A cut above with some serious flaws.

I have never owned an iPod until I got the Touch. For one thing, why would I want to pay $200 or more to play mp3 files when I could get a cheap player for $25? Not very cost effective if you ask me. Then came the iPhone, which was WAY cooler than the old iPods with their tiny, B&W screens. Not only that, it could play videos, even movies, showed the album covers, could access the Internet, had a date book, world clock, appointment calender, and of course, was a cell phone as well. I was excited, in spite of the exhorbitant pricetag. Unfortunately, I don't like AT&T and I don't need a cell phone. If they only made an iPhone without the phone...

My prayers were answered a couple of months later, when I heard that the iPod Touch had been released. I had to wait until February of '08 to get it, but get it I did. Now here's all the stuff they don't tell you on the commercials:

The Touch has to be plugged into a PC for the battery to charge. If you don't have a PC (I don't), you have to spend 20-25 bucks on a charger. When you first take it out of the box, you have to connect it to an Internet-connected PC just for the thing to boot up and start working. Yet another hassle for those of us who are Internet-challenged. Once it boots up, theoretically, you don't need a PC again. Unless, of course, you want to download anything except music from the iTunes store. Want to download a movie? You HAVE to use a PC. Want to download a video? PC. This is just the tip of the frustration iceberg folks.

The Internet browser has no flash plugins built in, so about 1/3 of the Internet is not viewable. A very large percentage of streaming audio and video online don't work on the iPod touch, either. Basically, if its not a 'Quicktime' stream, you can't access it. Man, this machine is difficult to work with! Oh, and the battery life when you're online is all of about three hours.

There are some redeeming qualities for your 400-500 dollars. First, the Wi-Fi works pretty well as long as you only access 'open' addresses. The password protected ones appear as having a padlock beside them. The ability to download songs and albums from thin air, with just a Wi-Fi connection Is very cool. All you need is an iTunes card (or a valid credit card) and the desire to download. Even without the flash ability in the browser, you can still access most of the Internet, play online games, read information and surf to your hearts content. No cables required. And you get the regular Internet, not just the part of it dedicated to mobile phones. You see, the iPod Touch allows you to scale and scroll everything on screen so even the most near-sighted of us has no problem using the iPod to surf. The only time you can't resize Is when you're watching a video, which by the way, is very sharp and crisp. BTW, Apple offers a $20 upgrade to give your iPod Touch a few more features, like email, maps, weather, etc.

So basically, I'm saying that the iPod Touch is a great big trade off. It's definitely worth the $400 I paid for mine, but just. I was going to give it 3 stars, but the thing is just so damn cool!