A Touch too much for iPod?


21 Sep 2007

As the first pre-release batch of the iPod Touch was shipped in the US before its official 28 September launch, complaints have already come rolling in about faulty screens on some of the units.

Complaints that the display of the colour black on the screen is appearing as washed out or is “shimmering” have been logged.

Veteran technology journalist with the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg, gave the iPod Touch a positive review but noted the faulty units, adding that Apple said the problem was being remedied and had only affected a small number of units.

The iPod Touch, with a resemblance to the iPhone, complete with WiFi connectivity and slim black exterior with a widescreen has been dubbed ‘the iPhone without a phone’, and has analysts wondering whether the two products will be competing against each other.

Both will be on sale side by side, in the UK, France and Germany at least, in the run up to Christmas and are aiming for a similar market. But with the iPhone’s required bill pay contract locked into one mobile provider, the iPod Touch may serve Apple fans with their iFix instead.

Additionally, although Mossberg has given thumbs up for battery live of previous iPod incarnations, he makes a point of outing the Touch as the first to fail Apple’s estimated battery life, providing 17 hours of audio playback against Apple’s promise of 21 hours.

By Marie Boran