Touch the iPod

My new toy, and probably a celebration gift for my being featured, came a bit earlier than I expected. It arrived today with a small box, and I just want to share some pictures of the unpacking, and the comments of my first hands-on experience.

Inside the pack was something cool. Okay, I guess it is only the iPod which is cool because what is left are only a pack of cables including the poor earphones (that's not news, as you know), and some menus which are so short that you think they are just ads.

Then I sync-ed the device, because I was forced to. Now, the stunning part is here, because the animation and the interface is really great! The slider is a nice idea because it is a very intuitive design!

The first thing I did was to synchronize all the songs and iCal info. The Coverflow interface is totally awesome, especially when I am so used to the one in iTunes already. The sound quality is different and probably because my previous iPod (4th gen) is really some years ago.

The other functions work so fast, but as a designer, again, I admire the details and visual effects more. The bouncing effect, drag effect and the shadowing are all very well done. It is easy and intuitive, and beautiful at the same time. It is really a masterpiece.

Of course, another thing that makes me want to buy this is the ability to surf the web. Safari, though not the best browser I used (I love Firefox!), works fine and effectively here in this little gadget. The graphics all show up sharp and clear, although the loading speed is not really fast. It must not be the network because my laptop opens the same website much faster at the same time when I loaded the site on the iPod. 

You see? The graphics are well rendered, same as the other interfaces. I must say that it is a truly well-designed piece of hardware, with an interface that fits the way human works. One may hate Apple for being too flamboyant sometimes, but talking in the designer point of view, Apple is a true winner. When you use the iPod touch or iPhone interface, there is no matching competitor. It is purely an eye candy yet it is functional and works perfectly well. As you may know, I am a graphical design and also an interface design, and I admire Apple that they can rethink about our complex user behaviour and make something simple. That is what I call a good design.