latechna » ipod touch

Opera Mini iPhone/iPod Touch

logtech — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:49:26 +0000

Opera Mini has finally been released on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. From the current test it is 10 times better than Safari. The first thing you will notice is speed. Pages load much faster than Safari (lifehacker chart). The speed of a loading website makes a considerable different especially when on Edge or 3G. The tab browsing on Opera is nice, it is out-of-the-way and easy to use. Page zooms are quick, however we found sometimes they were to quick. We also found there is only one zoom level, however, Opera will re size everything so you don’t have to worry about that too much. One feature which we found useful was search in the website which Safari lacks. With some test we found that Opera had some trouble with formatting pages, cutting off text, and making headers too big. However, this does not take away from the over all experience. Over all it is a speedy browser that has some issues like startup time and zoom, but is probably one of the best mobile web view experiences yet.

Update: Skyfire another mobile web browser may come out on the iPhone and iPod Touch soon; it might have flash.

Envivio iLiveTV

logtech — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:51:43 +0000

Envivio iLiveTV is a new service for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows you watch live TV from online. Envivio uses Apples new HTTP streaming format which allows for the live video to be streamed right to the phone or iPod. iLiveTV works over 3G and of course Wi-Fi, however your mileage on how well the stream comes through may vary. Over all on a Wi-Fi connection the stream came through fairly well and only had a few buffers in the beginning. iLiveTV is a online app only and there is nothing to download. This is a ok idea, however the interface can be a little odd. At the moment the app only has about 6 channels including KRON, KTEH, KGO-TV and few others. These may not be main stream channels but it is a good experiment that works well. If you would like to try this for yourself you can be put on their waiting list for a password for the site. Check out the pictures below.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

iPod touch 2nd generation review

Ptech — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:46:14 +0000

The iPod touch is a mobile multimedia device released by Apple inc. It has built in Wi-Fi, and utilizes the Safari mobile web browser. I found it incredibly easy to connect to the internet and found that, with an “excellent” wireless connection, the browsing was smooth and fast.

As a stand alone iPod, the iPod touch is great. The sound quality is very good, and, on the second generation model, it even has decent quality using the built in speaker. It isn’t the greatest speaker in the world, but it’s sufficient for minimal use. Another feature of the iPod touch is the high resolution “Cover flow.” It is a pretty cool feature, but, for some people, it can’t be used because if you use something like Limewire to import your songs, you won’t get any Cover flow. One other problem that I encountered was that the touch screen is still at full sensitivity when a song is playing. If your finger touches the screen in any way accidentally, something will happen. I had the volume increase to absolute maximum with my earbuds in, and, let me tell you, that hurts.

I have to say, hands down, my favorite feature is the iTunes Wi-Fi music store, and the App store. It is so convenient to be able to download a song anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection. You don’t have to wait to download a song you just heard, you can do it immediately. The App store is also great. I’ve gotten some great applications just by searching around for a little while in the App store. My favorite app is the facebook app. It’s really fun to look at pictures, and chat with friends without having to sit down at the computer.

The iPod touch is a great mobile device, and worth the price tag of upwards of $200. I would reccomend it to anyone who likes music, games, and surfing the web.

Overall: 4.7/5