App Store
Shop the App Store and discover over 75,000 apps that let you do even more with your iPod touch. Browse apps in categories from games to lifestyle, social networking to education, and more.

Discover apps in categories from games to lifestyle, social networking to education, and more.

The built-in Wi-Fi capability in iPod touch gives you access to the iTunes Store anywhere, anytime.

Browse Apps
Shop the App Store a number of ways. Tap Featured and get a list of new apps and to see what’s hot. Peruse by category. Check out the Top 25 apps. Or if you know exactly what app you’re looking for, find it by doing a quick search.

Amazon-Related Apps
Have Amazon at your fingertips with these applications:

• Amazon Mobile: Buy millions of products from the palm of your hand
• Kindle: Read Kindle books on your iPhone or iPod touch

Genius Recommendations for Apps
There are tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, with more added every day. A new feature of iPod touch makes finding cool new apps even easier. It’s Genius for apps, and it works just like Genius for your music. Tap the Genius icon and get recommendations for apps that you might like based on apps you and others have downloaded.

Download Apps
When you find an app you want, buy and download it wirelessly to your iPod touch from anywhere over Wi-Fi, and start using it right away.

Update Apps
iPod touch tells you whenever an app update is available, so you’ll always have the latest versions of your favorite apps.

iTunes
Discover and download new music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks with iTunes on your iPod touch.

Shop Anytime, Anywhere
The built-in Wi-Fi capability in iPod touch gives you access to the iTunes Store, where you can choose from millions of high-quality iTunes Plus songs and thousands of movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and free podcasts and iTunes U lectures. Browse New Releases, Top Tens, and Genres. Or find exactly what you’re looking for by typing in a quick search. Play a preview of any song or video, then tap once to buy it. Not sure if that movie is worth owning? Just rent it. Everything you buy on iPod touch is the same price you pay on the iTunes Store on your computer.

Sync with iTunes
When you connect iPod touch to your computer, the music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and podcasts you downloaded on the go sync to your iTunes library on your Mac or PC. If you’ve partially downloaded something on iPod touch, your computer completes the download automatically.

Voice Control
Voice Control on the new 32 GB and 64 GB iPod touch gives you the ability to control music playback with spoken commands. You say it. iPod touch plays it. And shuffles it, pauses it, or names it.

Say and Play
Voice Control knows the music in your iPod touch. Want to hear something specific? All you have to do is ask. For instance, say “Play artist Bob Dylan,” and iPod touch does just that. Ask what song is playing and hear iPod touch answer. Tell it to play your favorite album, artist, or playlist. Speak simple commands such as “shuffle,” “next song,” and “pause.” Even have iPod touch play more songs like the one you’re listening to.

Voice Control on the new 32 GB and 64 GB iPod touch gives you the ability to control music playback with spoken commands using the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic. Click to enlarge.

With storage for up to 90,000 of your favorite photos, iPod touch lets you flick through and share all those remember-that-day moments.

Speak into the Mic
The new 32 GB and 64 GB iPod touch come with the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic. So you can reap the benefits (and the fun) of Voice Control even when your iPod touch is tucked in your pocket or bag. To activate Voice Control using the headphones, just press and hold the center area of the remote that is built in to the cord of the headphones (see image at left).

Language Support
Voice Control features support for the following languages: Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish

Photos
With storage for up to 90,000 of your favorite photos, iPod touch lets you flick through and share all those remember-that-day moments.

Share Photos
Show thousands of photos from the palm of your hand. Flick to scroll through thumbnails. Tap to view full screen. Play slideshows, complete with music and transitions. Email a photo to a friend or share it in a MobileMe Gallery.

Save Photos
If you receive a great image in an email, save it to your photo library on iPod touch. Once there, it acts just like any other photo. You can set it as your wallpaper, share it on the web, or pass it on.

Sync Photos
iPod touch uses iTunes to sync photos you have in iPhoto on a Mac or in Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop Album on a PC. Just choose which photos or albums to sync to your iPod touch, then you can look at them–and share them–anywhere you go.

Home Screen
Maybe you want Maps as the first app in the second row. Or Mail down in the Dock. Whatever the arrangement, make iPod touch your own with customized Home screens.

Customize Your Home Screen
Arrange the icons on your Home screen any way you want right on iPod touch or from your computer using iTunes 9. Move an app one row up, two apps over, or even to another Home screen. Create up to 11 Home screens for quick access to the games and applications you download from the App Store and to your Safari web clips.

Home Button
No matter where you are on iPod touch, one press of the Home button at the bottom of iPod touch takes you to the main Home screen. You can also take a shortcut from any Home screen back to your main Home screen by pressing the Home button.

Search the entire contents of your iPod touch, all from one place.

iPod touch features Safari, the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device.

Spotlight Search
Looking for something? Search the entire contents of your iPod touch, all from one place. On your main Home screen, just swipe to the right to bring up Spotlight. Once you start typing, Spotlight begins searching all of your music, videos, contacts, email, calendars, notes, and even your audiobooks and podcasts.

Add Apps and Web Clips
Whenever you download an application from the App Store, a new icon appears on your Home screen. And if you check the same websites every day, just create web clips. They appear on your Home screen, and you can access the sites directly with a single tap.

Safari
iPod touch features Safari, the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. See the web in your hands the same way you see it on a computer. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection.

Browse Anywhere
iPod touch is the only iPod with built-in wireless access to the web. Whenever you’re connected via Wi-Fi, you can access your favorite websites to read news, check scores, pay bills, and go shopping. And if you’re using the new 32 GB or 64 GB iPod touch, you’ll notice that web pages load even faster than before.

Search the Web
iPod touch syncs your bookmarks from your PC or Mac, so you can access your favorite sites quickly. It has Google and Yahoo! search built in, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for on the web.

Web Clips
If you check a website frequently–a favorite newspaper, blog, or sports site–why not create a Home screen icon, or web clip, for it? Make web clips with Safari, and your favorite sites are always just a tap away.

Zoom
Get a closer look at any web page by zooming in and out with a tap or a pinch of the Multi-Touch display. View websites in portrait or landscape. Rotate iPod touch 90 degrees and the web page rotates, too.

mail on iPod touch looks and works just like email on your computer.

With Maps and a Wi-Fi connection, you can get directions, find local businesses, and check traffic.

Mail
Email on iPod touch looks and works just like email on your computer. And it works with the email accounts you already have.

View Messages and Attachments
iPod touch supports rich HTML email, so images and photos appear alongside text. And you see email attachments in their original formats, not stripped-down versions. Rotate, zoom, and pan in more than a dozen standard file and image formats, including PDF; Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; and iWork.

Access All Your Accounts
Access your email from popular providers–including MobileMe, Google Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL–and most industry-standard IMAP and POP mail systems.

Compose Instantly
iPod touch recognizes email addresses in different applications. If you run across an email address on a web page or a map listing, for example, just tap it and iPod touch opens a new message and addresses it for you.

Type Smart
With its built-in dictionary,* the intelligent iPod touch keyboard predicts and suggests words as you type, making it fast and easy to write email. And when you rotate iPod touch on its side, the keyboard instantly switches from portrait to landscape for larger keys and more room to type.

Search Your Inbox
No need to scroll through message after message in your inbox looking for the right one. A quick downward flick brings up a search field that lets you find email by sender, recipient, subject, or all headers.

Maps
Find your way and a place to eat. With Maps and a Wi-Fi connection, you can get directions, find local businesses, and check traffic.

Find Yourself
iPod touch finds your location using known Wi-Fi hotspots. It also finds points of interest by keyword: Search for “coffee” and iPod touch shows you cafes nearby.

Get Directions
Just type in an address and get directions from wherever you are. Choose the method of transportation–car, public transit, or on foot–and view a list of turn-by-turn directions. See a highlighted map route with estimated travel time. You can also mark specific locations and find the best route between them.

Explore and share your favorite YouTube clips.

Track your workouts, set goals, and challenge friends with Nike+.Click to enlarge.

With Voice Memos, you can record any audio you want using the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic or an external mic.

Switch Map Views
Just like Google Maps on your computer, Maps on iPod touch lets you switch between views of Google map data, satellite images, and a hybrid of both. Multi-Touch makes the difference. Tap to zoom, pan, and change your view on the move.

See Traffic
Maps on iPod touch shows you live traffic information, indicating traffic speed along your route in easy-to-read green, red, and yellow highlights.

YouTube
Skateboarding moves gone wrong. Hilarious commercials from another country. Whatever the video, iPod touch has your YouTube addiction covered.

Share from Anywhere
Email your favorite videos to your favorite people. Tap Share on any YouTube video detail page and iPod touch creates an email with the video link already in it.

Search YouTube
Explore Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, and Top Rated videos. Or search for the video you want using a keyword search. Once you find what you’re looking for, bookmark it to watch later.

Nike + iPod Compatibility
Rock out your workout. iPod touch has built-in support for Nike + iPod. It’s music and motivation rolled into one.

Tune Your Run
iPod touch includes built-in Nike + iPod support. Just slip the Nike + iPod Sensor (available separately) into your Nike+ shoe and start your run. The sensor communicates wirelessly with your iPod touch, tracking your time, distance, and calories burned. It even gives you voice feedback on your progress.

Tune Your Cardio Workout
This feature also works with new cardio equipment available in many fitness centers. Just look for Nike + iPod compatible treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, and stationary bikes.

Sync with nikeplus.com
When you get back to your computer, sync your iPod touch with iTunes and transfer your exercise data to nikeplus.com, where you can track your workouts, set goals, and challenge friends.

Voice Memos
You might have a good memory. But sometimes, it’s nice to have a backup. With Voice Memos, you can record little (and big) bits of information to your iPod touch.

Record Memos (or Any Audio)
Record a simple to-do, your next big idea, or a bet between you and your friend. With Voice Memos, you can record any audio you want using the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic or an external mic. Voice Memos will record even when you’re using your iPod touch to do things such as checking email or surfing the web.

Edit Memos
You can trim recorded memos right on iPod touch. That way, you keep only what you need.

Manage Memos
Keep all your memos organized by choosing labels from a predefined list or by creating custom labels.

Share Memos
Send memos to your friends and colleagues via email. Memos you record on iPod touch sync back to your Mac or PC via iTunes, so you can share them later.

Play the latest head-to-head games with a friend–whether your friend is sitting next to you or across the country.

Want more room to type? Rotate iPod touch to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Notes, and Safari.

Download movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks over Wi-Fi from the iTunes Store on iPod touch.

More Features

iPod touch comes with the latest software already installed. And you also get convenient apps including Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Stocks, and Weather.

iPhone 3.1 Software Features

Genius Mixes
This new feature acts as your personal DJ, searching your iTunes library to find songs that go great together, then organizing them into mixes you’ll love. All automatically.

Genius Recommendations for Apps
With thousands of apps in the App Store, how do you find cool new ones? Let Genius help. It looks at the apps you’re using and recommends others you might like.

Peer-to-Peer Gaming
Play the latest head-to-head games with a friend–whether your friend is sitting next to you or across the country.

Buy Movies, TV Shows, and Audiobooks via Wi-Fi
Download movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks over Wi-Fi from the iTunes Store on iPod touch.

Landscape Keyboard
Want more room to type? Rotate iPod touch to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Notes, and Safari.

Cut, Copy & Paste
Cut, copy, and paste words and photos, even between applications. Copy and paste images and content from the web, too.

Spotlight Search
Find what you’re looking for across your iPod touch, all from one convenient place. Spotlight searches all your contacts, email, calendars, and notes, as well as your music and video.

Automatic Wi-Fi Login
Log in to a Wi-Fi hotspot and iPod touch remembers your user name and password the next time you connect.

Accessibility
The new iPod touch comes with standard accessibility features that help people with disabilities experience the fun of iPod touch.

Stereo Bluetooth
Enjoy music and other audio wirelessly. Pair your iPod touch with compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones.

Shake to Shuffle
Just give your iPod touch a shake, and it shuffles to a different song in your music library. You’ll always be surprised by what you hear.

Parental Controls
Decide what music, videos, and apps your kids can access.

Stocks on iPod touch shows you performance information for any stock you choose.

Check worldwide weather at home or away.

Pioneering hardware technology built into iPod touch is how you’re able to flick, tap, and pinch.

iPod touch also includes these useful apps:

Calendar
Calendar works with Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft Outlook, iCal, MobileMe, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for enterprise. Add events. Set reminder alerts. Subscribe to calendars for things such as national holidays and sports schedules.

Contacts
Put names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more at your fingertips. Sync contacts on your Mac or PC to iPod touch using iTunes. Add new contacts on the go with a tap.

Notes
Forget the pen and paper. Use Notes on iPod touch to write yourself a quick note and keep important information on hand. A built-in email function lets you send notes to yourself or others.

Stocks
Stocks on iPod touch shows you performance information for any stock you choose. When you want more details about a stock’s performance, tap the Y! for instant access to Yahoo! Finance.

Weather
Check worldwide weather at home or away. Add the cities you want, then flick back and forth to get six-day forecasts for each. Tap the Y! to open a Yahoo! city guide that shows you what’s happening, rain or shine.

Calculator
Calculator on iPod touch does double duty. In portrait mode, you can use Calculator for simple calculations. Rotate iPod touch to landscape, and it becomes a sophisticated scientific calculator.

iPod touch Technology

Pioneering hardware technology built into iPod touch is how you’re able to flick, tap, and pinch. It’s what makes that racing game feel so real. It’s why you’re able to tweet what you just overheard in the cafe. And it’s the reason iPod touch is the most amazing iPod you’ll ever own.

Multi-Touch
The Multi-Touch display layers a protective shield over a capacitive panel that senses your touch using electrical fields. It then transmits that information to the LCD screen below it. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, zoom in and out on a section of a web page, and control game elements precisely.

Accelerometer
The accelerometer inside iPod touch allows it to detect when you rotate iPod touch from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display. The accelerometer really shines when you play games, because it immerses you in the action. It’s perfect for racing games, where your entire iPod touch acts as a steering wheel, and for tap-and-tilt games such as Rolando, in which your movements control the action.

Wireless
iPod touch has built-in support for 802.11b/g wireless technology. That means you can get online anywhere there’s Wi-Fi. Send email from a coffee shop. Surf the web at the airport. Shop for games from your couch. Browse, buy, and download music and more from the iTunes Store. iPod touch locates nearby wireless hotspots, including protected networks. If you’ve never used a particular network, Wireless Icon it asks you to enter a password the first time, and it remembers the password from then on. So the next time you’re within range, it connects automatically.

Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a form of wireless technology that lets you use devices without the hassle of cables or wires. What does that mean for iPod touch? It means you can use iPod touch with Bluetooth headphones and listen to your music no matter where in the room your iPod touch is. So lounge on your bed, while your iPod touch charges on your desk. Bluetooth on iPod touch is also great for peer-to-peer gaming.

Design
iPod touch is as remarkable outside as it is inside. Holding one is all the proof you need. With its curved design, iPod touch is a mere 8.5 mm thin. Its optical glass front and polished stainless steel back feel sleek and smooth in your hand. Turn it on, and instantly you’re impressed by the brilliant 3.5-inch display. iPod touch is the perfect combination of stunning design and revolutionary technology–the total, beautiful package.

Read Kindle books on your iPod touch.

Read Kindle Books on the iPod touch

• No Kindle required.
• Get the best reading experience available on your iPhone or iPod touch.
• Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you.
• Automatically synchronizes your last page read between devices with Amazon Whispersync.
• Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle.
• Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

Shop for Books on the Kindle Store on Your iPod touch

• Buy a book from the Kindle Store, optimized for Safari, on your iPod touch or iPhone and get it auto-delivered wirelessly.
• Search and browse more than 400,000 books, including more than 103 of 112 New York Times bestsellers.
• Find New York Times bestsellers and new releases for $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
• Get free book samples; read the first chapter for free before you decide to buy.
• Books you purchase also can be read on a Kindle.
• Kindle newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not currently available on the iPod touch or iPhone.
• Kindle for iPhone is currently available for customers in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Republic of, Mexico, Moldova, Republic Of, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam

What’s in the Box

Apple iPod touch 64 GB (3rd Generation), Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic, USB 2.0 cable, Dock adapter, Quick Start guide

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star Ipod is really a waste of time
I got my new i-pod and it is the first time I am using i-pod touch. This product completely sucks and it doesnt come with how to use manual.

I am using it as a paperweight now.

Apple guys….keep the things simple. You have a lot to learn from Zune and some other MP3 players to keep your ‘jobs’

4 Stars Great Ipod
Hi Amazon!! Well this is my 5th Ipod, I’ve owned one Ipod video 30GB, one with 60 GB, and two 4th gen Ipod nanos with 8 GB each. The Ipod touch is faster than all of the previous Ipods that I have owned, scowling and searching for songs is very easy, intuitive and fast. The touch screen is easy to use and to organize. What I really loved about this Ipod is the ability to play very good and entertaining games, a feature that I was not able to enjoy in the previous Ipods that I owned (they did have games but were pretty boring). Most of the games that have I was able to download for free on the Itunes store.

Some of the other great features is the ability to download music directly from the Itunes store to your Ipod, being able to surf the net, built in speaker for listening to music without your headphones and endless applications that are available for the Ipod touch.

My only complaint is the battery life, I not sure but it seems short, having completely drained the battery by the end of the day with mixed use (gaming, surfing the net and listening to music).

I would recommend this Ipod to all of my friends.

1 Star Oh, How I hate this product!
My husband bought this ipod as a gift for me. I love to listen to audio books, and he though this would be an easy way to enjoy them. Well, all the books from our library are for MP3 players. The books take over an hour each to reformat to the ipod, and then they vanish without any reason. The ipod is so very user unfriendly. My husband meant so well, but this ipod is nothing but frustration and stress. Save your money!

4 Stars A five star device with one star software
Let’s get something out of the way right now. I’m an IT Technician. I know computers. I have used Macintosh PCs since System 7 (but I have never owned one that uses Mac OS X). I have used Windows since windows 95 and currently run Windows 7 64-bit at home. I know how to use a computer.

While the iPod Touch itself is a masterpiece of design and engineering and has only a few very serious flaws (it required a hard reset within three days of acquiring it when the software volume knob stopped working, the price of the darn thing is outright insane, it only works with Apple codecs and the outdated mp3 codec, and just like every other mp3 player I’ve ever used it reads tags instead of file names (and doesn’t scroll names so you cannot read long song names {for instance I see 20 files called Magic Knight Rayearth – CD2} which results in song name sorting instead of artist sorting which would be logical)…oh yeah, and it requires the piece of crap that has been long known as iTunes.

iTunes is without a doubt the worst mp3 player/multimedia connectivity software ever conceived of by a deranged programmer. I tried it in version 1. Then I tried it in version 2. Apparently the bugs in those versions have not been fixed in version 9 because it still sucks. Why? Where do I start? I crashes. A LOT. It tries to duplicate every media file you have that isn’t in Apple format. It tries to organize your mp3s into a gazillion folders making it almost impossible to find an mp3 or use it in a playlist outside of iTunes. It will not play back movies in full screen (see comments). Its music and video converters are incredibly slow and create duplicate files everywhere. When you try to sync your iPod it keeps trying to sync EVERYTHING despite the fact that you do not have enough space. It does not auto-convert video files to the correct format when you try to synchronize them. It turns foreign song information into gobbly-gook instead of using the file names for information. It is horribly slow (on a quad-core PC with 3 gigs of ram!). Ugh. Sorry. It sucked when I was a kid, and it still sucks now. HORRIBLE. And the iPod REQUIRES it to activate!

After three days of trying I was finally able to do what I was trying to do (copy of a bunch of mp3s that I wanted and auto-fill up to a certain point), but GOOD GRIEF was it difficult. Photo-sycing on the other hand was no big deal. While about 50 files were rejected by iTunes I don’t much care because I just like to browse some of the 3000 plus pictures I have while I listen to music now and then, and the device handles that perfectly so long as I sync all.

I am in the process of finding a good media converter, using it to convert ALL video files I want to sync, pointing iTunes to to the new files, and syncing them. I will never try to sync normal video files to the device again, it’s a waste of time. I have 300 plus video files (mostly anime music videos, sports clips, and movie trailers) and while it’s no big deal, it would be nice to be able to show them to others on a moment’s notice. I’m still working on it.

Mp3 playback is fine for the most part. The audio quality is good and songs are very controllable. Cover-flow is totally useless because 99 percent of my 6000 plus mp3s have no cover information embedded for iTunes to read (I don’t have Internet at home and ripped them from CDs mostly). Likewise Genius will not work without Internet access so it is also totally useless. The picture viewer on this little device is absolutely amazing once you get the hang of it. Just like “Minority Report”. Way cool. And very intuitive.

The device itself is outstanding. The battery life is very good unless you are using Wi-fi. The touch-screen is just about perfect and doesn’t misread your movements at all as far as I can tell. The ability to pivot the screen likewise is fantastic, and multi-touch is great. It does take a bit of getting used to as with any advanced technology, but it well worth the effort. If like me you have many many mp3s with no tag information, the mp3 sorting is terrible on this device and you will frequently have to use the search function. If this were a $100.00 device I could excuse such sloppiness, but for $300.00 it needs to be able to read file name information and sort accordingly. As it is, I will likely have to use a manual re-tagging program to accomplish this. What a pain…

The wi-fi connectivity is great, and likewise for the App Store and applications. I swear the Yahoo Mail functions better on this device than the actual website, and actual websites work and display great. I can even get used to using a touch screen to enter web addresses..

All in all, I love the device. I just refuse to use iTunes and wish it was smarter when it comes to mp3s. I’ll live. But for some people who have thousands of mp3s the device might almost not be worth the effort (I asked my sister if she would like one and because of her extreme headaches trying to download from iTunes at our apartment office computer {no Internet remember?} she told me it would be too much hassle to own this device).

I plan to keep the device. I traded a wireless router and a portable hard drive for it and thus far it makes a great picture viewer, a nice random-select mp3 player, and maybe in the future a sweet movie player (great playback and controls just horrible syncing). I’m just starting to download apps off of coffee shop wi-fis, ect, but it’s already been a lot of fun. Overall a good purchase, but well worth considering carefully given the pitfalls of iTunes.

5 Stars Touch w/ enough storage
So, this is yet another Touch review in a sea of these. I waited to get a touch until the storage capacity increased and I’m glad I waited — the 64GB touch finally has reasonable storage for the increasing demands of apps and videos, and an ever-growing music library. I’d like to see it doubled again, but perhaps that’ll be the next generation. OS compatibility, as with many of Apple’s products, isn’t an issue for OSX and Windows, but Linux users are left out. Linux support for the Touch isn’t available from Apple, so those that value Free/Open platforms might be better off with an Android phone, or a third party MP3 player (but that’s pretty widely known anyway). ITunes on Windows has improved dramatically since version 7, and although 3rd party options are unavailable, using iTunes on Windows is much better than it used to be, which makes it tolerable, since using iTunes is necessary to use the Touch (initial setup, adding content, getting apps). Ironically, i haven’t used any iPods on OSX, so I can’t say what iTunes is like on the Mac.

On to the device itself. Some player quirks remain, and some are more annoying than others. For example not being able to play an album in playlist order without creating a playlist (unlike the old style pods/nanos) and clipped sound and/or distortion when using the eq (like the more recent pods) are livable and can be easily rectified or worked-around. One of the more serious quirks is the volume control becoming unusable when the Touch is moved from dock to dock to headphones (don’t wear ‘phones when you plug them in), and which requires a restart of the device to correct. I’m hoping to see a firmware update to correct that one.

In terms of ease-of-use, and response, Apple sets the bar for music/video playback devices, and this iteration is right in line with its cousins. Battery life for playing music is decent, but for apps it’s not great. Two to three hours on a processor-intensive game and it’s time for a recharge. Of course, the screen brightness is a big variable, but even turned down, battery life simply suffers with the screen on continuously. The built-in WiFi transmitter and Safari is useful when in range of an 802.11 wireless network, for a quick check of email, facebook, weather, or whatever, but this too will chew into the battery reserve. The WiFi transmitter, along with the touch interface is the biggest improvement over the older style iPods, and takes it into the realm of limited, general-purpose computing devices, instead of a dedicated function device.

Overall, it’s another well-made device from Apple, and has just enough storage to make it a light-weight, useful general purpose entertainment device. However, functions other than listening to music, that require WiFi and the screen to be lit (watching movies, using the WiFi enabled apps like Safari, kindle reader, playing games), will require an external power source for extended use. That’s the sacrifice for size and portability. If battery life is that important, an iPad would probably be a better choice.