Because you asked.
I had the 1st Gen iPod Touch because it was part of a deal where I bought an iMac and paid an extra $20 or so for one. It was excellent for travel. I brought it along to Japan last year where I’d use Google Maps in the middle of a random street to get directions to my destination. I could send emails and surf the net AND I used it extensively as an mp3 player on my rides and runs.
But it wasn’t adequate.
The software upgrades were released but 1st gen owners had to pay to have new functionalities. We couldn’t play games or install useful applications without an upgrade and I didn’t want to jailbreak my device. I later bought a Nike+ iPod device, a running trainer that links your iPod to a wireless pedometer of sorts thinking it was supported. Turns out it was only supported on 2nd Gen devices because 1st Gen iPod Touches didn’t have Bluetooth enabled.
So I sold it.
The 3rd Gen iPod Touch has as far as I can tell, the same hardware as the 2nd Gen one. It might be slightly faster but I can’t tell so it doesn’t make a difference. The only upgrade for the Touch this time round is the largest available capacity is now 160GB. I bought the 8GB one because I needed storage only for 2 main purposes – to store about 3 hours worth of songs to run with and to store games and apps. Most apps are made to be only a few MB large (you’re downloading through iTunes after all) and I could always sync playlists so 8GB is really more than sufficient. The price is definitely a draw – this release comes with a price cut and mine costs only US$199.
I like how the apps are turning out. I’ve been playing Mafia Wars on it and tried to use the Nike+ on it today but the device wasn’t working very well. iTunes doesn’t work at all because ‘my location is not supported’ but the App Store is alive and well and I can install applications and games directly into my iPod. The battery life seems to have improved vastly; Wi-Fi doesn’t sap as much energy as my previous iPod. There’s now an inbuilt speaker (I think this was a 2nd Gen addition) but the best part though is that it seems to hint at the availability of an official add-on microphone. There’s a voice memo application (which may have been on the 2nd gen iPod, I don’t know) which I can’t use because there’s no mic attached, the program tells me. There’s already a version of Skype available which I haven’t tried but if it works like I think it would, that would make the iPod Touch a waaay better bargain than the iPhone.
One of the few things I didn’t like about it though is the sensitivity of the shake detection. There’s probably an option to turn this off but by default, shake seems to be the cue to skip to the next song when you’re listening to music. I didn’t realise this until I was running today and skipped through probably half my playlist before I got it to stop. I also haven’t found a way to get rid of the default icons yet – I don’t see the need for iTunes on the main page when it doesn’t work in my country. While the 1st gen Touch had a flat back, this one shares the same design as the 2nd gen Touch and features a concave back. It looks sleeker for some reason though I doubt if it is but I’m quite sure the rounded back will be harder to protect against scratches.
I haven’t many grouses about the new iPod Touch as yet. More problems will probably surface as I get into more of its functions but for now, all the faults I can find with it aren’t major annoyances.