10 Great Accessories For The New iPod Touch

Earlier this month Apple updated their range of iPods, adding a range of new features and improving their usability. The iPod touch finally saw the addition of a rear camera for taking photo’s and recording HD video – something that people have been requesting for years. The screen has also upgraded and is now a high resolution ‘Retina Display’ similar to that found on iPhone 4. The only other noticeable change is that there’s now a camera on the front and a microphone on the back that enables the iPod to make FaceTime video calls over a Wi-Fi connection. The latest update to the iPod touch operating system, iOS 4.1, introduced a number of improvements to the Bluetooth support on the iPod touch too – opening it up to a whole new range of accessories. The shape and size of the new iPod touch has changed slightly, so if you’re planning on upgrading your current iPod touch to the new one not all of your accessories will work with it. Standard accessories such as docks and headphones will be fine, but cases and screen protectors won’t. With the new iPod touch now being so closely matched (in terms of spec) to the iPhone, I thought I’d take a look at some new iPod touch accessories – including some that you might not necessarily think of using with an MP3 player. I’ll be covering iPod touch 4G cases in more depth in a future post. Hard Candy Street Skin for iPod touch 4G Hard Candy are a relatively new brand that are proving to be extremely popular with iPhone 4 owners. There are currently two styles of Hard Candy iPod touch case – the Bubble Slider and the Street Skin. Each case is made from a tough polycarbonate and provides excellent protection against knocks and scrapes. The Street Skin is a one piece rubber case that has cut outs for the camera and volume keys and has a non slip finish. No screen protector is included though, so you’ll need to invest in an iPod touch 4G screen protector separately. Martin Fields Screen Protector – iPod touch 4G The Martin Fields Screen Protector is easily one of the best quality screen protectors you can get. They’re crystal clear and will keep the screen of your iPod touch looking like new. They don’t reduce the clarity of your screen and colours look exactly the way they’re supposed to. If your screen protector gets dirty, they can be removed easily from the phone, cleaned and refitted. They are available individually or in a twin pack. It’s precision cut to fit the iPod touch and has cut outs for the Home button and FaceTime Camera. InvisibleSHIELD Full Body Protector – iPod touch 4G If you don’t want the added bulk of a case, but still want to protect your iPod touch, then an InvisibleShield is a great option. It’s a tough, thin plastic film that covers all of your device. I’ve been a fan of these for a while now as they do such a good job. Fitting them is a little bit time consuming, but the end result is well worth it. They don’t add a lot to the bulk of your handset so you can easily use them with most other cases and covers. They also give your iPod a bit more grip which helps to reduce the chances of it slipping out of your hands. Sony Ericsson MW600 Stereo Bluetooth Headset Time for something a little bit different, but very cool! The MW600 is a Multipoint Stereo Bluetooth headset that is absolutely perfect for the iPod touch. Because the headset is Multipoint, you can use it with your iPod at the same time as your phone – for example, you can be listening to your music from your iPod touch through the MW600 and when a call comes through on your mobile, you’ll be able to answer the call using the headset – without having to disconnect the iPod. As soon as your call is over the headset will switch back to your music. What’s more, the MW600 has a built in FM radio – a feature that’s been missing from the iPod touch for years. There are two other stand out features that make this a great choice for the iPod touch. Firstly, the headphones are standard 3.5mm earphones – this means that you can change them for whatever earphones you want if you don’t like/damage/lose the ones that come with it. Secondly, now that iOS4.1 has been updated to include full support for the AVRCP profile, you can use the music controls built into the headset allow you to fully control your music playback without having to touch your iPod. The buttons on the MW600 allow you to skip forward/back/play/pause and adjust the volume level. To change song or playlist you can use the headset to activate voice control and then simply talk to your iPod. For me, this is a must have accessory for music lovers. Antimicrobial Silicone Case for iPod touch 4G Silicone cases are one of the most simple, affordable and effective ways to protect any device. They protect it against bumps and knocks while leaving all the important parts of your iPod accessible. This one has a special coating that helps to kill of germs that might be lurking on your iPod touch. As you’d expect, there are cut outs for the camera, speakers and charging port and the volume keys can still be used through the case. Skullcandy FMJ Full Metal Jacket Headphones – Chrome With Mic If you love music, one of the first things you’ll want to replace will be the headphones. The standard ones that come with your iPod touch aren’t bad and are significantly better than those included with earlier models, but you can get better. The FMJ’s are quite bass heavy, so not so great if you prefer quiet, relaxing tunes, but they provide a clubby sound signature that makes for fun listening. They look great – they have metal casings and fabric cables. You get 3 sets of ear tips included, so if you lose some it’s not the end of the world. The in-line remote will work for music control, but doesn’t have any volume controls. It’s in the right place and the button is raised slightly to make it easy to locate without looking. We’ve checked the mic and it works perfectly with the iPod touch. Scosche HD – High Definition Audio/Video Cable for iPod touch 4G A lot of people now use their iPod to watch films and videos on while they’re out and about, but what do you do when you get home and don’t want to carry on watching on a relatively small screen? The simple answer is to plug your iPod touch into your TV and carry on watching from where you left off. It’s a lot less hassle and it’s quicker than transferring the film back to your PC/Mac and finding where you’re up to. This cable from Scosche is all you need to be able to connect your iPod touch, iPad or iPhone to your HDTV using the RGB Component input. If you don’t have a HDTV or all your component ports are in use, you can also get an Apple Composite Cable that does the same job, but using the red/white/yellow ports found on most TV’s. You won’t need to worry about running out of power either as both cables have the ability to charge your iPod at the same time. Belkin TuneCast Auto Live FM Transmitter If you want to be able to enjoy your music and podcasts while you’re in the car you can of course stick to using the standard earphones, but on long journeys they’re not particularly comfortable and it’s not really all that safe. There are a number of other solutions though and that’s what the next couple of accessories are for. The TuneCast Auto is a 2-in-1 product that will charge your iPod touch and transmit all audio over an FM frequency to your car stereo. For the best experience you can download an app that will use GPS data from your iPod touch to tune in to the clearest frequency where you are and prompt you to tune your stereo in to match. It’s clever, it’s easy and will work on iPod touch and iPhone. Jabra Cruiser Bluetooth & FM Loud Speaker This is a very similar kind of accessory to the TuneCase above, but it does it without wires. Instead of having to plug your iPod touch into the Jabra Cruiser, you connect to it using Bluetooth. Your music is then streamed to the Cruiser and you can then choose to either play it through the built in loudspeaker, or you can broadcast it over FM to your car stereo. Just like the Sony Ericsson MW600, it’s a multipoint device, so you can connect this to your mobile phone at the same time for handsfree calling. If/when a call comes in, the music fades out and the call is relayed through your car stereo or loudspeaker. The Jabra Cruiser has music control buttons built in that allow you to control your music in the same way as you can with the MW600. If you don’t want the physical buttons and are happy enough using voice control, then the Jabra SP700 is a good alternative. Philips DC315 Alarm Clock Radio – iPod touch 4G I only ever charge my iPhone at night I’m sleeping or when I’m in the car, so this is ideal. It means that I don’t have to hunt around each night for my charging cable and I don’t have to worry about accidentally decreasing the ringer volume and sleeping through my alarm. As well as charging your iPod touch, the Philips Alarm Clock can play your music through it’s own speakers. It has track skip controls built into it, so if you are listening to your music from your iPod, you won’t have to go back into the iPod app to change song. The alarm clock has dual alarms, it gives you the choice of being woken up by buzzer, music from your iPod or FM radio as well as snooze and sleep functions. That’s 10 of my favourite iPod touch 4G accessories. Over the next few weeks the range of iPod touch cases and covers will be increasing, so I’ll take a close look at them in a few weeks time. If you’ve not seen anything here that grabs your attention, head over to the main site and check out our full range of new iPod touch accessories.