Apple iPod touch 16 GB

For the best part of 5 years my MP3 player has been part of my mobile phone, for whatever reason (I can't explain it myself) I have felt the need to separate the two for some time; however I never really liked any MP3 player on the market. And let me just say I have never been that taken by Apple's Ipod, their domination of the globe bothered me; that being said when I saw the Ipod Touch I knew this was the MP3 player for me. Something about the Ipod touch just stuck in my mind, each MP3 player I looked at was compared to the Touch, and after a few months of deliberation I finally took the plunge.

The Ipod Touch looks a bit like a chunky version of LG's Prada phone; it has a nice big screen (for its size) and its functions except for the activation button at the bottom are all touch sensitive on the screen itself. Compared to the Prada phone the Touch is much more straightforward and easy to operate, controls are much more defined and accurate, even though the onscreen options are often much more small and fiddly by appearance.

The Touch is more than just a MP3 player; it boasts a nice range of other features. What sets the Touch aside from other touch sensitivity is the addition of wi-fi. The wi-fi connection allows you to gain access to the internet wherever you're in the range of a wireless connection (permissions granted obviously); this makes occasional surfing for the ordinary person on the street much more straight forward, for example I quite often take my laptop to work to read and rate on this website; but it's a clunky old affair dragging a laptop to and fro. Now I can access pretty much any website via the companies wi-fi service; whether its reading or to access my bank account. Dont let the small screen put you off, by putting your fingers on either side of the screen and dragging them away from the centre of the screen the website can zoom in size to probably larger than your home PC. The connections are pretty good; I find it far quicker than using my laptop with wi-fi both at home and at work. No website is out of your reach, regardless of content and configuration.
Lots of mobile devices often don't allow you to achieve certain practises, for example using youtube; the Touch not only is ready for it, but embraces it providing near perfect streaming of video to the unit.
Another feature nice addition is an integrated use for i-tunes, once you have an account set up you can download tracks and videos directly to your Ipod Touch. This takes a lot of hassle out of the process (and a lot of wire). You can even link directly and download webcasts (or mobicasts) to your unit, many websites offer both nowadays to listen to interviews, comedy shows etc.
When surfing the net or using any of the above related facilities, the Touch has a sneaky weighted device that means no matter how you hold the unit you're always viewing content the right way round. Turn the unit on its head and the onscreen content moves too.

The Touch has a nice use of video allowing you to store video content on the phone, so whether it's the next episode of Lost or the latest movie, you can watch your favourite things on the move. Imagine those boring train journeys lifted by a high quality video of your choice, or waiting for something to happen.
You can also store photos, though this is not something that really floats my boat, it seems a bit too much like hard work to me.

Other features of the Touch are a calculator, a world clock with alarm, and an address book. You can also of course use your e-mail facility to do other things like set diary events if of course your content provider allows it. You can even set your internet home page to have handy widgets, a prime site that uses widgets is google (Widgets are little add-ons that you can add t make your life easier post it notes, language translation tools, horoscopes, and news headlines).

Ok so that's the rundown, but what's the reality of using this new state of the art design.

The first issue is weight, while it's not a really heavy thing it weighs about the same as three mobile phones (providing you're not still carting a brick).

The screen is very sleek and clear, and easily scratched if you fail to protect it. Personally I feel that Apple should allow for this by putting a protector in the box, or even a case to sit the Touch in. I'm not being tightfisted here, but the reality is that to buy a case is not an easy thing; being a new product now shops in my town had a case to fit the product, and ordering can take up to a fortnight, which in reality means a bit of a longer weight before using your new toy.

There is no mains adapter, to charge your Ipod you need to connect it to a PC with the included USB connector, this is really annoying as those of you who remember the original Ipod scandal where the battery life was limited the reality was that due to USB charging the battery life never optimised. You need to purchase a mains adapter should you not with to charge via a computer. Think about the additional electricity you could be wasting too. On the plus side I get about 30 hours constant use from a single charge and a full battery after about an hour's charging, you can of course listen as you charge too.

And finally my biggest complaint, Apple assumes you have experience of Ipod products, and as a result provide you with no instruction guide. Yes there is a quick start fact sheet, but no detailed information. It took me some time to figure out how to expand the size of the screen, especially considering the quick start guide gives you duff information, it says tap the screen to enlarge, this simply is not the case. And even some weeks after purchasing I don't know how to delete tracks on the unit, or how to create my own playlist despite looking around for the answer. Apple also assume all users have internet access as you need to download the I-Tunes program in order to connect your Ipod to your PC.

The price tag is high, £199 for the 8GB version, or £269 for the 16GB version I purchased and while the technology is great familiar Ipod uses might be stuck by the restriction of storage most Ipod's have over 40GB of storage.

I do like my product, the sound is good and clear; volume being a good addition it plays about twice the volume of the MP3 player in my phone. But the earphones seem very flimsy, I'm always very cautious of how I handle them. The technology is great, but a Bluetooth connection could enhance the product either for use outside of wi-fi areas or transfer of data from your phone to your Ipod. It's by far the best MP3 player I have ever encountered, but Apples assumptions over the fact that they are the leading MP3 providers is really incredibly annoying, I believe many buyers might quickly get annoyed and sell the item on because of this very issue if they are new to either MP3 or Ipod.

I have to finish on a really positive note, because the Ipod Touch has become a really essential part of my day and I find myself in the situation where I feel I can't do without it, consider myself another brainwashed drone.