Digital Trends

Apple iPod Touch 16GB

December 2nd, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

The iPod touch is easy to set up, even though it has a slightly more complex feature set and more virtual buttons and settings to learn. Remove the iPod touch and accessories from the packaging and connect the iPod to your computer via the included USB charging/sync cable. If you have a wall charger for your iPod (wall chargers for earlier iPod models will work fine), plug it in to the wall and let it charge up. Eventually, however, you'll need to connect the iPod touch to your computer so you can set it all up, connect it to iTunes and get music and videos transferred over. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed. The latest software is required to properly communicate with the touch.

The first time you connect the iPod touch to your computer, you may be prompted to automatically format the iPod to work with your PC or Mac system. Follow those instructions, including language setup, and within a few moments your iPod touch will be fully set up and ready for music. You can register your new iPod with Apple if you want. It's a good idea to register - Apple will have your contact info tied to the iPod serial number to help in a "lost & found" scenario.

Use the included cable to connect the Touch to your PC

Once the iPod touch is set up within iTunes, you can load it up with music in several ways: a) let iTunes automatically sync your music & video library with the iPod touch, 2) manually drag & drop music from your library onto the the touch, 3) get online with the iPod touch's Wi-Fi access and buy songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, or 4) check out music at your local Starbucks and buy from their playlists.

To take advantage of non-music media features of the iPod touch, click on the iPod touch icon under "Devices" in iTunes. You'll see summary data for your touch, along with several tabbed options like Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Photos and Info.

If you have any photos on your computer, you can sync them with the iPod touch by clicking on the Photos tab and telling iTunes which photos to synchronize. This will give you scaled-down versions of each photo on the iPod touch. They'll look gorgeous, and the iTunes software does all the work resizing them for best display and memory management. 

If you have any photos on your computer, you can sync them with the iPod touch by clicking on the Photos tab and telling iTunes which photos to synchronize. This will give you scaled-down versions of each photo on the iPod touch. They'll look gorgeous, and the iTunes software does all the work resizing them for best display and memory management.

Calendars and Contacts can also be synchronized, making your iPod touch a sort of mobile appointment book and address book. It isn't quite as full-fuctioned as a regular PDA, but it's darn close and getting closer with every update Apple makes to the software.

After syncing your iPod touch with all the content you want on it, disconnect it from your computer (Mac users click "eject") and turn it on if it's gone into sleep mode. On the main screen, you'll see the time and date, a background image and the "slide to unlock" command on the screen. Slide your finger over the right-facing arrow and the iPod will unlock, displaying the main screen.

The main screen where all of the iPod functions begin. Press the "music" button with your finger and the screen will quickly switch to the alphabetical list of songs or artists on your iPod. Use your finger to scroll up or down the list of artists. When you find an artist you want to listen to, tap the name with your finger and a list of albums opens up. Tap the album you want and a list of songs appears. Tap a song and voila - it starts to play.

You'll notice that when a song is playing, the album art will fill up more than 70% of the screen. Music and volume controls fill the remaining space. All these controls are managed by your touch. They will respond to the touch of any body part except for toe nails, fingernails or teeth. It's unlikely that anyone would try using those parts, but it's worth mentioning.

For a neat trick, rotate the iPod horizontally. Watch how the album art rotates with the screen. This new screen is called Cover Flow - you can scroll left and right through all the albums on your iPod touch, viewing the album art for each. If you don't have album art for your music, you'll see a generic grey icon with a musical note on it. To get album art for your music, go into iTunes and click on the "Advanced" menu. Select the "Get Album Art" option and iTunes will o its best to match cover art to your music. Album art is automatic for any music purchased directly from iTunes. 

How do you get back to the main menu? Click the only button on the front of your iPod - the little sunken button with the rounded square on it. This is a universal "home screen" button.