[DaemonSeid]

Hey all

Well...it looks like Apple pulled another fast one on consumers.

They initially announced that they new iPods wouldn't be available until the end of the month....well they lied...at least here in MD/DC/VA they did...

One of my friends got thier hands on the new iPod touch and with a lil bit of pull so did I.

So how is it?

Well for one...it's SKIIIIINNY...almost 1/2 the size width wise of the ipod video so it fits pretty well into your pocket. It comes in a nice package which this time around does NOT include an iTunes installation disk. I guess Steve Jobs figues that most people who are getting this are already either iPod saavy and have iTunes or PC saavy and know how to find and download iTunes. I think that small thing right there may be a wrong move regardless if you have millions already using your previous iPod incarnations...never assume that new customers are saavy enough to get things working.

O well that being said...how well does it work?

VERY well....the touch screen really gives a feeling of going thru your collection and you can use it either in the regular mode or for better results, turn it on its side to thumb thru your music. If you are familiar with iPods, you will have no trouble using this one. The video on here is pretty cool but this is where it loses cool points. The problem on here is altho the resolution is pretty cool w/o noticable loss of framerates, in dark scenes, they look pretty dark and almost to the point that some scenes reflect back looking like a photo negative. The short term solution is to try to adjust the brightness screen to compensate and hopefully Apple may come up with a fix for that

The Wifi? Pretty darned cool...one of the biggest features they held over from the iPhone will be a big draw for a lot of people and will set the bar up high for the next PMPs coming out. This is not a watered down browser, it's a full working version of Safari. So there is much one can do. And since iPod has introduced the ability to pinch and stretch screens, it makes it somewhat fun to navigate. Sometimes a page may load and clutters some of the objects up on the screen but otherwise, this is one the best ways to surf w/o having to resort to a laptop.

The only other smalll complaint I have right now is for everything it has, it still looks like a delicate product, like it's one good drop away from being broken. I have a few thousand songs and a ton of video on mine and thankfully it's backed up but think of how pissed one would be to get one of these and it breaks within a few days because of an accidental drop. Altho Apple has released these already, they still haven't released any accessories to adequately protect these devices from a good drop, so if you have one, be careful....

Also, if you are a bit anal like me and want to keep up the gloss on it...it would hurt to buy a plastic screen protector, because altho the surface doesn't look like it will scratch easily, because of all the constant touching, the protector and a good cleaner will go a long way to keeping up this investment.

My last wish for this would have been if Apple had added on an FM Tuner.

That was one of the big ups that Microsoft's Zune had. A built in FM Tuner would really sell this but, with all the FM add ons they have for iPods now, my guess is that Apple didn't want thier 3rd party folks to lose money on that either.

To sum it all up, if you want something cutting edge, I would say that this a great device, 16 GB is a start, I wish there was more but hey, it's a flash device so what can you do? Some are asking are you afraid of getting burned like early iPhone adapters did? All I can do is hope that I don't but I think these will move because altho they got them in early, many places are selling out as soon as they get them; even some of the store workers don't have any themselves and are relying on customer feedback to gauge how good these are.

And one last note, parents, if you have kids, unless they are reaalllly responsible, I wouldn't recommend it just yet due to the issue of delicacy I mentioned above.

Otherwise on a scale of 1 to 10....I give it an 8