I-TOUCH

The iPod touch is widely referred to as the iPhone without the phone. That’s because the iPod touch has almost all of the iPhone’s features except for the connection to AT&T’s EDGE network.

Still, with its big screen, WiFi connection, and 16GB and 32GB storage capacities, if you like the features of the iPhone, but don’t want to pay its price tag or two-year mobile phone commitment, give the iPod touch a look.

Today's second-generation iPod Touch improves a bit upon the original hardware, but it was the 2008 introduction of Apple's iTunes App Store that has turned the device into a full-fledged mobile computer with tens of thousands of third-party applications available.

To date, the iPod Touch is the only device other than the iPhone that works on Apple's mobile application platform. And that is the reason to buy one.

The iPod Touch uses the same operating system as the iPhone, which is a (massively) slimmed-down version of the "OS X" operating system used for Apple's Macintosh computers. The Mobile Safari browser is based on Apple's desktop Safari browser (though it doesn't support Flash content), but the user interface is completely different. The iPhone/iPod Touch UI is designed from the ground-up for fingers and small screens rather than the mice and relatively large screens of desktop and laptop computers, and every other phone vendor has been scrambling to catch.

In the hand, the latest iPod Touch feels just right; its gently-curved back lays nicely in the fingers, like the iPhone 3G but even slimmer. Its shiny metal back is prone to scratching, like all the classic iPods. Apple includes a microfiber polishing cloth, which we use as much for the metal back as for cleaning the glass face where you manipulate the user interface with your fingers. up with it. Battery life seems as good as advertised. With heavy daily use for email, calendaring, web browsing, and light gaming, our test unit wanted to be charged a couple times a week.

 Games, first introduced in different form with the iPod Video in 2005, have really come into their own on the iPod Touch platform. Some game developers have even programmed their games to use higher-quality graphics on the faster second generation iPod Touch.

 If you already have the original iPod Touch, the second generation offers a few upgrades — speaker, volume controls, faster CPU, more storage, microphone capability — which may not be enough to justify buying a new iTouch and dealing with the compatibility issues it has with previous accessories. But if you don't own the first generation iPod Touch, and you don't have, or plan to get, an iPhone, this is a great entry into a major platform that is already very useful with a great future ahead.