Ok, so I just got me an iPod touch. Yes yes I know, I drank the kool-aid. Tasted like apple.

I got it because my faithful ipod nano, which I beat to hell and back for years (it is now taped together) finally went into cardiac arrest and died. So I went to get a replacement. I originally was going to get a new green ipod, but they were out so i decided to splurge.

What does it do?  Plays music, videos, surfs the web and email. Can load third party apps. Basically a PDA.
Manufacturer: Apple Computers
Cost MSRP: ~$250
Cost actual: ~$250
How well does it do it?  Lets get past the cost and the company, and look at the device itself. The usability of the interface is very good. Sometimes it can be irritating, because sometimes it doesn't register your touches, or if you use a meatier finger (such as a thumb) it might register the touch somewhere else. The on screen keyboard is alot easier to use than I thought, but is still irritating due to the size of the keys. You can get the hang of it though.

The web browser Is actually really pleasant. I've had bad experiences with portable browsers before  (mostly rendering or speed issues- I have others to review later) but this one was very quick, allowed for multi window (!) browsing, and rendered all pages accurately, except for some plugins. One interesting thing to note, the touch has a tilt sensor, so if the page is to wide for the screen, just rotate the device and use the screen as a widescreen. Also the finger gestures are fairly easy to use, but can get irritating sometimes if it registers your touch wrong (i.e. it clicks a link instead of zooming in)

The email client: very vanilla, but easy to use. not much to comment on here.

Youtube: surprisingly fast and good quality. I expected alot of buffering and maybe some random stops, but it cam through clear as it was on the computer.  worth noting: a handful of other websites also support the touch/iphone, but unless you are on youtube most videos will not work. This makes me a sad panda.

Stocks and weather: I grouped these together because I don't have much comment. They work. Select your companies for stocks, select your cities for weather, it shows you. I use the weather one much more, obviously.

music and videos:  Plays music and videos, videos are of a very nice quality, but there isn't a whole lot of storage space for vids (I have the 8GB model) you can search through songs artists and albums the old fashion menu based way, or you can use cover flow. I find the menus more efficient myself.  Your basic ipod stuff.

Maps: if you've ever used google maps: it's exactly the same thing. no GPS, unfortunately.



The hardware: this thing is unbelievably thin and light. I have a hard time fathoming how it all fits.  The device itself seems quite sturdy (metal body) obviously except for the GIGANTIC GLASS SCREEN. I have no idea how durable this is, and I don't intend to find out. I baby the thing.  It also has volume buttons on the side, which is nice. It would be irritating to turn the screen on just for the volume (I constantly adjust volume due to different noise levels in the environment)

The wifi gets excellent range and speed. I was impressed. basically same range as most of my computers.



Now my determination: does this belong in WOG kit? depends.  In the woods, entirely useless, period. except as a music player. No wifi, it's just another music player.  In the city (with wifi) immensely useful, check email and weather quickly, navigate, etc etc.  If you spend alot of time in the city, it might be worth a look. if you don't, it's almost useless to you. it's part of my EDC, but won't help me in a bugout situation.

What would make this device better? GPS, hands down. If this thing had actual GPS, I would bow down and recommend this to all.

If you are in the market for a nice PDA which has a good music player, I would recommend this. if you want something else, I would recommend against this device.

I consider the price of this device to be on the high end of 'acceptable'  your mileage may vary depending on your funding.

Does it run Skype?

Might want to check out the N800. Can be had for cheaper and it runs linux. Skype built in, bluetooth, wifi, etc
Runs firefox with flash 10 support.
The N810 has all this plus built in keyboard and GPS, you can get WiMax added for extra built in.

2 SD card slots for up to 16G and a USB host controller mod  for 500G HDs etc.

Touchscreen, accelerometer, etc A itouch killer.

400MHZ 128DDR

Check out my post on review

http://smf.rantradio.com/patrolling-with-sean-kennedy/belt-line-internet-tablet/msg13365/#msg13365

interesting review.  My hard drive recently got fried so the ipodtouch has become the only access I have to the web.  It has been quite the learning experience.

Well, i would HOPE the phone has a microphone    I have the ipod touch, which has no phone feature, it may not have a microphone.