Apple - iPod Touch Review

The recent rage of Cell Phone land is, yes, that often mentioned, earth shattering invention known as the iPhone. For a LOT of people that device became the device of choice, however, for many of us, we could not bring ourselves to move to AT&T, even for the greatest thing from Cupertino since, well, the Mac itself.

For the rest of us, there is the iPod Touch. This non iPhone clone is all the iPodish goodess of the phone without the celluar contracts. It boasts the same size screen but comes in at almost half as thick as its iPhone big brother. It has Audio and Video capabilities and even does the nifty "flip" thing the iPhone does to give you coverflow. With the Touch getting twice he storage capability at roughly the same price as the phone, it's a good trade off to only have 802.11g wireless capability.

You have some apps from the iPhone to play with too. You have the calendar syncing capability which, for some unknown reason won't let you add events. (Update, this was "fixed" in the 1.1.2 firmware update.) You also get Safari for browsing the web when you are near a WiFi hotspot. Your Contacts and YouTube access are present as well. What's missing? How about Email? Not on the Touch. You don't get Bluetooth access either, so no wireless headsets without an adapter. Oh, and by the way, those video out cables you bought for your older Video iPod, don't even try it. Apple has decided to create a new "proprietary" cable setup which means you get to buy another set.

The iPod Touch uses the same operating system as the iPhone which means, you guessed it, the same hacks for the iPhone work here too. I give you the same standard warnings here, however. Modifing your Touch WILL void your warranty and you do run the REAL risk of turning it into an expensive brick. That being said, I have personally jailbroken my Touch and gone through a firmware update with little issues other than having to start over after each one. It IS an iPod after all and a full restore is only a click away in iTunes.

Overall, the iPod Touch is an excellent iPod for those of use who do not want, or need the iPhone. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't desire to carry their entire media library with them and wants excellent screen resolution, clarity, and battery life.