iPod Touch price drops, cheap refurbs
I know, it’s only rock and roll but I like it.
The Apple event is over, and I am going to focus briefly on the part most interesting to e-book readers: the new iPod Touches.
There isn’t as much new this year as there was last year. Faster processor, OpenGL on the higher-end models, and price points of $199/$299/$399 for 8, 32, and 64GB models. The 16 gig is nowhere to be found; presumably Apple would have made the $199 one 16-gig and dropped the 8, but they wanted to hit that magic $199 price point with their lowest-end model—down $20 from last year’s 8-gig.
As for refurbs, the Apple store currently lists refurbished 8-gig 2nd-gen iPod Touches (the ones with the speaker) for $149, and 16-gig 2nd-gens for $199. (To note, which refurbished Touch models the store lists changes with availability. Sometimes they may have 32-gig models as well.)
I don’t know whether Apple will still stock refurbished 1st-gen Touches at this point, but if they did I expect the prices would be even lower. If you’re looking for a good budget e-book device, and don’t have the need to play much music, this might just be the way to go. (I’ll bet next year will see the 8-gig refurb drop below the $100 level.)
September 9th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
$200? 8gb will hold more books than I will ever read. Can I read mobipocket on them? How big is the screen? How long does the battery last? Can I read on it for a long time without a headache? Does it have usb capabilities? I assumed everything did until my son told me his cell phone doesn’t.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
You can read unencrypted Mobipocket (of the kind Baen sells). If you have any DRM-crippled books, you would need to crack the DRM to be able to read them on the iPod Touch. The main e-book formats people seem to like to read on the Touch are epub (using Stanza) and eReader (using eReader). There’s also a Kindle reader app available.
The screen is 3.5″, 320×480, 163 pixels per inch (a little over twice the PPI of an average computer monitor).
The battery will last for about a day’s worth of reading (less if you keep the screen at its highest brightness, more if you keep it dim and turn off WiFi when you’re not using it).
Whether you can read for a long time without a headache, I don’t know. A lot of people (including me) can, some people can’t. If you can borrow one from someone and try it out, it would be best.
It doesn’t have USB capability for anything except syncing mp3s (Apple won’t let third-party apps use the cable for syncing), though the 2nd and 3rd generation models have Bluetooth (I believe). You generally put files onto it by downloading them through wifi.
More details here.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Wow. Thanks Chris.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Just got my iPod Touch 8 GB over the weekend as they drop the price to SGD 308 and been trying Stanza to read my PDF ebook.
Accessing Gutenberg is via Stanza has also been very smooth.
So far the experience has been great !