iPod Touch: A review

Some describe the iPod Touch as an iPhone without the phone. That is a pretty accurate description of the smart steel-and-black device. It also lacks a camera, one of the attractions of the iPhone.

Yet, the iPod Touch is a very advanced mp3 player. It is Wi-fi enabled, which means you can check out websites on it. You can buy stuff online. And then it has dozens of useful applications that you wouldn't find on less expensive mp3 players, such as on those made by Transcend or Creative, or even on the lower-priced iPod Nano.

Wireless Internet capability must be the biggest plus of the Touch, especially since it gives you ready access to the App Store, where you can download hundreds of useful and quirky applications. The instrument Apple gave us to test had some games, including one with James Bond as the theme, and last week, Wired magazine gave out its recommendations of the top 10 applications on offer at the App Store.

In short, what you can do with the applications on your iPhone, you can with your iPod Touch. You can turn your music player into a flute, play clever games, and browse Google Earth to find addresses. Most of these applications you can buy for between one and three dollars. And if you are curious about useless applications, there's one being promoted on their site right now. It's called iFart, and is described as 'a fart machine for all ages'!

When it comes to listening to music, the difference between a Nano and a Touch is that the latter has a built-in speaker, which means you can place it on your table and listen to it without earphones. As far as sound goes, the Touch is in the same league as the other Apple products, which is another way of saying it can beat its rivals with ease.

Apple's proprietary multi-touch technology is what makes the Touch a music player that's fit for snobs, but if you have a big appetite for stored music, you should choose the iPod Classic, which can keep 160 GB on a similar-sized instrument. If you settle for the Classic, you can't show off those impressive touch applications to your friends.

You can buy the iPod Touch for Rs 14,400 for 8 GB and Rs 21,400 for 16 GB. Let's put it this way: the iPod Touch is the rich man's mp3 player, and the poor man's iPhone.