iPod 4th Gen iPod touch makes an excellent reader

[JeremyZ]

Well, I got weak last night and called Best Buy to see if they had any 4th gen. Touches in stock, 64 GB. The girl I talked to said they did. I confirmed that it was a 64 GB model and 4th Gen. I drove the 30 minutes over there and they only had the 3rd gen. She did not even put it aside as she told me she would. She punched out about 3 minutes after my phone call, so I couldn't even rip into her. Boy, that made me hoppin' mad. I'm going to log onto their site and give that store a bad review.

No Best Buy or Radio Shack near me has them. I guess I will wait for my order to come from Amazon like a good boy.

[foghat]

I have the iphone 4 and I agree, the Retina Display is awesome for reading.

Not sure if you noticed, but in iBooks, when using a Retina Display device, there are 2 smaller font sizes available than what you get on the 3rd gen devices.

I love using the the smallest font size - it is small, but still so crisp that I have no problems at all.

[dwharrison]

Originally Posted by foghat

I love using the the smallest font size - it is small, but still so crisp that I have no problems at all.

Your eyes are clearly working much better than mine. :-)

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

Well, I got weak last night and called Best Buy to see if they had any 4th gen. Touches in stock, 64 GB. The girl I talked to said they did. I confirmed that it was a 64 GB model and 4th Gen. I drove the 30 minutes over there and they only had the 3rd gen. She did not even put it aside as she told me she would. She punched out about 3 minutes after my phone call, so I couldn't even rip into her. Boy, that made me hoppin' mad. I'm going to log onto their site and give that store a bad review.

No Best Buy or Radio Shack near me has them. I guess I will wait for my order to come from Amazon like a good boy.

My local Best Buy showed them is stock on the web page, but I couldn't find them when I arrived. They only had the 3G on display. Turns out they had them locked up in a cage behind one of the cash registers where no one could see them. I guess they still had 3Gs they wanted to get rid of first.

My local Best Buy doesn't seem to care much about anything but cellular phones and TVs. Those two items are prominently displayed, and everything else seems hidden away with none of the sales staff familiar with it. Even computers are placed way in the back of the store.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by jswinden

The Apple 4th Generation iPod touch with the retina display makes an excellent reader. I've previously owned (well actually still own) the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen iPod touches. Although they were okay as ebook readers they were plagued by two shortcomings.

One is the small 3.5 inch diagonal screen. That of course is still a problem with the latest 4th Gen touch. However, the small size and portability has made for a decent ebook reader to take along to doctor offices, etc.

The other shortcoming was the lackluster 480x320 pixel resolution. Most eInk screens in comparison have at least 800x600 pixels. But with Apple's new retina display they have increased the resolution to 960x640 pixels. One thing I always noticed on the older touches, and indeed nearly every LCD screen I've owned, is that my eyes would get tired from reading after an hour or so. Extended reading on prior LCDs was out of the question. However, with the new retina display this eye soreness seems to be greatly decreased. I am able to read for hours on my 4th Generation iPod touch.

I wondered why the difference was so great. So I did what i often do and took out my 12 megapixel camera and took some side by side photos for comparison (attached). I loaded the same page from the same book into Stanza on both my 2nd Gen and 4th Generation iPod touches. In the first photo you can see the 2nd Gen on the left and the 4th Gen on the right. Since the photo was a high resolution 12 megapixels, I cropped and shrunk it down to look good in 800x600 pixels. The next photo is a composite of the two touches taken from the first photo. I cropped a full size 800x300 pixel area from each touch screen and placed the 2nd Gen cropping on top and the 4th Gen on bottom. As I said these are full size and because they were from a 12 MP photo they look enlarged, but they are not enlarged. That is the cool thing about high resolution photography.

It is fairly obvious to me why the 2nd Gen iPod touch made my eyes so tired after an hour of reading. I fully expected to see the same pixelized view in the 4th Gen screen but less pronounced. However, the 4th Gen screen is very near to the clarity of an eInk screen. I was quite amazed. Now if Apple would make a 5" iPod touch with a retina display!

....

fyi, just being a nit picker but the number of MP for a camera sensor has nothing to do with the camera's resolving power. In fact too many MP on a given sensor can decrease the IQ significantly. It's the lense optics that are key as well as shooting at the optimal aperture and lighting conditions to get the best out of your gear. A 6MP camera can take better images that a 20MP rig...MP will only slightly affect the ability for large prints or large crops simply because there is not enough data present to go that large or drill that deep...it's always all about the glass not the sensor...the sensor plays a somewhat different role in your photos. It's just a common misconception that the MP number is directly related to better IQ and that is all marketing spin.

Still I have read a lot of folks are super pleased with the new touch and the display...

[NNolan]

I'm trying to set up my new 4th gen Touch now...boy, are the book downloads from Amazon slow on this thing. The display is gorgeous, though.

[JeremyZ]

Found a Best Buy 25 miles away that had one. I bought it and they are holding it for me now. My wife and I are going out to breakfast, dropping off a tux rental, and picking it up this morning.

I canceled my order with Amazon and paid the extra money to Best Buy and the State of Illinois. But I will have it today instead of some time next week.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The iPod 4 does not have as long a battery life as the iPhone 4. I think it's like 2 hours less roughly.

Thanks to Steve and his fetish for things super thin. The man needs help - LOL.

[JeremyZ]

Originally Posted by NNolan

I'm trying to set up my new 4th gen Touch now...boy, are the book downloads from Amazon slow on this thing. The display is gorgeous, though.

Agreed. To be fair to those considering purchasing one of these, we should mention the other drawbacks when compared to an e-book reader:

• Smaller display is harder to read
• Dictionary is not built into the app
• 'Last page' feature doesn't seem to work (at least for the Kindle app)

To me it is like a swiss army knife e-book reader. Not the perfect tool for the job, but it'll get the job done and it can always be on one's person.

But I sure do love the device for all the other things it does. Apps, music, video, web browsing (esp. on sites that have mobile-specific versions, like yahoo)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

Agreed. To be fair to those considering purchasing one of these, we should mention the other drawbacks when compared to an e-book reader:

• Smaller display is harder to read
• Dictionary is not built into the app
• 'Last page' feature doesn't seem to work (at least for the Kindle app)

To me it is like a swiss army knife e-book reader. Not the perfect tool for the job, but it'll get the job done and it can always be on one's person.

But I sure do love the device for all the other things it does. Apps, music, video, web browsing (esp. on sites that have mobile-specific versions, like yahoo)

Depends on the app. iBooks does have a dictionary and the Kindle app either has one or will have one. I know the txtr app does not have a dictionary. But, it really depends what you want out of an iPod for reading as to which app you choose.

[JeremyZ]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, it really depends what you want out of an iPod for reading as to which app you choose.

Would you mind elaborating on that for me? I don't want to get too many apps for reading, probably just one. The Kindle app. seems pretty good so far.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

Would you mind elaborating on that for me? I don't want to get too many apps for reading, probably just one. The Kindle app. seems pretty good so far.

You'd probably want three: Kindle for purchased books, either iBooks or Stanza (depending on which UI you prefer) for non-DRM ePub books, and GoodReader for PDF handling.

[brecklundin]

has FBReader been ported over as an iOS app yet?