iPod Touch Review

Topping off the USA Today's list of 2007's most desirable multimedia players with notable appearances from Apple, SanDisk, Microsoft, and Archos, Apple's iPod Touch stands apart and ahead of its competitors primarily because of its gorgeous design.

Likes its sister device the iPhone, the iPod Touch is slim, lightweight, and elegant, 2.4 inches wide by 4.3 inches tall and 0.3 inches deep in size and composed of metal and glass. With a sizeable 3.5 inch video screen and offering the same design interface of the Apple iPhone, the iPod Touch offers both Wi-Fi access and music download opportunities. The iPod Touch comes in two sizes currently, the 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399.) The multi-touch interface offers seamless control akin to the iPhone with just a touch of your fingers, allowing for easy gliding through music albums, photographs, and web pages. Featuring an ambient light sensor that adjusts to the brightness within your room and hence saves battery life, the iPod Touch also has an accelerometer, allowing for both portrait and landscape modes.

Featuring a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard, the iPod Touch enables browsing via Safari, YouTube videos, access to contacts, and the iTunes Wi-Fi music store. The CoverFlow feature allows users to search albums and look through photographs, zooming in and out and enlarging sections, which is also ideal for web browsing.

One of the most beautiful multimedia players available, the iPod Touch may cost more than your average player, but offers functionality and a smooth design interface that is unlike any other player and shows the loving commitment of Apple's core of talented designers and engineers.

The iPod Touch has only two real buttons: one to bring up the main menu and a screen deactivation button in the top left corner. Using a touch-screen navigation interface similar to the iPhone, the iPod Touch focuses on multimedia capabilities. The iPod Touch can take any minijack headphone connection.

Through a special arrangement with Starbucks, iPod Touch users can download music that they hear playing at local Starbuck coffeehouses and buy it right over the Wi-Fi connection. The Wi-Fi connection on the iPod Touch enables users to hop on to any open Wi-Fi network and browse email, surf the web, and buy music online.

Featuring POP/IMAP email, a microphone, 2.0 camera, built-in speakers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and numerous widgets for weather and stocks, the iPod Touch also has a video portal for YouTube, a Safari web browser, access to the iTunes Wi-Fi music store, and a multimedia music and video player similar to the latest iPods.

Similar to other iPods, the iPod Touch supports AAC, MP3, Audible, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless for music and all video formats supported by the latest iPod series, with a video resolution up to 640 by 480 at 30 frames per second. The iPod Touch can output both videos and photos to a television directly using a video accessory such as the Apple AV cable or Universal Dock and also allows users to manually manage their music without being limited by the sync rules for the iTunes interface. The iPod Touch has a battery life of 22 hours for music playback and 5 hours for video.

Without a doubt, the iPod Touch is one of the best multimedia players available currently and it is the best iPod for video. If you like the multimedia features of the iPhone and do not want to commit to the AT&T service contract, the sleek, gorgeous iPod Touch may just be the right thing for you.