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 !