Got my iPod touch - first impressions

As I mentioned a while back I was looking at getting the 16G iPod Touch. I went by the local Apple reseller this Wednesday and they had three in stock (they got their first shipment earlier that day with 10 units). I looked at it for 30 seconds and decided to buy it after having checked the manufacturing week. There were reports about units made in week 36 and 37 had quality problems, both with the screen and a hissing background noise with good quality earphones such as my Shures. This one was a week 38. And now its mine.

So, what do I think after a couple of hours use?

Positives

• The design and build quality is excellent
• The screen is really good
  
• The audio quality is great
• The user experience is the best I've ever had with a device
  

Negatives

• The software is buggy, especially when you use the Safari browser. Playing music and surfing the web simultaneously often ends up with the music stopping. Intermittent browser crashes are common
• Photos are always rescaled to a lower resolution before syncing to the iPod. I haven't found an option to store photos in a higher/native resolution
  
• I have two stuck pixels on my screen (i.e. they are always lit). Not a huge problem since the pixels are so small, but still.
• It probably doesn't work with my current iPod car integration. Not a biggie, since I'll probably be using the old 4th generation iPod for the car (and only for the car).
  

All in all I must say the initial impression is very favourable, the iPod Touch is probably one (if not the) best device I've ever had. Its definately the best iPod I own (I also have a 1st generation 512MB Shuffle, a 2nd generation 4GB Nano, and a 4th generation 40G iPod).

Stay tuned for tips on smart playlists and a couple of good web services for the touch.

Time to get a new iPod

I've had the 40G 4th generation iPod for a couple of years now and been quite happy with it. Got an iPod nano with the Nike+ kit a couple of months ago which I'm also happy with. (And my wife had the 1st generation Shuffle before she started using the Nano.)

I've been wanting to replace the 40G iPod, but the step up to the 5G (or 5.5G) hasn't really been big enough. Enter iPod Touch.

At 8mm its thinner than my W880 (which is thin) and it has a beautiful screen. The bashers have been going on about the small storage space, but I don't really lug around my entire music collection anyway. The 40G has never been large enough for all my music so I'm kinda used to picking parts of my collection. And when I started using the 4G nano I became even more used to it.

Now I'll just have to wait for the release in the end of September, which should be easy considering I've been holding out for a new iPod for more than a year now. But now its getting close. Oh, I'm getting the 16G version if you're curious.