Everyone’s been expecting the mandatory annual refresh of Apples iPods. This has become somewhat of a ritual, and although welcome, we’ve also learned to cringe every time some new feature gets unlocked in the accompanying software update, and doesn’t work on older iPods. Case in point - the iPod Touch 1st generation that cannot avail the goodness of iOS 4. Then, there were the previous versions i.e. iOS 2 and 3, that older generation Touch owners had to pay to use. This is Apples' way of gently reminding you to upgrade at first, and then politely leaving you with (progressively) fewer options.

Such are the pitfalls of a closed system when device, software and accompaniments are designed under one roof. However, there are advantages too. More control has its pros - better integration, fine tuning and of course more control over ironing out potential issues. This brings us to the device we’re looking at - the iPod Touch, now in its fourth avatar. This is more than a gentle refresh, and Apple has ensured the new Touch is more loaded than ever. For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to refer to the iPod Touch 4G as simply 4G hereon.

Look and feel

The new Touch is quite stunning. But then, wouldn’t you expect it to be, over four iterations? The advancement in design is obvious. The new Pod is sleek and slim and looks stunning, even with the screen off. The facia looks like one plane of black glass – very stylish. Flip her over, and the rear doesn’t get the chic finish of the iPhone, instead, the scratch-prone chrome surface persists. Both the 3.5mm jack, and the charger slot now have a slight taper to their periphery, meaning part of the charger and the earphone plug, are visible from the rear, as is a single loudspeaker unit, with a neat, recessed chrome grille. The fit of these jacks seem snug, so no complaints.

The sleep button and the volume controls have been mounted on the curve portion of the sides, and they’ve also been made more flush-fit. This leads to them being rather difficult to press, for although the buttons are bevelled, they are hard to press with minimal travel. We like the idea of making things slimmer, more aesthetic and sleek, but we find this a slight detract from the experience, since older Pods didn’t have this problem, and button intutiveness and comfort should always be given highest priority by designers, in our opinion, of course. Do you agree?

The menu button also feels tackier, with a hard “tick” sound when pressed. It’s also harder than previous Pods, and lacks the buttery, soft feedback that we love and have gotten accustomed to. There are two cameras on the 4G. Both these can be switched between, with a simple on-screen option when the camera is activated. The front camera is a VGA one, whereas the rear one supports a still resolution of 960 x 720 pixels, or video recording at 720i i.e. 1280 x 720 pixels. This is far from the goodness of the iPhone 4.0s five-megapixel clicker. But at least, the feature is there, however cursory its functionality.

Click next to read on about the display and application-support of the Touch 4G