Well, let me start by saying that I ordered the Touch on a lark. Got it direct from Apple with free engraving on the back. I must say that this is a really fun toy, at 8GB its just big enough to hold my music collection (6GB), a couple of videos and still have space to cache some video streams, barely! As mentioned elsewhere, the interface is quite cute and innovative. I love a touch screen and I love how big the screen is. Ok, here's the things I love about the Touch so far:
1) Big beautiful screen
2) Touch screen interface
3) Wifi connectivity with Safari, iTunes and YouTube built right into the main screen.
4) Changeable background, finally!
5) Sleek form factor slides nicely into my pocket.
6) Don't have to use it as a cell phone.
7) Flips back and forth from landscape to portrait modes depending on how you hold it or what you are viewing.
8) Power button, thank you Apple for finally deigning to put a power button on an iPod!
9) Automatic brightness adjustment, absolute genius!
10) Seems to remember where you left off on every video on the unit, awesome feature I love it!
11) iTunes: for any iPod you have to count the flawless relationship with iTunes as a big plus, you just can't beat it for reliability, ease of use and great features (and believe me I've tried!)
12) Great Now Playing music page, the album art fills the whole screen and by tapping the middle you get immediate access to repeat and shuffle buttons. Now you can now easily shuffle just a playlist, a feature that has been hard to find on previous iPods.
13) Like any other iPod, accessories abound and are easily purchased just about anywhere!
14) Apple customer service is good imo, they stand behind their product and will replace without much hassle as I know from experience.
But of course, nothing is perfect. I give this a 5 stars because it is such a great innovation for Apple and a great product, but that doesn't mean that its without flaws and here's the ones I've noticed so far:
1) Touch screen can be a bit frustrating, often doesn't feel me and often I miss the button I'm aiming for with my fat fingers (they feel fat when trying to hit keyboard buttons on that screen anyway!). I understand that this is a "Capacitance" screen which means you can't use a stylus or your fingernail, you have to register firm contact with your flesh on the screen.
2) Screen flipping: although this is a cool concept it can be annoying sometimes. Occasionally the screen flips as I'm moving around and I didn't want it to. So I sit there twisting the thing to and from trying to get the alignment I want. Wouldn't it be nice if you could lock it into the perspective you want and it would just stay there (is anybody at Apple listening?)
3) Automatic locking: this was a particularly annoying feature, fortunately I figured out how to turn it off. Basically it would lock up the interface if I didn't mess with it for 1 minute, then I have to click power to get it back, slide to unlock, and then make my volume adjustment or whatever!
4) Weird playlist behavior: on my other iPods I select a playlist and it begins playing. This one doesn't seem to do that, and it displays the playlist in a strange touch screen friendly format which I don't really care for. I'd like to be able to display the playlist properly and I'd like to be able to tell it to start playing immediately. This interface needs work imho.
5) Its a bit overpriced for an 8GB player (compare to $199 for 8GB Nano?) so I suspect a price reduction is coming soon.
7) Hard to operate "blind", as I walk around I like to be able to pause/play or adjust volume without having to look at the screen. Very easy to do on my 5.5Gen iPod, almost impossible on the Touch. I have to pull it out of my pocket almost every time I want to pause or adjust the volume.
8) Sound quality is not quite as good as my 5.5Gen Video iPod or my Archos 605, I've tried it on speakers and headphones and the Video has just a little bit cleaner smoother sound especially at high volume.
Overall, its an awesome innovative product and if you really like having the coolest new toy (like me!) and money is not a major concern I say what are you waiting for?
2 month update: Well of course you can get cases everywhere for this thing now. Still very happy with my Touch, although I did have to send in for replacement unit due to dead battery, took about two weeks but they sent me a new one and even engraved it like my original. What the heck got a shiny new Touch for free :) I have updated my review, added a positive point, removed a couple of outdated negative points.
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