iPod Touch is the future...right NOW!

I must admit, I was an iPod-hater at first influenced by the opinions of others. Certainly an appearance of monopoly of MP3 players means a negative impact on consumers...WRONG!

In reading all the reviews of Zunes, I started there and my primary experience was a misleading by Microsoft in what the Zune actually did. So, I defected to the Creative Zen Vision:M. I don't like Apple/Zune closed eco-system and the Zen opened up many avenues of input, but requires me to figure out how to get it all in there.

So, my wife surprised me with a 16GB iPod touch for Christmas, so I went to work figuring it all out to determine what I was going to end up doing. So, the review starts here.....

Out of the box, I got a sync cable, cloth, iPod, and flimsy barely-there instruction manual. Once you turn on the iTouch, you HAVE to connect it to iTunes to get it to set up. Kind of a pain, but ok.

Once set up, the touch has a beautiful touch interface where the icons are crisp and of great resolution. There are two buttons-power/standby and the home screen button. No volume buttons, camera like on the iPhone.

The addition of Wi-Fi is a most welcome addition to any MP3 player. itouch uses Wi-Fi for the included Safari browser and iTunes application that lets you wirelessly purchase and download music directly to the device.

You can sync your Outlook contacts and calendar and it actually works on this version. The YouTube application is nice for viewing videos in the standard or landscape view..the resolution is crisp and not choppy at all.

The iTouch is very light and thanksfully connects with the iPod accessories already on the market with some made especially for the iTouch.

The sound quality is the best from iPods so far with preset EQ choices. There are many settings for the user-brightness, passwords, browser settings, email settings(with Jan Update).

To date, this is the best iPod and frankly, the best MP3 WiFi device available.

Negatives:
-16GB Flash Drive for the $400 price,
-Isn't able to be used as a disk drive,
-Limited file type support,
-No on-device radio,
-January Update is $20 for early adopters yet will be included on iTouches from this point forward,

Positives:
-iTunes-Largest library of music, movies(and now movie rentals), podcasts, audio books, and TV shows via the iTunes interface
-MP3's can be purchased DRM free from other sites(Amazon/WalMart amongst them) and put on iTouch
-Massive accessory support-docks/speakers/covers, etc
-SDK kit for 3 party software development meaning games and other apps for the iTouch
-The #1 used MP3 device on the planet!

Desired Features:
-Enabled disk drive
-Radio tuner on the device
-Customizable EQ
-Needs the ability to restore iTunes from the iTouch should the computer HD crash..however, 3rd party apps do this(TouchCopy is a good one)
-Option to not use iTunes and use as simple drag and drop device

Bottomline:
the iPod Touch is a bit pricey for a 16GB device, yet the feature set(Email, Browser, Maps) make it worth it since it isn't merely a music player anymore.

I'll update this review as I use it more!