Hi, my name is Jon, and I've been using my iPod touch for 5 days.
I try to be as objective as possible when playing with the touch. In my eyes, Apple's always gotten an unnecessarily bad rap just because of the chips on peoples' shoulders. I don't mind the iPod so much, and I actually prefer it to the few players I've used. More specifically, when I tried justifying the place of the touch in my repertoire of carry-along accessories, it doesn't seem to fit anywhere in my list of needs. To set the record straight, you absolutely cannot dismiss the multi-touch screen, the slimness, the jailbreakability, or the cool factor of having the newest toy in town. Surely, there are lots of downsides to owning an iPod, and let me list a few: handcuffed to iTunes, people splashing red paint all over you, getting robbed, breaking the bank just buying the darn thing, the list goes on.
As FallenAngel mentioned, the sound quality should be quite similar to the iPod video as they share the same Wolfson DAC chip. Discounting the touch's sound quality means you're cutting down the iMod 5G/5.5G and diyMod 5G/5.5G (as well as all the other different name, similar technique mods) reviews, which is quite a large and loud crowd. Once I figure out how to diyMod the thing, I'll report on the sound quality. Thus far, I compared it to my diyMod 4G which has a difference Wolfson chip and bass is much less weighty in the touch. It actually disgusted me how little bass it was putting out, and I currently haven't uploaded any music onto it since.
As a video player, it is probably only rivalled by the Zune [and Archos players], which can accept something other than MPEG4/H.264 and also ha[ve] quite large screen
. I encoded some Scrubs using Videora (lowest quality setting for fastest processing) and the experience is almost better than on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite A100 if you care, the lowest of all Toshiba models). If I can figure out how to use spreadsheets on the thing, it will become my dedicated gym device. Right now, I have an iPod in one pocket and my Palm Treo 680 in the other for purposes of recording my workout routine data. Things would be a lot easier if I could throw it all onto one device. My last workout, I tried going with the iPod touch, diyMod 4G, and Treo 680. It didn't really "work out" as I had planned. (A pun. Bonus!)
Earlier, I mentioned slimness as a positive, but I've quickly learned the other side of that double-edged sword. My hand can cramp up just holding it, and I think it can be way too thin at times. I prefer holding my friend's jailbroken+unlocked iPhone, as it is a bit heftier and easier to hold. My Treo has one of the best weights, dimensions, and tactile experiences of any device I've held so far. I didn't like holding the iPhone as much as I like holding my 680, but admittedly, it has a lot to live up to. Just saying, whether with human bodies or iPod shells, thin isn't always good.
Jailbreaking. In three words, "useless to me." The stock iPod touch doesn't have much going for it by way of apps, but jailbreaking doesn't much alleviate that. I don't find any use for any of the things I downloaded. Sure, you get NES and SNES, but it's really lame playing them. Not my cup of tea. Perhaps I haven't found the good stuff yet, but what do I really need besides some sort of MS Excel/Open Excel spreadsheet program?
To wrap things up, the iPod touch isn't really useful to me except as a gym device. Even if I diyMod it, I don't have any room for music and videos. Currently, the device for me is the iPod video 5G/5.5G. I'll eventually sell the touch to get it. In the mean time, I'm going to keep trying to diyMod it and see if someone wants to buy a torn up iPod touch from a reckless DIYer.
Cheers.
