Fun toy!, Couple of Major Drawbacks, Worth Just a Bit Under Retail

SUMMARY:
This little thing is quite fun to use. I have had it for about 2.5 weeks and I figured the novelty would wear off, but not yet. It helps that Apple has provided a couple of key updates to the player since I bought it. There are a few minor things I don't like (typing can be a little odd at times, pictures taken at the wrong angle keep flipping in the wrong direction, etc.). One not-so-minor drawback is the fact that my PC sometimes fails to recognize the device, but I believe that to be a Windows issue. Flash content while browsing is unsupported. Appointments don't sync up properly (can even mess up both the source and destination appointment times.

STYLE:
This thing has nothing but style. It's sleek, slim, lightweight, and relatively sturdy. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is extremely cool and fun to use. Pinch your fingers together on the screen spread them and you'll zoom in or out, respectively, on webpages, pictures, etc.

VIDEO:
Unbelievable brightness and clarity of picture. This thing can view anything off of iTunes, of course, but there are some issues with other vendors (Amazon Unbox won't support it). I even took some home videos with my still cam and even though they were in .mov format, they wouldn't play on the iPod Touch. I'm not sure if this is a factor of the video or the player. However, Quicktime played them just fine on my PC.

SOUND:
The sound quality is so-so. I had a Samsung K-3 before this and the sound quality was better on the Samsung. There is an equalizer, but still no radio. You can, however, setup a volume limit for your kids not to blow their ears out. Music is easy to find on iTunes and the album art loads onto the player automatically, if you want. Songs are $.99, on average. (Rhapsody won't support it, etc.).

FEATURES:
Flash based hard drives are the best way to go. I have never had one that reacted to heat/cold, dropping, bouncing, etc. Yet, my hard drive based Zen was a brick in no-time.

Also, when I bought the Touch, the GUI sported music, YouTube, Safari (web browser), WiFi, a calendar, contacts, a calculator, video, settings, etc. Newer features are widgets, a new mail client for the Touch/iPhone, a note utility, Google maps, customizable home screen with room for 9 more screens, and more.

A couple of major drawbacks are a lack of Flash support (which is stupid considering how many pages depend on Flash these days) and the fact that my contacts synced with Outlook fine, but the appointments were messed up on both the iPod and the computer after a sync (you have to be kidding me!).

UPGRADES:
The latest upgrade added the newer features mentioned above. The drawback here is that I had to pay $20 for it, whereas iPhone users got the update for free. It was still worth the money to me. The new mail client alone was a huge improvement. The GUI customization is also a very nice feature.

The Google maps is a great tool to have, but don't count entirely on one aspect of it...its attempt to triangulate your position. It's supposed to use cell towers and WiFi hotspots to locate you. I'm not sure what luck others have had, but it showed me as being quite a few states away from my location. Regardless, I can key in my address and get directions to another easily, etc.

ACCESSORIES:
It comes with a little plastic dock you can rig up to the power cord, wall jack adapter, earbuds, power cord (USB), instructions, etc. The earbuds are not very good in terms of sound or comfort.

I bought the DLO leather HipCase for about $30 and I love it. It's professional enough to wear with my business suit and it's well-designed, sleek, and sturdy. I highly recommend this case.
Link: http://www.dlo.com/Products/Hc_folio_touch_Prod.tpl?command=showpage&cart=1200731022426038

My wife also found iMini speakers at Target on sale for $3 and they sound really good even compared to a $30 set.

Also, my wife bought the $50 video adapter for the TV from Apple. I'd say, keep shopping, as this is way too expensive for something you should not be able to find cheaper (check RadioShack). Also, I heard Creative and DLO are coming out with HD video plugs for the iPod sometime in the coming months.

CONCLUSION:
I wouldn't say it's worth the $399 price tag, but it comes close. Even though I had to pay $20 for the upgrade, I still think it was worth it. The video quality is great. iTunes is a little tricky to learn when syncing with the iPod at first, but it's pretty simple now. For appointments, I highly recommend hand-jamming them in, not syncing.