You have to be careful about battery drainage – always an issue for the iPod family. Apple says the battery can provide for 36 hours of continuous music play or 6 hours of video playback, but they usually are, shall we say, very generous about its performance. In our first week of analysis, we rode the subway watching like an hour and a half of video, played music all the time, and spent hours browsing, checking e-mail and testing its features – keeping the WiFi option always on. Overall we used half of the battery time before we attempted a new synchronization that quick-charged the iPod. Oh, by the way, as with all recent iPods, there’s no separate charging unit provided – the synchronization cable also recharges the iPod through a computer USB port. If you want to connect it to a wall socket you have to buy a separate charger.

The iPod Touch also doubles as a portable videogame. It uses the Multi-Touch interface to give players precise, fingertip control over game elements like chess pieces and cards. Even multiplatform titles like the recent The Force Unleashed have been released for the iPod. So the device goes a long way from the mere music player of the first iPods to being a multimedia gadget and PDA all bundled in a single product. It’s good for listening to music, watching videos, browsing the web and sending e-mails, while the user enjoys its easy and charming touch interface. It’s a killer product.