. You can no longer just lower the volume from your pockets. There is no pause button either. If your teacher is walking past you and you need to pause the music, you have to reach in and take out the iPod to pause it. This is the only part where the iPod touch failed.



Video looks simply stunning. Before this, I use to watch videos on the go using my PSP which was great, but the thing is so bulky it's like carrying a rhinoceros in your pocket. If you're on a train or a place where there's a table, you can use the included video stand to watch movies without holding on to it for hours. Awesome little thing Apple included.

So overall, while the touchscreen is very innovative and great to use, some buttons would've been nice. But it's a very minor con.


Total 27/30

Would I recommend this to everyone I knew? Hell yes. Despite its small flaws, the iPod touch is the best MP3 player on the market. I know there are people who will compare this to the iPhone and how it's missing a lot of the functions but guess what? It's NOT a damn iPhone. It's an Mp3 player with more features than any of its competitors. Sure the lack of radio may be a bit puzzling to those who listen to it, but I could care less. I've never listened to the radio so the exclusion doesn't change my opinion about how badass this thing is. If you have the money and you're in the market for an Mp3 player, buy this. Now.