The Differences Between The Old And New iPod Touch

Video calling is in full effect on iPod touch. Now your friends can see what you’re up to, when you’re up to it. With the tap of a button, you can wave "hi" while standing in a foreign country, get a second opinion on a pair of boots, or have your friends bear witness to the everyday pranks, bets, and dares they otherwise might have missed — new iPod touch to new iPod touch or iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi. And come face to face with even more fun.

Take “LOL” to the next level and actually see friends laughing. Or bring “XOXO” to life when you blow someone a kiss from miles away. FaceTime on iPod touch makes it possible. FaceTime works right out of the box — just enter your Apple ID and email address. Or create a new email account just for FaceTime. Using FaceTime is as easy as it gets. Say you want to start a video call with your best friend over Wi-Fi. Just tap the FaceTime app and find her entry to start the call. An invitation pops up on her iPod touch or iPhone 4 screen asking if she wants to join you. When she accepts, FaceTime begins. It’s all perfectly seamless. And it works in both portrait and landscape.

iPod touch has two built-in cameras, one on the front above the display and one on the back. The front camera has been tuned for FaceTime. It has just the right field of view and focal length to focus on your face at arm’s length. So it always presents you in the best possible light. Which is particularly handy when you’re talking to someone who’s more than just a friend.

So your roommate had to work late and couldn’t make it to the concert. You can share the encore with a FaceTime call. As the band takes the stage and starts playing one of her all-time favorite songs, just tap a button. And before the lead singer can belt out his first note, iPod touch switches to the back camera and to the sure-to-be-legendary performance. Another tap switches to the front camera and to you. Simple, fast, and fun.

Thanks to the Retina display, everything you see and do on iPod touch looks amazing. That’s because the Retina display’s pixel density is so high your eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels. Which means images in games, movies, and photos pop off the screen. Text in books, web pages, and email is crisp at any size. And everything is sharper. No wonder it’s called “cutting edge.”

Behind the screen of iPod touch, there’s some serious technology going on. By developing pixels a mere 78 micrometers wide, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same size screen found on earlier iPod touch models. This many pixels packed this close together — 326 per inch — make graphics and text look smooth and continuous at any size. Prepare to be glued to the screen.

The Retina display includes LED backlighting and an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen for the best viewing and battery life possible. So you can focus on more important things.

Because your iPod touch — and its built-in HD video camera — go with you everywhere, you’re always ready to record when the moment strikes. And now you can do it in stunning high definition. An advanced backside illumination sensor delivers brilliant video in both bright and low-light settings. And when you’re done shooting, you can edit and share your movie in just a few taps. With iPod touch, you’re the only film crew you need.

No need to wait until you’re back at your computer to edit video. With basic editing built into iPod touch, you can get right down to business. Just drag to select start and end points on a filmstrip. Keep only the parts of the video you want, and turn it into something you and your friends will watch again and again.

Game Center is a new app that lets friends, and soon-to-be-friends, in on all the action. Invite someone to join, then get a game going. Or choose to automatically go up against people you don’t know from anywhere around the world in a multiplayer game. It’s your world. Everyone else is just playing in it.

The new Game Center app on iPod touch lets you expand your social gaming network. Exponentially. All anyone needs to play is an iPod touch or iPhone running iOS 4.1. With iOS 4.1, you’ll see a Game Center app on your Home screen. Just tap it and sign in with your Apple ID, and you’re good to go. You can create a different nickname that will be visible to friends and the gaming community. You can also assign several email addresses to the Game Center app, making it easy for more friends to find you. Download any games you see by tapping links in Game Center. Games can be started right in the Game Center app. And the best part, once you sign in to Game Center, you’re always connected. Until you decide to sign out.

Bring your friends along for the ride. Or match. Or mission. Once you’re signed in to the Game Center app, you can invite someone by sending a friend request using their nickname or email address. Your friends show up in a separate Friends list in the Game Center app. Tap on a friend’s name, and you can see what games they’ve been playing. You can also check out pending friend requests you receive and add as you see fit.

Take a look at leaderboards and see how your score ranks against your friends, as well as all players of each game. You can also compare game achievements with your friends. Check out leaderboards and achievements in the Game Center app and in each individual game app. Let the smack talk begin.

Say you want to get a multiplayer game going. Auto-match will prioritize your friends if they happen to be looking for an auto-match, too. Otherwise, it will set you up with a soon-to-be-friend from anywhere around the world. You can also choose to invite friends and have auto-match fill the number of players needed for a game.

What a song does for your ears, Cover Flow on iPod touch does for your eyes and fingers. Turn iPod touch on its side and glide through your music by album art with the flick of your finger. Tap an album cover to flip it over and display a track list. Tap again to start the music. Say you’re listening to a song you really love and want to hear other tracks that go great with it. Genius uses that song to find other songs in your library and makes a Genius playlist for you. Listen to the playlist right away, save it for later, or even refresh it and give it another go. Count on Genius to create a playlist you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.Genius acts as your personal DJ. All you do is sync iPod touch to iTunes, and Genius automatically searches your library to find songs that sound great together. Then it creates multiple mixes you’ll love. These mixes are like channels programmed entirely with your music. It’s a great way to rediscover songs you haven’t heard in forever — and some you even forgot you had.

iPod touch includes support for Bluetooth wireless technology. So you can pair wireless stereo headphones with it. Keep your iPod in your bag or charging on your desk across the room and still listen to your music.

So, to conclude, the most obvious differences with the previous generation are the two cameras, a very welcomed addition to the iPod Touch. However, while the back camera can record H.264 video at 720 lines of resolution (720p) and 30 frames per second, the resolution for photography is not as high as the iPhone 4. Just the same 960 x 720 pixels of the video, far from the gorgeous sensor of the iPhone.

It also has the front camera, which is identical to the iPhone 4, capturing VGA at 30 frames per second for videoconferencing action.

Apple also claims they have increased the amount of playback time to 40 hours of audio and 7 hours of video, all while making the package smaller than the previous generation: Just 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.28 inches. For comparison, the previous generation iPod touch was 0.33 inches thick. The weigh is also down to 3.56 ounces (101 grams), from the previous 8 ounces.