Apple iPod Touch

Apple iPhone

By CNET Staff

JUDGES: Kent German, Donald Bell, and Tom Krazit

Barely three months after the launch of the iPhone, Apple debuted its iPod Touch. Though their similar designs may lead you to think that the Touch is just an iPhone without the phone, in reality they are two distinct devices. Variations in style, features, and media performance become readily apparent to those that dig a little deeper. That’s why CNET pitted these two devices against each other to see which one is the superior multimedia player. Of course, we can’t compare call quality, so that will be left out of the tussle, but certainly we can compare almost everything else.

Let’s have a clean fight, fellas. Ding, ding!

About the judges

Kent German covers cell phones at CNET and has been following the wireless industry for six years. He’s embarrassed to admit he can name almost any cell phone he sees on the street.

Donald Bell covers all the latest portable audio and video gadgets. He reviews everything from the smallest digital audio players to tablet-size video players.

Tom Krazit covers anything and everything related to Apple for CNET News.com, tracking what Apple is doing and where it is going as the company’s influence on the technology industry hits an all-time high.

Round 1: Sexiness

Sleek and sleeker

Apple iPhone

The iPhone and the iTouch may look like identical twins at first glance, but these siblings each has its own style. So which is easier on the eyes? Our individual judges’ ratings are based on a 0-to-5-point scale, which results in a final score of 0 to 15 points per round.

Player

Kent

Donald

Tom

Total

Round 2: Features

Real beauty is on the inside

Apple iPhone

What do the iPhone and iPod Touch offer under the hood? Here, we examine the features in each device and decide if one offers more. Remember, we’re excluding the iPod Touch’s lack of calling features from this comparison.

Round 3: Media quality

Which has the more powerful multimedia punch?

Apple iPhone

Though their music quality is the same, the difference in screen size between the two devices and the iPod Touch’s lack of exterior speakers may affect video performance. We tell if that’s true.

Player

Kent

Donald

Tom

Total

Winner: Apple iPhone

The winner is…

Apple iPhone

Total points:

Apple iPhone: 39

Apple iPod Touch: 34

Winner: Apple iPhoneQuick story brought to you by Cnet.

NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. (T) said on Thursday it has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone from iPod music player maker Apple Inc. (AAPL)

The biggest U.S. wireless service provider by customer numbers will be the country’s only carrier to offer the device when it goes on sale June 29.

AT&T and Apple said they plan to start selling the device starting at 6 p.m. local time in cities across the country.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company hired the extra summer staff for its 1,800 stores in anticipation of “significant demand” for the device.

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AT&T’s wireless division employs a total of about 58,000 people.

The iPhone was first announced in January and combines a music and video player with a Web browser and a touch-sensitive screen in place of a keyboard.

(Story continues below)

AT&T sales staff have received a total of 100,000 hours of training to sell the device, at “the high end of the normal range” with an average of 6 hours per employee, said Siegel.

Apple, which plans to start selling the phone in all of its 162 retail stores on June 29, did not disclose any plans around training or staffing for the launch.

Apple will also start selling the phone online on the launch date, but AT&T will first launch only in its stores.

“This is such an important product we want to make sure people are fully informed,” when they buy it, said Siegel.

AT&T stores will close locally at 4.30 p.m. on that Friday to prepare for the launch, then reopen at 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. that night, according to Siegel.

“We want to free people from the rush of what they would normally encounter on a busy day,” he said.

AT&T, which is requiring iPhone shoppers to sign up for a 2-year contract, has not yet revealed the service fees it will charge iPhone customers.

The price of an iPhone will be either $500 and $600, depending on the storage space in the phone.

Apple shares rose 1.7 percent to $123.57 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq. AT&T was 12 cents higher to $39.65 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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I was really tired and short on time.

The following article is Courtousey of Yahoo Tech News.

• Aero – Windows Aero (formerly/alternately known as Aero Glass) is the revamped version of the Windows GUI, a gussied up, prettified, 3D interface that’s supposed to make you oooh and aaah… provided you have the hardware to run it. If you don’t have a relatively recent 3D graphics card, you won’t be able to run the full version of Aero and your system will default to a 2D interface which, while pretty, is not nearly as gorgeous. You’ll also be able to drop “gadgets” onto your desktop: clocks, calculators, headlines, and the like.
• Integrated Search – Windows XP’s dog slow built-in search is so pathetic it’s a joke, and not just because of the little yellow dog that’s there to “help you” find your files. Vista’s upgraded search includes thumbnails, real-time indexing, and other features of third-party search tools like Yahoo! Search.
• Updated Graphics Engine – Microsoft frequently updates DirectX, the display drivers that power video games and other graphics tools. The new version for Vista, DirectX 10, is a big upgrade that fixes a number of issues (like letting you run 3D applications inside a window instead of full screen) that have long plagued the driver. Video games will get a host of new features, too, and many upcoming games will run best (with all their cool new effects) on Vista.
• Security Upgrades – The jury’s out on how well Vista’s new file permissions/sharing system is going to work, and what normal users might think of the lockdown of Vista from a security standpoint. Simple tasks often require multiple confirmations (a lot like how Internet Explorer now requires your permission to download files), and the OS is more complicated because of this. However the increased level of security is probably a good thing and should help prevent spyware and virus infections, at least until hackers figure out how to get around the restrictions. Parental controls are also now integrated with the OS. So far, the news on this front is encouraging.
• Updates for Laptops – As the world goes mobile, Windows is following suit. Laptops will get new power management options, and as external displays on the lids of notebooks start to appear, they’ll get more features, too. Called SideShow, this is one of Vista’s cooler new features, though hardware that uses SideShow may be a long time coming. (Here’s a sneak peek.)
• Networking Upgrades – Wireless networking got a nice upgrade with Windows XP SP2, but Vista cleans it up even more. Newcomers to Wi-Fi should find it even easier to get online. Unfortunately file sharing between Vista and XP machines is difficult.
• Internet Explorer 7 – New browser. You can check it out now (on XP) if you’re interested.
• New Backup Utility – Windows’ integrated backup has been a joke for a decade. The new backup system might actually be something people will use.
• New Mail/Calendar – Improvements to Outlook Express.
• Integrated Spyware Killer – Also available for testing now.

Those are the big changes, but Vista of course offers tweaks in virtually every corner of the operating system. For more information (though biased), feel free to flip through Microsoft’s marketing materials for more pictures and details.

To see if your current PC can handle Vista, run Microsoft’s Vista Upgrade Advisor

This photo, provided by Microsoft, shows a screen from the new WIndows Vista system.