When I take a peek at the receipt of my Ipod Video, I see its almost
three years old. When I take a peek at the receipt of my First 3G Ipod
i see its over 4 years old. That is pretty long for a portable device
considering that none of their predecessors ( A Rio, A creative Zen
Jukebox and some others) never made it over the one year mark. And both
those Ipods do not lie in the "drawer of obsoleteness" that has become
the resting place for some of my gadgets, nor have they been sold
online even though they keep their value pretty well. The reason for
that is : Both devices are still active today. My first Ipod (bought
back in the days BEFORE Podasting) has been going around with me to
work for a few years, has been the major source of music throughout our
renovations of the house (with all the dust and that) and for the last
2 years, has been in Nyana’s possession for daily use in her car. Yet
the thing still 
keeps working. My Ipod video ? 3 straight years of
daily use (from 2 to 10 hours) have still not worn it down. But still
it was time for a change.
One of the possible successors
for my Ipod should bring something extra to the table. And I must say I
was not tempted by the Iphone for one second. To me the Iphone falls
into the category of the Macbook air : Overpriced and Overhyped. What
did peek my attention was the Ipod Touch. Wifi on board, Video display
and now, with the software upgrade, some cool little applications to
come along with it. For its price it looked like pretty good deal.
For
once I did not scour the internet for reviews. I heard Kd Murray (The
maclabrat at the GGP) talk about it and was convinced. Having had an
early model of the Ipod touch in my hands a few months ago, I knew the
interface was up to Apple’s reputation. Sure I was looking for a
replacement for my Ipod video (on which I did not watch a LOT of video)
but I did not think it would surprise me like this.
Looking at
the amount of content I carry around with me : I decided to go for the
16 gig version. I’m not somebody who carries around their entire music
collection. I listen to a lot of podcasts so the content is always
‘fresh’ and changing every day. No massive music collection, just 3
recent episodes of about 25 podcasts, and I’m settled. But when I got
my hands on the device the Wifi functionality proved to be kicker. This
is not an MP3 player equipped with a screen. To me the Ipod touch is a
wireless tablet that lets me read my email (though Imap !) Surf the web
(with a browser and an interface that makes the pocket pc os look like
something from the stone age). And in addition it lets me play my
podcasts and video’s. Oh yeah : There is also a youtube channel that
plays content straight from youtube. That was something I found
amazing. The combination of the screen and the wifi turns the "core
value" of the touch into a tablet pc instead of an MP3 player. The
on-screen keyboard might not be "novel writing" material , even writing
a quick email is not very obvious, but still : When it comes to Hotspot
hunting : It beats the crap out of my (far more expensive)
"htc-Windows-mobile" cellphone that is also equipped with wifi.
If
the keyword is "letting technology work for you" I would give the Ipod
Touch a silver medal for coming in as one of Apple’s best Ipod models
so far: Who the crap needs GPRS connection using the overpriced Iphone
when you can steal wifi with a much easier and cheaper device. The
added value of being able to make phonecalls, just does not justify the
price for the iphone, where the added value of wifi / email / youtube /
safari to a "horizontal ipod video" surely makes the Ipod touch a
bargain !