Text2Go Blog

You’d think that providing convenient access to a volume control on a music player would be a pretty important design consideration. Not so it seems for the iPod touch. There is no dedicated volume control, unlike the iPhone.
Instead you must use the touch screen interface. This is not too bad when you first play a track. The volume control is easily accessible at the bottom of the screen.

Photo courtesy of Mike Schmid

However as soon as the iPod goes into powersaving mode, adjusting the volume becomes a slow, cumbersome process.

First you need to wake up the iPod by pressing the home button, then you must use the slide control to unlock the screen. Finally you need to navigate to Music menu. At last the volume control is displayed and you can actually make an adjustment.

Try and do this while driving in heavy traffic! It makes txting while driving look positively safe.

 One thing I did try was to disable the automatic locking of the screen. This works but it also means the iPod touch will never go into powersaving mode. The screen remains on continuously at full brightness. Not exactly what I want.

 Things are not as bad as they first appear. It turns out that you can double-click on the home button at any point in the iPod touch’s interface to bring up the volume control.

You can triple-click when the iPod touch is in powersaving mode to achieve the same result. This displays the volume control but keeps the rest of the screen locked.

This is perhaps the best solution available, given the absence of a dedicated volume control.

Hopefully someone will bring out a dedicated remote for the iPod touch that takes advantage of the built-in wifi.