Yeah the none user replacable betteries makes no sense. Makes me want to back hand Steve Jobs.

I guess when the bettery in my iPod Video dies I have an excuse to buy an iPod touch. Damn you Apple.

The way Apple and too an lesser extent the Nintendos Wii work make' s me angry.

Ok, I just watched a commercial advertising iPod nano w/ video.

Who the hell wants this device?? I' ve only seen it on the commercial, but from what I could see the damn screen on the thing was barely wider than a person' s finger. What the hell is the point of making a screen so small you can' t actually see anything on it? Seriously, anyone watching this thing in public is going to look retarded.

It' s probably still going to sell in droves though.

I LOVE my Archos 404 Music+Video player. Until Apple releases ipods that support as many video formats as my Archos 404 player (.vob, .wmv, .mpeg, .avi) I won' t be tempted away. I mean I don' t even have to convert DVD movies to another format, I can just drag and drop the .vob files from the DVDs to the device and it' ll play them!

I can never understand people who buy Ipod Videos. People listen to music not watch Videos on the bus..

I LOVE my Archos 404 Music+Video player. Until Apple releases ipods that support as many video formats as my Archos 404 player (.vob, .wmv, .mpeg, .avi) I won' t be tempted away. I mean I don' t even have to convert DVD movies to another format, I can just drag and drop the .vob files from the DVDs to the device and it' ll play them!

I looked it up on a whim...

...

I' m in love.

It' s a great little device! I think they' re currently up to the 704 model which has a variety of nifty features, I only went with the older 404 model just to get my feet wet and see whether I' d want to invest in the more current and more expensive models.

Don' t get me wrong, despite my high praises the unit I have does have its problems (freezes once in a while and there have been those rare moments when there' s no sound whatsoever so I have to reboot the unit and then all is well). Fortunately the firmware is upgradeable so some of those issues can get addressed. Perhaps the newer models are less problematic in those areas.

Yeah, I saw one of the 30GB refurbs on their site for a buck 99. Santa Claus might treat me to one of those babies this year.

Funny you should mentio this range Terry; i' m planning on getting a 705 WiFi when it' s released here in December. The 605 is out now but i' m holding off for the 7" screen.

News Flash: The new wave of Ipods just got EVEN SHITTIER!

If you are using Linux? You can' t make use of the new Ipods. If you refuse to install Itunes? You can' t use them, either. Apple decided to block out all kind of third party applications from writing on their Ipods.

Personally I would go with one of the 80 gb Classics because the Nano' s are pretty cool but for only $50 more you get 10x the space and that is so worth it.

but i hate the big ipods/mp3 players that hold anything over 20gb becuase they are too big for an mp3 player in your pocket. I have an 8gb ipod nano. I dont like the look of the new nanos at all.

They sold out of iPod Touches in the Apple Store where i live so i ordered one online. I should have it on Wed.

make sure to post impressions, People think I am stupid for thinking about getting a touch [the 8gb model] while I have the excat same thing basicly [which is smaller and more likely has a better battery]

But it is so cool!

Yeah, I' ve had customers complaining about that. I prefer my 4gb green nano that I got last year. It is perfect and I like the small size like you sad.

I can never understand people who buy Ipod Videos. People listen to music not watch Videos on the bus..

You' d be surprised as to the amount of people in New York City that I' ve seen watching movies while riding the express bus, subway, Ferry and train. Some using the PSP, some with their laptops, and others with portable media playing devices (Ipod video, etc.). I suppose one factor is the distance of their destination. Another belief is that I think society has embraced the idea of portable movies more than they did in the past. Just the other day my cab driver made me a little nervous cause that sumbitch had a portable DVD player up against the car radio playing a movie while he was driving, AND he would occasionally look down at the screen while driving. Thankfully it was at night and traffic wasn' t really a concern.

Funny you should mentio this range Terry; i' m planning on getting a 705 WiFi when it' s released here in December. The 605 is out now but i' m holding off for the 7" screen.

I' ll eventually research the 704 and 705 to see what the differences are but so far I am very much tempted by both units. The options available in the Archos players were just way too hard for me to pass up. In the end when it came down to two units; Creative' s Zen Vision W and the Archos 404 player, the Archos unit won out because it supported more video formats, which is the biggest selling point to me in any media playing device; which unit supports the most audio and video formats - which means LESS work for me (don' t have to spend time converting a bunch of formats). Now granted, the support for DVD files (.vob) wasn' t available out of the box for the 404 unit and I had to download and install it for a small fee but at least the option was there and I was more than happy to take advantage of it as it has been a time saver. My only wish is that I wish these video units would support older Windows Media video files. They all seem to be limited to Windows media video 9 created files and won' t play any Windows media video 7 and 8 videos.

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

make sure to post impressions, People think I am stupid for thinking about getting a touch [the 8gb model] while I have the excat same thing basicly [which is smaller and more likely has a better battery]

But it is so cool!

It arrived yesterday and i' ve only had time to sync my files and play about with the web browser, but it' s every bit as cool as i expected. I' d heard that the text entry could be cumbersome, but i' m finding it smooth like butter! I don' t have giant fat fingers so obviously that helps, but even so, i' m finding myself typing faster than i can enter text with my phone. The self correcting display is sweet when transitioning between horizontal and vertical and vice versa. The screen is just sensitive enough, the controls are intuitive and it looks gorgeous. I' ll post impressions of video playback at some point tonight, probably comparing it to PSP.

What i will say right nbow though is that if you are in the market for an iPod and you don' t need 160GB' s worth of storage then this is probably ther best option for the money, ...unless you simply want somthing with t small form factor, in which case just get a Nano.

Lemme know if smudging becomes really noticeable, I don' t know anybody else at the moment who has one, and I want to know if it' s an issue.

Also, because they' re using glass, scratches shouldn' t be a big deal, I know. But, let me know if you get anything distracting beyond regular wear & tear.

Majik. Pictures/review please.

Sorry this took so long. I' ve been busy with life and stuff...

Starting at a random point...

Holding the power button will turn it off, but pressing it will switch it to standby. If you press the home button or power button while it' s in standby mode you' ll be greeted with the following self explanatory screen - minus the photo of me in China ofcourse.



Unlocking the unit will take you to the main menu which again is pretty self explanatory. The only buttons on the iPod Touch are the power button in the top left and the Home button - everything else is 100% touch screen. The main menu is admittedly bare with many modules found in the iPhone missing, but i' m guessing new features will be added or made purchasable further down the line.



It' s an iPod and so will be used primarily to listen to music. It' s annoying that there' s not quick way to change tracks without unlocking the phone - external controls on the earphones would have been welcome but they don' t appear to even be supported nevermind supplied. Like with other iPods you can view your tracks several different ways.





And like with other iPods it has the usual extras.



The limited storage capacity means that i' ll be constantly switching and changing the media i' m carrying around. Ofcourse more storage space would have meant a larger for factor and noody want a huge portable media player. Since it' s flash based it maxes out at 16GB - OS + firmware so you' re not going to get an entire H.264 encoded series of 24 on there but you can easily fit a large music collection and 6 or 7 feature films on so it' s all good.



The video quality is great, better even than PSP' s - and there' s no ghosting like on some other media players. The image quality, contrast and brightness are all superior to PSP and the overall picture quality is comparable to retail UMD' s. Video is viewable as is or fullscreen - although if it' s widescreen formated video you' ll be missing sections fom the left and right.



The video controls are basic but functional. The tracking for both video and music works really well.



The photo album is self explanatory. Toch a photo to view it fullscreen and then pinch/open fingers to zoom in and out.



Settings menu.



I' d say that the maximum brightness is 30 - 40% brighter than the PSP and i definitely makes a difference. It can be tweaked to your liking and set to anywhere along the bar. For reference (and since the photos were taken with the flash on they might not be accurate representations) here are photo' s of the brightness set to low, medium and maximum.







Most of the non-music ad video apps are useless, but the world clock should come in handy for me. Not that my phone can' t do almost exactly the same thing but whatever.



Like with most iPods the rear is chrome. The iPhone isn' t though, it' s matte and to be honest i' m not sure which i' d prefer given the choice.



For size reference.





Oh, and the quick music menu can be accessed in when running any app, even Safari by simply double tapping the Home button allowing you to pause/play/skip track etc while you do whatever.



I didn' t take any pitures of the browser, Youtube or the iTunes Wi-Fi store because my wireless router is playing up. I' ll sort it out and then update later. Suffice to say that i found the Youtube app pretty useless and haven' t bought anything from the Wi-Fi store but found Touches Safari to be the best handheld portable browser i' ve used. Pages load faster than anything else i' ve used, text entry is a breeze as long as you don' t have really fat fingers and the touch controls are perfilk!

I can' t think of anything else to say and i need to go get another beer anyway. I' m ope to questions.



If i can be bothered i' ll film a quick video of the interface, although it' s nothing you can' t already find a shitload of online already.