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!

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