Apple iPod touch 16 GB (2nd Generation) MP3 Player

It s a small man who derives self-worth from his possessions. But I am a small, small man, and Apple s iPod Touch is a pretty awesome possession. Combining the refined music playback functionality and good looks of six generations of mp3 players with many of the more broadly useful features of its contract-locked-in brother (the iPhone), the iPod Touch is a lot of things: it s a portable music player, yes. But it s also a proof-of-concept for some startlingly innovative technology, and (maybe most coolly, but least usefully) a kind of poor man s PDA incorporating Wi-Fi capability that acts as a gateway to a mobile browser, day planner, and contact list (amongst other things). The price is hefty making it more accurately a rich man s poor man s PDA but after some time with the 16GB iPod Touch, I m convinced that it s totally worth it. As far as possessions by which you choose to define yourself go, the Touch is certainly up there.

Indeed, I had no justifiable use for the iPod Touch. I already owned a perfectly functional iPod Nano (second-generation, 4GB), and was happy with the niche that it occupied its size, form, flash memory, and battery life making it ideal not just for running (where I used it most often), but for shoving into my pocket and forgetting about it. But the Touch has an undeniable cool cachet; and I might have resisted it if I hadn t discovered that a friend actually had stumbled his way into a job at the consumer electronics giant. The possibility of a discount was enough to goad me into the purchase. I went for the iPod Touch over the iPhone, I should mention, for two reasons: the first is that I don t talk on the phone enough to warrant the latter, and the second is that the iPhone isn t yet (officially) supported or available in Canada. I ve been told that the Rogers wireless network can support a jailbroken iPhone, but that wasn t justification enough to make the leap. I won t lie that I felt buyer s remorse once the transaction had been made. But that inkling of regret (approximately $400 before discount still a lot of money) was immediately replaced by excitement and fascination when I finally laid my hands and my fingers, more importantly on the beautiful form of the device.

What s Cooking, Good Looking?

I m hardly an evangelist, but if there s one that that Apple does well and they actually do a lot of things well it s design. Barring the third-generation Nano (a miniature-widescreen monstrosity that ignored the appeal of the original Nano, for runners such as myself) and the earliest models (which were understandably limited by the technology of their time), I can t think of an iPod that isn t (at worst) handsome, or (at best) gorgeous. Even the company s computer hardware is exceedingly shapely: I have no use for a MacBook, but when I saw my roommate s, I kind of wanted one. It s an attention to detail that extends even to their deceptively simple packaging. Housed in a glossy black box, the iPod Touch comes carefully packed with the player itself, as well as the usual iPod features that we re used to: earbud headphones, USB cable, and a display dock. It also includes a couple of things that we haven t seen in the past, however: a branded cloth for cleaning the Touch s screen smudges (something you ll be doing a lot of), and a Quick Start guide for operation. Apple is pretty hesitant about written documentation, so it is nice to see they ve included something in the box to guide people in the operation of a device that exists so far out of the box.

And the Touch itself is no exception to this rule of design, either it s curvy, shiny, dark, and more than just a little mysterious. What is surprising, at first, is how small the iPod Touch seems: about the size of a wallet (110 x 61.8 mm), but infinitely thinner (just 8mm thick) with a curved, brush-aluminum casing, the Touch fits very comfortably in my palm. The most vivid comparison is had by stacking a second-generation Nano right next to the Touch. It s barely thicker, and (roughly) 1.5 times as tall and wide. Considering how small the Nano actually is something that s hard to appreciate unless you ve held one in your hand this is amazing. It s heavier, too, but most of that weight can be chalked up to the protective glass that covers the device s touch screen surface. But heavier does not equal heavy, and the Touch still feels quite light lighter, perhaps, than the 256MB mp3 player I had before I moved onto iPods. Not light enough that the earphones will hold its weight and not unplug should you drop it (something that I liked about the Nano, given how clumsy I am), but light enough that it doesn t feel like you re dragging around the pocketful of functionality that you actually are. My only qualm is the piece of black plastic on the Touch s otherwise glossy rear but I m willing to forgive, because that s the wireless antennae.

Anyway, what s more amazing is that nothing is lost by the Touch s economy of space: because it features only a single face button, nearly all of the Touch s frontal real estate is reserved for an impressive 480x320 pixel LCD screen (by contrast, the next largest iPod features a 320x240 pixel screen). If you re wondering whether you need that much screen space, you ve already demonstrated to yourself that the iPod Touch isn t for you. Because not only is the screen a wonderful playground for a demonstration of Apple s multi-touch technology, but it provides room for the Touch to function competitively as a mobile video and yes, almost-mobile Internet device as well.

Getting Started

You can t use the iPod Touch right out of the box, of course; you have to go through the step of synchronizing and preparing the device through iTunes. This should be a familiar experience to any iPod owner, so I won t really dwell on it. iTunes recognizes the iPod Touch, checks for (and provides, if necessary) the latest firmware update (currently on version 1.1.4), asks for registration, and so on. In a new development I think, though my memory is fuzzy iTunes does ask for an iTunes store username and password. You don t have to, but its usefulness (I assume) comes in later, when you re actually able to surf the iTunes store on your iPod Touch. Trust me, this is cooler than it sounds. Not particularly useful (more on that later), but cool. As is the norm, you can either synch the iPod Touch automatically, or manage your music files manually. Given that my digital music collection is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50GB, I chose to do the latter. Your mileage may vary, but after that, you re good to go. My Touch came packaged with approximately a half-battery charge, but I ve heard of others with different experiences, ranging from full to completely empty. Charging it via the USB connection on the unit s bottom is a painless affair, just twenty minutes for an 80% charge, and three hours for a full one.

A quick word on the iTunes software, which is freely downloadable from Apple s website (and which, at one time, came packaged with iPods): I begrudgingly converted to iTunes when I made the switch to my iPod Nano. It was an aggravating affair that involved converting some 2,000 files from the WMA file format (how I managed to come into the possession of 2,000 files in the WMA format, I m not entirely clear), and abandoning Winamp, my long-favoured media player. However, while I still have some issues with iTunes more so than most, by the way things look I must admit that it has grown on me considerably. It s a pain-free, highly-intuitive media player that is perfectly in line with the Apple ethos: it works exactly like it should. It drives me nuts that I can t enqueue files or rearrange randomized playlists. I loathe being limited in my choice of video formats (though I use VLC Media Player for most video), and the absence of support for the FLAC file format kills me. And I don t ever like being tethered to a single piece of software, for anything; but if I must, then iTunes is overall a pretty acceptable tether.

Good To Go.

Once you ve thrown some material onto your iPod Touch music files (MP3, AAC, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible audiobook, Apple Lossless), photos (JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG), or video (MPEG-4 or Quicktime) you re good to go. Upon activation (by clicking either the Home button on the unit s face, or the only other button, on the Touch s top left), you will be asked to unlock the device by swiping your finger across the screen. And this is the real first step into the world of the iPod Touch. It becomes plainly apparent here that the iPod Touch isn t just a portable media player. Running on iPod OS a portable version of Apple s OSX operating system the iPod Touch is almost like a miniature-computer that just so happens to specialize in playing media. On the home screen, you ll find animated icons that activate Touch s many non-media applications (a subset of those featured on the iPhone): Safari, Calendar, Youtube, Clock, Calculator, Contacts, Notes, and Settings. Apple s most recent firmware update (for which early adopters had to pay a fee of $20) adds more of the iPhone s functionality, throwing in Maps, Mail, Weather, and Stocks. Running across the bottom of the screen, however, is the meat and potatoes Music, Video, Photos, and the aforementioned link to Apple s mobile iTunes Music Store.

And you use your finger, directly on the screen s surface, to perform your navigation. Touch screens have been a reality for a very long time, but they ve been buggy and inconsistent for just as long. So it s an extremely satisfying experience to touch flick, push, pull, tap so effortlessly through the Touch s screens. Apple s implementation isn t just acceptable, it s game changing. It feels like the hands-on demonstration of some new technology that should, by all rights, still be years off. The Touch responds gracefully to multi-touch, integrating a number of signature movements that act as specified instructions. It s glorious. And when you re done, you simply click the Home button to return to where you started. It s at the risk of slight exaggeration glorious.

Music!

But first, the media. Tapping the Music icon will bring you to a list the albums on your iPod, sorted alphabetically (with the option of switching to an All Songs view). You can select one, and choose a song to hear. Alternately, you can select one of the icons at the bottom of the screen which allows you to sort music by Artist, Song Title, or Playlist. There s also a More key which allows you to sort by composer, or through audiobooks. Navigation is intuitive, and a Shuffle button is always visible if you (like me) are prone to letting the iPod dabble where it may. Once you ve selected a song (by way of another tap), you re treated to its album art, as well as controls (rewind, fast forward, pause, next song, previous song) and a volume bar. Unlike the iPhone, the iPod Touch does not feature a physical volume control, but a software one. This can be irritating adjusting the volume involves clicking the home button, unlocking the device, and then finally making the required adjustment but is mostly just trivial given how much the Touch does right. Music playback, it goes without saying, is up to the iPod standard. I m by no means an audiophile, but the sound is perfectly acceptable for any use that I might have (the provided headphones, most serious audio fiends will tell you, do have to go).

But the coolest thing about the iPod Touch s music playback is the introduction of Cover Flow. Recently added to iTunes, and now available on both the Nano and iPod Classic, Cover Flow is a visual representation of your music, in the form of album covers which slide across the screen. The Touch actually features an internal accelerometer which gauges how you are holding the device; when you turn it on its side while listening to music, it automatically slips into Cover Flow. On iTunes and on the iPod Nano/Classic, Cover Flow feels a bit like a novelty: you slide through a collection of album covers, click on one for detail, and then select a song. It s visually impressive, but less useful than simply moving through your music library in a traditional mode. On the Touch, however, Cover Flow feels absolutely essential (at least, once you ve obtained album artwork for your collection, which can require some legwork). Actually using the movement of your finger to comb through album covers makes it abundantly clear that Cover Flow s intention is to mimic virtually the lost sensation of thumbing through your album collection. On a PC or the tiny screen of a Nano, using a mouse or click wheel, that feels hoaky but when you re actually using your fingers to do so, it s a lot more compelling. The multi-touch functionality shines here, creating an almost impossibly real sense of tactility and three-dimensional response. Speed up, slow down, tap individually through the sensation is, well, pretty sensational (perhaps for the next firmware update, they can add the musty smell of my parent s record collection). I was amazed, too, at how well the Touch handled the relative graphic intensity of Cover Flow, when it s something that my computer struggles with. My computer is garbage, but still: that s impressive.

The mobile iTunes Music Store activated by tapping the iTunes icon on the main screen is another cool touch, allowing you to download music directly to your Touch (so long as you re hooked up to a wireless network). I won t get too carried away, but it s a cool feature and a well-orchestrated process: opening to a listing of current popular downloads, the store allows you to perform a search for whatever song you re looking for. Once you found it, you can listen to a short sample, and then make the purchase. You ll be prompted for your iTunes account password, and the download begins. Adding the song to your desktop computer is as simple as synching the Touch with your computer; the new song will deposit itself in a folder of similarly downloaded files. Cool, but somewhat useless given that I rarely download songs from the iTunes Music Store. One with a tendency toward drunken impulse purposes could get into trouble here ( Hey, I haven t heard _______ in a really long time ), but doing so depends on being able to type your password correctly while drunk. And since that s no easy feat even while sober, I don t think that there s much to worry about.

Movies! Photos!

Movies and photos are also well-executed. Queuing up a movie clip causes it to play in landscape/ widescreen mode, so you can turn your device to orient it correctly. Controls across the bottom disappear after a few seconds, but reappear when you tap the screen. Leaving the movie (again, via the Home button) and returning will restart the video where you ve left off. The picture, as far as I can tell, is beyond reproach for a portable media player. There were early complaints about dark spaces on isolated players (something that the most recent firmware claimed to correct), but I can find no evidence of that problem. A few sources notably Ars Technica have noted a difference in quality of video between the Touch and the iPhone (best summed up as a lack of clarity ). They theorized that this could be the result of different, cheaper components. I can t say for sure; I can say, however, that the Touch s video capabilities are certainly impressive on their own merits. And the same goes for photos, through which you can thumb, zoom, reorient, and view slideshows: it s pretty basic functionality for a device that does so many other cool things, but it s a nice touch nonetheless.

The Rich Man s Poor Man s PDA

On then, to the features more befitting of a poor man s PDA. While the iPod Touch lacks the camera, phone, and broadband capabilities, it does retain Wi-Fi support and the applications that go with it. Entering the Settings menu allows you to configure your wireless connections (deactivating the antennae when you re not in range of a network is a good idea, or it ll suck your battery life dead), which networks you want to default to, and so on. The Touch s Wi-Fi support is limited, obviously, by the fact that Wi-Fi hot spots are limited. But it s still surprisingly useful and not just at home, where you d be well-served to just use your computer. For example, the campus of my university is one large wireless hot spot, as are at least two of the bars that I frequent (not to mention most coffee shops in North America). Odds are that if you re actually in need of something that would require you connecting through a Wi-Fi hotspot, you don t have to go far (provided that you re in at least a mid-sized city). Connecting to a network is as easy as selecting it from a list and (where necessary) entering a password. And not only does it provide a valuable time sink when I have time to kill (for example, between classes, or while grabbing a beer after work), but it actually allows me to take care of issues as they arise (primarily by sending and responding to e-mails in real time). And, if it means anything, I ve never had a problem with its wireless reception.

E-Mail

So while the availability of a web browser is cool and revolutionary in its own right it s the Mail application that is the Touch s most defensible productivity tool. And like the rest of the Touch, it s brilliantly executed. In the Settings menu, you can add e-mail addresses to your list of managed accounts by specifying a few options. The Touch provides automatic settings for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, and .Mac (making it as easy as entering your address and password); alternately, you can follow a few short steps to set up mail access for a different account. Even this is pretty straightforward without any technical knowledge, I was able to add my university e-mail account to the Touch without any difficulty. If you know the incoming and outgoing servers, and the protocol being used, you re set. I was disappointed that the Touch didn t include settings to add a Hotmail/Windows Live account but it s not surprising, given the whole Apple-Microsoft animosity, and it s something for which there is a workaround.

Once you ve registered an account (or several), tapping the Mail icon on the home screen will bring you to the e-mail inbox that you last visited, at which point the Touch will automatically check for new mail (alternately, you can specify that the Touch scan for new mail at preset time intervals, but this is a battery kill). The Touch displays your inbox in a streamlined, intuitive, and bare-boned way: a simple text-heavy list, which some options across the bottom of the screen. I can t compare the iPod Touch s handling of e-mail to other mobile devices, because it s something I ve never experienced before. But its simple elegance is pretty compelling two line previews of each e-mail, tap to read, or slide your finger across to delete. The little flourishes are great, too. Opening and deleting a piece of mail prompts a cool animation, of a garbage pail being opened, and the e-mail being crumpled and sucked into it. It s something that I m sure will get old in the future, but it definitely hasn t yet. Replying, forwarding, and creating new mail are simple exercises that rely on the software keyboard. The Touch offers read-only support for most e-mailed formats (mostly Microsoft Office documents) but no ability to edit them. It s not perfect (it won t replace a Blackberry), but it s still great especially because productivity isn t its primary concern.

The Internets?

The iPod s web browser (a mobile version of Apple s Safari browser), though, is no slouch. Tapping on the Safari icon will bring up access to the Internet. Not a mobile version of the Internet (though many sites, including Facebook and Google, will redirect you to their mobile version), but the actual, honest-to-God Internet. Entering an address will load a broad view of the whole page, and then it becomes a matter of using Apple s multi-touch gestures to explore: single taps follow links, double-taps zoom in on sections of pages, tapping and holding moves the page around, and sliding your fingers together and apart zooms in and out. Turning the Touch on its side activates the accelerometer, and pages are re-rendered in landscape-mode accordingly. It s easy, responsive, and intuitive. But maybe most importantly, it s also fast. Not as fast as accessing the Internet from a PC, but close enough that the difference is mostly negligible. A few sites are painful (most notably ESPN, which is a disaster no matter how you re accessing it), but most are rendered magnificently (including personal favourites like Facebook, Fark, New York Times, and Google News). Granted, the Touch lacks support for Flash (an engine for multimedia content), but performance from a device so small is still incredibly impressive. Even the browser s functionality is noteworthy, actually incorporating bookmarks, history, and (an approximation of) tabbed browsing. Even running multiple pages causes no slowdown with music playing, also without interruption, all the while.

Hunt And Peck

Of course, your interaction with mail and the Internet depend heavily on access to a keyboard of some kind. The Touch eschews a physical keypad for an-screen, full QWERTY software keyboard, which presents itself whenever you ve reached a data entry stage. The truth is that software keyboards are a disaster waiting to happen without the tactile feedback of an actual keyboard, typing becomes difficult, error-ridden, and kind of irritating. The iPod Touch is no exception. Banging out an Epinions review on it is something that I would never, ever want to do. That said, Apple deserves some credit, because it could be worse; they ve made a difficult situation pretty bearable. Maybe even fun.

I suspect that your response to the iPod Touch s software keyboard will be heavily dependent on your previous interaction with PDA/cell phone keypads. I will come out and admit that I loathe the very idea of text-based mobile communication and I ve never owned a PDA so the iPod Touch is my first experience with a mobile keyboard; and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I was able to adjust to its quirks. That said, if you have prior experience with another mobile device (especially one with a hardware keyboard), or you have large thumbs, I think your reaction will be considerably different simply put, the Touch s software keyboard takes some getting used to, and having no skill to build from made it infinitely easier for me to start from scratch.

On a traditional keyboard, I am by no means a fast typist. But I am a touch typist. However, the first thing you have to do when approaching the iPod Touch s keyboard is accept that touch typing owing to the lack of tactile response is impossible. You will need to look at the screen while you type, and you will also have to accept that you are going to make errors. Many errors. Once you ve done so, you can appreciate the real genius of Apple s implementation, constantly making on-the-fly corrections, suggestions, and revisions for typing mistakes. Not just for common mistakes, either, but for exactly the kinds of errors that such a compact software keyboard is prone to: accidentally hitting extra keys, missing keys, incorrect positioning on the home row, and so on. It s an infinitely more refined version of the spell-check functionality found in PC productivity suites. The more you type, the better you get, and the better it gets, recognizing your most common trouble areas. A custom dictionary allows you to enter non-dictionary words (the Touch, within moments, began recognizing my last name, without prompting). As you type a word, the keyboard s responsiveness to touch shifts in anticipation of what letter will come next, enlarging the touch area for certain letters while de-emphasizing others. You must trust the iPod.

On-the-fly suggestions are accepted with a tap of the space bar; rejections made by tapping the suggested replacement word. In some situations, the keyboard can be reoriented and widened by turning the Touch, making the act of typing considerably easier. However, this functionality is limited to surfing the web in Safari. Space limitations do mean that the keyboard requires a second screen (opened by tapping a corner icon) that includes numbers, common symbols, and punctuation. This is mildly irritating (I wish the @ sign and common punctuation were displayed on the main keyboard), but understandable, and mitigated by software tweaks: double-tapping the space bar adds a period, or you can tap and hold the icon that switches to the secondary keys, simply slide to the input you want to add, and release to return to the main keyboard. And when working in a particular application, the Touch rearranges its keyboard for better efficiency when you re in Safari, the backslash and a unique .com key is present on the main keyboard. So while it s not perfect, it s an innovative solution to the problem (if you can call it that) of the iPod Touch s minimalist design.

Check The Youtube!

And then there are the other features they aren t big selling points, but they re nice touches. In addition to calculator, calendar, contacts, clocks, and notes application (all of which function well, and do exactly what you would anticipate from their name), the iPod Touch provides immediate access to maps, weather, stock information, and Youtube. The first three aren t a huge deal they re good to have in a pinch, useful for the speed of use, and aesthetically compelling (especially the weather application: its visual representation of weather, down to the brightness of the screen, which reflects current conditions, is stunning and elegant for something so simple) but you could easily use the Touch s built-in browser to find out this information on your own.

The presence of a Youtube application, though, is more interesting. Owing to the absence of Flash, normal Youtube is useless on the iPod Touch. To get around this, the Youtube application is a link to a sort-of parallel Youtube site, filled with the same videos only in a format that is acceptable to the Touch. Watching Youtube videos is mostly just like watching Movies you ve load onto the Touch; they take up the whole screen, with controls superimposed on top. There s a novelty factor here, but novelty is part of the iPod s charm. Adobe has committed to Flash support for the iPod, at which point the Youtube application will be somewhat moot. But in the meantime, it s a nice addition that reflects an awareness of the importance of web-based multimedia.

Tonight There s Going To Be A Jailbreak

An interesting feature (though it s not strictly a feature ) that I don t think has been touched on in any Epinions reviews that I m aware of is the ability to hack the iPhone and iPod Touch. Obviously, doing so can cause glitches, issues (and may or may not void the warranty), and has the potential (though quite remote) to brick your unit. However, there s a thriving culture of iPod Touch customization currently spreading like wildfire around the Web. With the release of its iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit), Apple has opened the iPhone/iPod Touch to developers willing to play by its rules. In advance of any official releases (I believe the first batch is expected for June 2008), however (Apple is anticipating a nominal fee for Touch users wishing to have access to iPhone software add-ons which will be distributed via iTunes), some enterprising individuals have pre-emptively begun playing with the iPod Touch s functionality. Normally, I wouldn t mention it, because of the intensive technical work involved, but a number of freely available programs (most notably ZiPhone and iPlus) have given even technophobes the pain-free opportunity to jailbreak their iPods, freeing them from the restrictions imposed by Apple.

Jailbreaking provides access to an otherwise hidden Installer application that allows you to install and run unsigned, user-developed iPhone/iPod Touch applications. Thus far, I can t point to any one killer app that makes jailbreaking worthwhile for me (at the moment), there are some truly cool things being done with Apple s technology cool things that are, if nothing else, a preview of what is to come for official, Apple-sanctioned iPhone applications. These include programs like an instant messaging (IM) client, VOIP capabilities, and a wide variety of Touch-friendly games (ranging from Solitaire and Mah-jong to first-person shooters). The iPod Touch definitely isn t a gaming device, but the wide range of homebrew programming done for it only begins to hint at its ultimate potential. If you re interested, a simple Google search can turn up more information than I can provide.

Minutiae

The iPod Touch is currently available in three flavours: 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB, the latter of which was just added to the line-up this winter. How you feel about these sizes will depend mostly on how large your music collection is, and whether you feel the need to have your whole collection with you at all times. While I have an exceptionally large collection, I rarely listen to more than half of it, so I m not bothered by the Touch s limitation here. Apple estimates up to 3,500 songs or 20 hours of video for the 16GB iPod Touch (I find that it tends to be less, but this is due more to Apple s song length/bitrate assumptions than it is to malfeasance on their part), which is perfectly acceptable for my use (3,500 songs at 3:00 each translates into 175 hours of continuous music, which is more than enough). The 32GB model at 7,000 songs should be more than enough for most music listeners. But even if it isn t, I think the added features make up for the shortcoming. Besides, this issue is less of a shortcoming than it is a reflection of the cost constraints of flash memory.

Apple rates the battery life of the iPod Touch to be as high as 22 hours for music playback (video playback comes in at a much more modest 5 hours). While Apple s estimates are usually fairly generous, I don t think that they re unreasonable. Lowering the screen brightness (the Touch actually offers an option that automatically senses light and adjusts screen brightness to compensate) resulted in a battery life of about 20 hours. Obviously, your own mileage will depend on how intensive your use of the Touch is: surfing the Web is a drain, and leaving the Wi-Fi running in the absence of any available networks is a sure way to kill your battery fast. But even under the most intensive conditions (watching a movie, with multiple web pages open and Wi-Fi activated), I couldn t reduce the battery life to below four hours. By way of comparison, the sixth generation iPod Classic weighs in at a battery life of 40 hours for audio and 7 for video.

And though I ve touched on it a bit already, Apple really deserves credit for the design and integration of the iPod operating system and the applications that accompany it. They run well; visuals are crisp, everything is intuitive, and the animations that the developers tossed in are cool without being too much. Starting up the iPod Touch from a complete shut-down takes some time (approximately 10 seconds), but it s not at all an issue. Especially given that the Touch spends more time in a kind of sleep mode (hardly affecting battery life) than it does completely turned off.

Senseless Destruction

The constant fingerprints and screen smudges on the Touch are an irritation, but pretty much unavoidable. Aside from mentioning that, however, I ll refrain (for now) from commenting on the iPod Touch s durability. Not just because I haven t had it for long enough to judge concretely, but because the tech news website Ars Technica long ago published a definitive stress test of the iPhone that is broadly applicable to the Touch as well. Their observations, in summary: scratching the iPhone s glass screen with ordinary use (stuffed in pockets with keys or loose change) is surprisingly difficult, but not impossible. Sliding it face-first across asphalt resulted in more scratches, but even these were difficult to see. Dropping it from waist-height resulted in a single spider web crack, but didn t affect touch screen functionality. Dropping it from a third story balcony killed it (though it was still able to receive incoming calls, amusingly enough), as did submersing it in water for ten seconds. For the sake of comparison, the first-generation iPod Nano survived drops from moving vehicles with only scratches, and indeed it took being run over by a car before the screen died (the music played on, however). The second-generation fared less well (it died after a single waist-height drop), but the iPod Shuffle actually survived a three-story drop. You can extrapolate from these results what you will. My suggestion is to avoid balconies and toilets, and you ll be pretty safe.

So ?

All of this is the long way of saying that the iPod Touch is one of the coolest pieces of technology that I ve ever interacted with. Its design is revolutionary. More importantly, its design is revolutionary without interfering with the remarkable functionality that Apple s iPods are known for. There s no doubt in my mind that the Touch though it only has a niche cachet at the moment is the direction that the iPod line-up is ultimately headed toward. The largest iPod Classic currently holds 160GB of data, which is considerably more than even the largest capacity iPod Touch (at 32GB). But as the price of solid state memory drops, I expect the format of the iPod Touch (if not the name) to take over not overnight, but inevitably. This means that if you re intrigued by the iPod Touch, but not totally sold on it, waiting isn t a bad option. Memory sizes will only rise, while product prices will fall. It s more or less an illustration of the risks faced by early adopters.

At the same time, it should be said that the Touch is far enough into its product lifecycle that its appeal extends well beyond early adopters. Though some might want to wait for the release of official iPhone-specific apps (I m guessing that the initial fee associated with them won t expend to new Touch owners, but I could be wrong), getting in now isn t a bad idea. Unless you re a sucker for a massive hard drive, or you really can t spare the price difference (an 80GB iPod Classic runs approximately $50 less than the 16GB iPod Touch) in which case, you shouldn t be buying an iPod anyway I can t think of a reason not to seriously consider the iPod Touch for your next portable media player. I strongly suspect, however, that if you ve made it this far into my review, you re already pretty much set on it.