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Intro: On Wednesday, September\n5, Apple announced a new product, the iPod touch. In this podcast we take a look at the itouch.
Mike:\nGordon, the itouch is not available yet - you've done a little research\n- if you had to describe the device in a few words how would you\ndescribe?

The iPod touch is\nbasically an iPhone without the phone. It comes in two storage sizes\n\u2013 there is a 8 Gigabyte version for $299 and a 16 Gigabyte\nversion for $399. I\u2019ve written about the iPhone and storage\ncapacity in the past - as a rough guideline, 1 Gigabyte of storage\nspace will hold approximately 250 songs or 45 minutes of video.

The\niPhone requires a 2 year AT&T contract while the iPod touch idoes not\nrequire any cellular contracts. You buy it and use it as you would a\nclassic iPod.

Gordon: Mike - the products appear to be similar and you have an iPhone - can you describe wireless connectivity?

In addition to allowing\nyou to listen to music and watch video the iPod touch has built in\nwireless WiFi functionality and can be used for Internet access in\nany area where there is WiFi availability. Places that provide free\nWiFi access include most college campuses, libraries, some coffee\nshops, restaurants, etc. Many of you probably have WiFi in your homes\nnow, with services provided by companies like Verizon and Comcast

Gordon: How about web browsing?

The iPod touch has a similar 3.5-inch widescreen display that the iPhone has\nallowing you to surf the web, watch videos, TV shows and view photos. The iPod touch\u2019s screen appears to be of a slightly higher quality than the iPhone, with 163 pixels per inch to the iPhone\u2019s 160 pixels per inch.\n

For web browsing, and\nlike the iPhone, it comes with the Safari web browser. If you have\nnot had a chance to \u201csurf? the web with an iPhone (or\niPod touch) the next time you are in the mall stop in the Apple store\nand give it a try with one of the display models. I think you will be\nvery impressed.

Mike: I know you are impressed with the user interface - can you describe?

If you currently own an\niPod you are familiar with the click wheel interface that you use to\nselect, play, fast forward, etc. The iPod touch does not have a click\nwheel, it has the same multi-touch screen interface as the iPhone. It\ndoes not take long to get used to the multi-touch interface. You can\ndo all the things you can do with the click wheel and also use simple\nhand motions like pinching, flicking and flipping to do things like\nzoom in on websites, scroll though music lists and flip through album\ncovers. Once I tried multi-touch I was hooked.

Gordon: How about some differences when compared to the iPhone?

• There is no email client on the iPod Touch
• There is no Maps application on the iPod Touch
• There are no Stocks or Weather widgets on the iPod Touch
• There is no built-in camera for the iPod Touch
• There are no Blutooth capabilities for the iPod Touch
• The iPod Touch has a differently styled \u201cDock,? with a reflective\nsurface \u2014 akin to the Dock that will debut with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

• While the iPod Touch is sleeping, the user can tap the home button\ntwice to bring up touch controls on the screen \u2014 a feature the iPhone\ncurrently lacks
• The iPod Touch has a separate Contacts app \u2014 it\u2019s built into the Phone application on the iPhone
• The iPod Touch has separate Video and Music apps, whereas the iPhone has a single \u201ciPod? app that contains these functions
• There is apparently (and obviously) no microphone on the iPod\nTouch, though it will be interesting to see if such audio-in\ncapabilities could be enabled via a third-party device.
• The iPod touch\u2019s headphone jack is on the bottom of the device
• The iPod touch lacks a built-in external speaker

\n

Mike: And how about iTunes - any news on where Apple is going with it?

Also if you own an iPod\nyou are familiar with the process of purchasing songs and video from\nthe iTunes store. The songs are purchased from the store using your\ncomputer. The iPod is then connected to your computer with a cable\nand the purchases are downloaded to the iPod. When the downloads are\ncomplete you disconnect the cable and can now listen to and watch the\nmusic and videos you purchased on your iPod. I\u2019ve always found\nthis process cumbersome but it looks like it will get easier soon.\nLater this month Apple plans to launch a Wi-Fi version of the iTunes\nstore. This means you will be able to purchase and download music\ndirectly from the iTunes music store using an iPhone or iPod touch.\nYou will be able to find what you\u2019re looking for, preview it,\nbuy it and download it directly to the to either of these devices. If\nyou own a classic iPod (with a click wheel) you will still have to\nuse the computer and cable to make purchases and downloads.