PC Mag gives iPod Touch an Editor's Choice

While I can certainly see the attraction in having your entire music collection in your pocket, that doesn't mean that it's a requirement. There are plenty of people who are happy with the size of the flash-based iPods like the nano and Touch, and it's not because we only have 16GB of stuff in our iTunes library. If you want a large amount of storage, that's fine, but to imply that people who choose otherwise are not music lovers is, well, snotty.

I agree with Reg (and all of my songs are in Apple Lossless except those from the iTunes store). Another tip is to using ratings. I'm not sure why I even keep them, but once songs get two stars they never gain access to my iPod or iPhone ever again. I use one star for Christmas and novelty songs that I play only on special occasions.

When the iPod Touch was announced, I was torn. Awesome device, exactly what I need. I had no use for an iPhone because I have a BlackBerry -- just can't match tactile feedback when it comes to texting (I'm 21... that's what we do!)

Storage was a concern. 8GB wasn't an option, only 16GB would even come close to making me happy. The 'lack' for storage is what stayed my hand from clicking that Place Order button for the longest time.

Over the next couple days, I considered my past iPods. I had a 3G 40GB iPod that held my entire collection for a long time. Then I had a Photo with 60GB. Know what I noticed during the time I had those two? I was endlessly scrolling through artists that I rarely listen to. I found myself listening to a core set of artists in addition to whatever newer music I had. Curious, I totaled up the space it took up... 9GB! Nine!

My next iPod was a 30GB video, which I never filled up. As I realized this, I hit the Place Order button. I strongly urge anyone who is on the fence for this thing based solely on storage to take a serious look at what they're actually listening/viewing on their iPod most often.

"For Gideon and other folks with only 16gb of music, obviously it's not a problem. "

I have (currently) about 40GB of music, and 8GB or 16GB players wouldn't be a problem. My 4GB Nano isn't a problem. In fact, downgrading from a 40GB iPod to a 4GB Nano has enabled me to get MORE enjoyment out of my music. I'm re-discovering lost treasures I hadn't listened to in years because they never once popped up in Apples weird random/shuffle setting. I have a playlist for recently added music, and another for music I haven't listened to in the past 90 days. It's perfect.

Forgive me if this has been said already (I don't have time to read all the comments), but the complaint about storage space is just silly.

I enjoy having all of my music on my iPod video, but honestly, what I listen to on a day-to-day basis could easily fit on a 8 GB iPod touch. I am sure this is the case with the majority of other people as well. Heck, my shuffle holds more than enough music to keep me satisfied for hours on end.

"8 and 16gb are just embarrassing for a serious music player" - the millions of people who purchases a Shuffle or Nano would disagree.

Like other commenters, I have a huge collection that won't fit on any iPod, but that's ok - I much prefer having a selected subset on my iPod, that I rotate as the mood strikes me. I don't need to be able to listen to any song in the world at any moment, I need a couple gigs of music I am really into, which I can pull at sync time from a larger library.

I currently have a 30GB video iPod and just ordered the iPod Touch last night after analyzing my library. The bulk of my iPod listening is limited to a couple of favorite playlists, three or four podcasts, and watching a couple of episodes of the Office. I decided to create a couple of smart playlists that would pick a bunch of highly-rated songs that I rarely listen to just in case I get in the mood to listen to something different. I came to the conclusion that 16GB will do me just fine.

@ Michel,

A MacBook has a LARGE battery and SIGNIFICANT amount of RAM to run applications. While, the iPhone/Touch can hold hold OS X in RAM it would need to constantly access the HDD to data.. There is also the mater of the large high-res capacitance display. Besides it being slower than NAND, thereby wasting more power, using a HDD just isn't possible without severely increasing the RAM and battery sizes several fold.

I AM a very serious music lover and I have hundreds of my cd ripped in aac

but 16go is great (and FAST in flash) : I carry in it my favorite or news artists I want. I can switch easily with itunes. no big deal.

(and I prefer a flash based then hard drive based player in fact , flash is faster to react)

of course, after 16go, there will be 32go, and 64 and 128... technology progress, future, blablablabla...

same old story. I don't care.

--
>Anything greater is wildly expensive and OS X can't
>run on a HDD based system without severely
>draining the battery in mere minutes instead of
>hours.
RI-DI-CU-LOUS. and totally false and proved false by macbooks.

(and what it is the stupid nonsense about os x not able to run on a hard drive based device for hours... I'm sure you're thinking about memory swapping on hdd and others uses of the hdd. you can remove that. there are nothing in os X forcing apple to use the hard drive every second. you know, you can adapt the os x operating system to be used on a tiny device)


Apple choose flash because it's thinner and faster and the nano is the most popular player. but Flash can not be "huge" because it's so expensive, very very expensive. big big big expensive. a lot more expensive than hard drive.

I couldn't put it better than punkassjim - I have a nano for day to day use and an old 3G ipod which houses absolutely everything (it lives at work).

I am one of these people who doesn't feel the need to carry around all of my music, and there is a lot in my iTunes library that is largely unlistened to (mostly from CDs where I only like a few songs and the rest are there for completeness).

The 16Gig option is perfect for me - I can throw on my favourite songs and then a few tv progammes and movies to boot - although I would have liked to see more PDA functionality in there - calendar entries, notes, to-do lists etc.

Before anyone says "get an iPhone" - I live in Hong Kong, and that's not an option.