I was never a Touch man. I loved the iPhone but the Touch never drove me to drink in quite the same way. I am pleased, however, to report that I’m getting me a 32GB Touch as soon as the Apple Store opens tomorrow. Why? A few reasons.
First and foremost I love the Nike+ iPod integration. This is absolutely the best thing they could have done, especially for runners. The 2G touch is quite thin and would work well as a small waist- or arm-banded device for workouts and not having to have a tiny little dongle hanging off the end is excellent. Apple will also be selling the little Nike+ pucks separately now.
Secondly, the Apps are becoming quite compelling, especially for gaming. This is Apple’s second chance at gaming. The DS is doing extremely well and the PSP is, well, sucking wind. This is a great opportunity for Apple to enter the casual handheld gaming market as a winner, not an also ran. Some of the other Apps are hit or miss, but it’s nice to have choice.
Finally, the pricing is very agreeable. $229 is a nice point to start and $399 for 32GB of flash memory isn’t great but it’s not outrageous. As a movie device, this thing will be second to only the iPhone.
Maybe I’m being irrational: I have the Classic, I have an old 3G iPod, I have a two nanos – a fat and a long one. But fit, finish, and software are excellent on this one. I did notice a lot of smudging on the back during the hands-on but that’s to be expected. Generally, however, this is a major improvement design and feature wise over the 1G Touch.