Want to Play Some Touch?: What the New iPod Touch Still Needs
When Apple released the iPhone, I was almost persuaded (as the song goes)... but the iPhone, while amazing, is just a little more machine than I really want or need. I love the iPhone's interface, but it isn't likely that the company I work for is going to adopt it as the corporate-approved executive phone. (Not that I didn't try, mind you...) Buying it for a second phone myself was out of the question. $599 for a phone would be tough enough to swallow, but I just couldn't see paying for a 2-year contract with AT&T on top of the basic-but-still-rather-nice phone and service that my company already provides.
But I coveted the slick Cover Flow interface, the multi-touch control, the beautiful video and — most of all — the ability to carry a real web browser experience in my pocket. I didn't really need a new phone, but I wanted everything else the iPhone could do.
Still my 5G iPod with video has served me well and continues to do so. I was content enough. Steve Jobs put an end to that on Wednesday afternoon, though.
The new iPod Touch is, for all intents and purposes, an iPhone without the phone. All the music-playing, video-watching, web-browsing coolness I desired most from the iPhone was wrapped up in the iPod Touch for under $400. Now, I have to be happy, right?
Well...
It's like this.. I've been doing feature comparisons ever since the iPhone was first described, wondering if it would be a good tradeoff for my 5G iPod at some point. My 5G has a 60 GB hard drive — the max at the time I bought it. Most of the time it runs at a little over half-full, with most of my music library, a big stack of podcasts, a smattering of TV shows, and one or two movies synced up at any one time. The only time I really need all that capacity, though, is on long car trips when it tends to run continuously. Maybe 90% of the time, I really only am using one favorite playlist of maybe 100-150 pieces of music, the latest episodes of 20-odd podcasts (including a couple of video 'casts like Cranky Geeks and InDigital), plus a handful of TV shows and perhaps one movie, to occupy me when my beloved Barbara decides to make another marathon run at the department stores and fashion outlets.
I used to need all that capacity for video because I kept my iPod connected directly to my TV at night to run TV shows, but my Apple TV fills that role much more effectively, making the need for vast amounts of video storage on the iPod much less critical. I could do what I need (except for the infrequent long car trips) in 8 to 16 GB, no sweat. That makes an iPod Touch really attractive with that big, beautiful screen.
Web browsing in my pocket is my personal "killer app", though. I have wanted that for a long, long time, if just to indulge my Google/Wikipedia/IMDB habit at the drop of a trivia question. Instant and portable personal access to the world's information is a science fiction dream of mine since I was a child, and the iPhone made that practical and useful for the first time. (I know it isn't the first web browser in a phone. It's just the first GOOD web browser in a phone, OK?) The iPod Touch isn't quite the same thing, since you must have a nearby wi-fi hotspot to use it, but it doesn't require a monthly fee, either. Wi-fi's not as easy to come by in Evansville, IN as it is in San Francisco or Seattle, but we have Panera Bread and Starbucks and McDonalds (Yes, my local McDonalds' all have wifi. Don't yours?) And I have a sweet wi-fi setup at home. (The IT guys at work would frown, though — the company has wi-fi but it is locked down and only accessible for frivolous uses on certain machines in the break rooms. I doubt I could convince them to bend security a tad to allow my iPod Touch to connect to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. C'ie la vie...) All in all, wi-fi browsing is close enough.
So I'm buying an iPod Touch, right?
Well...
There's still one little hang-up for me. It shouldn't bother me. It is such a small thing — not something I originally bought an iPod for in the first place. I didn't think I'd care... but I'm discovering that I do.
There's one thing my 5G will do that the iPod Touch cannot match. On my 5G, I can play games...
I love games in general — made my living creating board games and role-playing games for many years, but I've never been a big video gamer. I don't care for shooters and fast-action button-mashers at all, and (with the sole exception of City of Heroes) I can't get into MMORPGs. I can count the console games I've really played heavily on the fingers of one hand, and a short flirtation with the Game Boy died long ago. (I'm not even sure where my Game Boy is since my most recent move...) But I have found that I like to pass the time with a casual game from time to time, and I've truly enjoyed the selection of iPod games available from Apple. I find myself whiling away the spare quarter-hour playing Sims Pool or Mini Golf or Bejeweled quite frequently these days. I can grab a quick game alone even when there's not time to play a TV show episode, and it has become something that occupies more of my iPods time than I would have thought possible.
And I can't do that on an iPod Touch.
The current run of iPod games work on the 5G, on the new iPod Classic which replaces it, and even on the new iPod Nano. All of them have the same screen ratio and the same clickwheel interface. The iPhone and iPod Touch have a bigger and better screen and a much more versatile multitouch interface, but the current crop of games won't work and the current firmware doesn't seem to support any sort of games at all. There's no Games icon, and no built-in games — not even the lame ones that came with the 5G, let alone the cooler ones that come with the new Classic and Nano.
And, thought I don't quite believe it myself, that might make me hesitate to trade my 5G for a new iPod Touch.
There appear to be some great browser-based games being rolled out by independent developers for the iPhone, and they will certainly all work with the iPod Touch as well — but you must be connected to the internet to play. Stuck in my car sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot or in one of those uncomfortable "husband chairs" tucked away in the corners at the local Women's Wear Warehouse, I'm not going to have a wi-fi connection. (Note to the owners of stores catering to women: Put in a comfortable "husband area" with a pop machine, TV set, a few decent magazines, a wi-fi connection, and good chairs and my wife and everyone else's wife will make millionaires out of you. Trust me.) There's no way to hold a game in memory in the iPhone or iPod Touch.
At least, not yet...
So to push me over the edge (and I daresay I'm not the only one who would welcome this), we need some game play on the iPod Touch/iPhone. At minimum, give us the same games available for the other iPods, adapted for the bigger screen and a touch-screen interface. If you really have to use exactly what you have now, Apple already has patents on a scroll-wheel interface superimposed onto the touch screen technology. Just put the routines that adapt the game display and controls into a firmware upgrade and you could probably make most of the current games run on the new machines. But at pricing similar to the iPod games out now, I wouldn't mind at all buying the whole library all over again, if need be.
But why stop there?
New games designed by the likes of PopCap and EA especially for the enhanced capabilities of the iPod Touch/iPhone screen and multitouch surface could be just that much more interesting. And if you decide to make full use of the wi-fi and internet access capabilities, the horizons are almost unlimited.
Good: Sims Pool and Sims Bowling on the bigger screen, with some enhanced control options.
Better: A Sims gameplay core where you create a more individualized personal Sim who can then be taken into a number of gameplay modules. My Sim wants to go bowling this morning, and play pool this afternoon. When he finishes playing, he can show off his various trophies and prizes won from his efforts at his SimHome. Maybe tomorrow I'll download the Sims Darts module to add to the fun.
Best: I can connect by wi-fi with friends near and far and play against other people's Sims, with my SimHome available for visits online via web connection. Wanna come over and see my SimTrophies tonight, and get in a rack or two of eight-ball?
Wi-Fi allows you to design games where you can:
...play vs other iPod Touch/iPhone owners locally, or at a distance via the web.
...download and/or share game additions/enhancements (such as a modular Sims environment or iQuiz trivia questions)
...upload high scores to a shared web-based leader board
...purchase them through the iTunes Wi-Fi Store
...build and share a players community
I think it is inevitable we will have iPhone/iPod Touch games eventually — but I said that about the Apple TV and we still don't have those, or any real hint that they are coming. If Apple would simply say "there will be games — they're in development", I'd have a lot less trouble turning loose of my 5G iPod. If Apple released a set of iPhone/iPod Touch games to replace those I play so often on my 5G (even if I have to buy them all over again), I'd plunk down my cash now.
Instead, I find that the iPod I said I always wanted is right over there... and I'm still not quite ready to buy. It is such a little thing. But in the end, it is the little things that can make the difference.
But I coveted the slick Cover Flow interface, the multi-touch control, the beautiful video and — most of all — the ability to carry a real web browser experience in my pocket. I didn't really need a new phone, but I wanted everything else the iPhone could do.
Still my 5G iPod with video has served me well and continues to do so. I was content enough. Steve Jobs put an end to that on Wednesday afternoon, though.
The new iPod Touch is, for all intents and purposes, an iPhone without the phone. All the music-playing, video-watching, web-browsing coolness I desired most from the iPhone was wrapped up in the iPod Touch for under $400. Now, I have to be happy, right?
Well...
It's like this.. I've been doing feature comparisons ever since the iPhone was first described, wondering if it would be a good tradeoff for my 5G iPod at some point. My 5G has a 60 GB hard drive — the max at the time I bought it. Most of the time it runs at a little over half-full, with most of my music library, a big stack of podcasts, a smattering of TV shows, and one or two movies synced up at any one time. The only time I really need all that capacity, though, is on long car trips when it tends to run continuously. Maybe 90% of the time, I really only am using one favorite playlist of maybe 100-150 pieces of music, the latest episodes of 20-odd podcasts (including a couple of video 'casts like Cranky Geeks and InDigital), plus a handful of TV shows and perhaps one movie, to occupy me when my beloved Barbara decides to make another marathon run at the department stores and fashion outlets.
I used to need all that capacity for video because I kept my iPod connected directly to my TV at night to run TV shows, but my Apple TV fills that role much more effectively, making the need for vast amounts of video storage on the iPod much less critical. I could do what I need (except for the infrequent long car trips) in 8 to 16 GB, no sweat. That makes an iPod Touch really attractive with that big, beautiful screen.
Web browsing in my pocket is my personal "killer app", though. I have wanted that for a long, long time, if just to indulge my Google/Wikipedia/IMDB habit at the drop of a trivia question. Instant and portable personal access to the world's information is a science fiction dream of mine since I was a child, and the iPhone made that practical and useful for the first time. (I know it isn't the first web browser in a phone. It's just the first GOOD web browser in a phone, OK?) The iPod Touch isn't quite the same thing, since you must have a nearby wi-fi hotspot to use it, but it doesn't require a monthly fee, either. Wi-fi's not as easy to come by in Evansville, IN as it is in San Francisco or Seattle, but we have Panera Bread and Starbucks and McDonalds (Yes, my local McDonalds' all have wifi. Don't yours?) And I have a sweet wi-fi setup at home. (The IT guys at work would frown, though — the company has wi-fi but it is locked down and only accessible for frivolous uses on certain machines in the break rooms. I doubt I could convince them to bend security a tad to allow my iPod Touch to connect to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. C'ie la vie...) All in all, wi-fi browsing is close enough.
So I'm buying an iPod Touch, right?
Well...
There's still one little hang-up for me. It shouldn't bother me. It is such a small thing — not something I originally bought an iPod for in the first place. I didn't think I'd care... but I'm discovering that I do.
There's one thing my 5G will do that the iPod Touch cannot match. On my 5G, I can play games...
I love games in general — made my living creating board games and role-playing games for many years, but I've never been a big video gamer. I don't care for shooters and fast-action button-mashers at all, and (with the sole exception of City of Heroes) I can't get into MMORPGs. I can count the console games I've really played heavily on the fingers of one hand, and a short flirtation with the Game Boy died long ago. (I'm not even sure where my Game Boy is since my most recent move...) But I have found that I like to pass the time with a casual game from time to time, and I've truly enjoyed the selection of iPod games available from Apple. I find myself whiling away the spare quarter-hour playing Sims Pool or Mini Golf or Bejeweled quite frequently these days. I can grab a quick game alone even when there's not time to play a TV show episode, and it has become something that occupies more of my iPods time than I would have thought possible.
And I can't do that on an iPod Touch.
The current run of iPod games work on the 5G, on the new iPod Classic which replaces it, and even on the new iPod Nano. All of them have the same screen ratio and the same clickwheel interface. The iPhone and iPod Touch have a bigger and better screen and a much more versatile multitouch interface, but the current crop of games won't work and the current firmware doesn't seem to support any sort of games at all. There's no Games icon, and no built-in games — not even the lame ones that came with the 5G, let alone the cooler ones that come with the new Classic and Nano.
And, thought I don't quite believe it myself, that might make me hesitate to trade my 5G for a new iPod Touch.
There appear to be some great browser-based games being rolled out by independent developers for the iPhone, and they will certainly all work with the iPod Touch as well — but you must be connected to the internet to play. Stuck in my car sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot or in one of those uncomfortable "husband chairs" tucked away in the corners at the local Women's Wear Warehouse, I'm not going to have a wi-fi connection. (Note to the owners of stores catering to women: Put in a comfortable "husband area" with a pop machine, TV set, a few decent magazines, a wi-fi connection, and good chairs and my wife and everyone else's wife will make millionaires out of you. Trust me.) There's no way to hold a game in memory in the iPhone or iPod Touch.
At least, not yet...
So to push me over the edge (and I daresay I'm not the only one who would welcome this), we need some game play on the iPod Touch/iPhone. At minimum, give us the same games available for the other iPods, adapted for the bigger screen and a touch-screen interface. If you really have to use exactly what you have now, Apple already has patents on a scroll-wheel interface superimposed onto the touch screen technology. Just put the routines that adapt the game display and controls into a firmware upgrade and you could probably make most of the current games run on the new machines. But at pricing similar to the iPod games out now, I wouldn't mind at all buying the whole library all over again, if need be.
But why stop there?
New games designed by the likes of PopCap and EA especially for the enhanced capabilities of the iPod Touch/iPhone screen and multitouch surface could be just that much more interesting. And if you decide to make full use of the wi-fi and internet access capabilities, the horizons are almost unlimited.
Good: Sims Pool and Sims Bowling on the bigger screen, with some enhanced control options.
Better: A Sims gameplay core where you create a more individualized personal Sim who can then be taken into a number of gameplay modules. My Sim wants to go bowling this morning, and play pool this afternoon. When he finishes playing, he can show off his various trophies and prizes won from his efforts at his SimHome. Maybe tomorrow I'll download the Sims Darts module to add to the fun.
Best: I can connect by wi-fi with friends near and far and play against other people's Sims, with my SimHome available for visits online via web connection. Wanna come over and see my SimTrophies tonight, and get in a rack or two of eight-ball?
Wi-Fi allows you to design games where you can:
...play vs other iPod Touch/iPhone owners locally, or at a distance via the web.
...download and/or share game additions/enhancements (such as a modular Sims environment or iQuiz trivia questions)
...upload high scores to a shared web-based leader board
...purchase them through the iTunes Wi-Fi Store
...build and share a players community
I think it is inevitable we will have iPhone/iPod Touch games eventually — but I said that about the Apple TV and we still don't have those, or any real hint that they are coming. If Apple would simply say "there will be games — they're in development", I'd have a lot less trouble turning loose of my 5G iPod. If Apple released a set of iPhone/iPod Touch games to replace those I play so often on my 5G (even if I have to buy them all over again), I'd plunk down my cash now.
Instead, I find that the iPod I said I always wanted is right over there... and I'm still not quite ready to buy. It is such a little thing. But in the end, it is the little things that can make the difference.
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