I made a vow to myself that I wasn’t going to be suckered into buying any new iPods or fancy gadgets. The next thing I know, I’m hunting for the fresh blood of 2G iPod Touch in the sweat of my wake. Sigh.. Well, this is my quick review of the device!

First let me say, if you’re ever in New Brunswick Canada, (you’d have to be dumb to be – yeah like me!) don’t come here and expect to find an iPod Touch (or anything for that matter), and if you do, don’t expect it to be cheap.

I spent a majority of my day hunting all across Woodstock, store to store trying to find one of these dang things. No where wants to stock them because there is very little population or audience that can afford or want to afford one in this area. So if they sell the two they have in stock, you’re out of luck.

I fortunately found one store (The Source) in Woodstock that had plenty, of course they had plenty though, when they have a $70 markup on the original MSRP price (they had the 1st Gen Touch priced at $448 and it was only 4/8GB). So on the way home I stopped in the tiny local The Source store. I must have been touched by god himself because they two in stock, only marked up $20.

Initial thoughts upon unboxing:
I was actually really impressed by the quality of the hardware. It actually feels like I’m holding an expensive solid device and not some flimsy plastic toy like some of the competing and past MP3 and PDA devices on the market that we’ve used and loved.

I was kind of disappointed upon opening the device on my way home, as I couldn’t boot it up and play with it (I’m a kid at heart with new fancy gadgets =P) as it required being hooked up to iTunes first. But nonetheless I definitely could not wait to get home to try it out.

Software:
I’ve played with a lot of iPhone’s, first and second generation models and I found them to be very unpolished. They were very unresponsive to any motion/command I would give by touching, dragging etc. Many people I know who own iPhones and 1st Gen Touch’s complained about those issues.

To add insult to injury the bugs were dreadful. My top #1 hated issue was the Coverflow taking it’s time loading in the album art. Fortunately, the newest software (already preloaded onto 2G Touch – 2.1.1) seems to have almost perfected the device and addressed the bugs, for those who were skeptical as I initially was.

I think my favorite part is Apple finally came to there sense not to long ago and released an SDK, now allowing people develop applications for the device. Meaning the possibilities and uses for the device to be almost near endless. It was, in fact the second thing I did after syncing my music to the device, grab all the hottest free applications I could find.

I’m disappointed to find out though, the device isn’t jailbroken quiet yet, but it’s under the works and I cannot wait until it comes. Another issue I’ve found is I have not found a way to sync my Google Calendar with my iPod Touch. Hopefully some type of plug-in or hack comes around.

Hardware:
The hardware I’d have to say is the highest quality I’ve ever seen or used in a mobile device. So far I haven’t had any issues or slow-downs with the device. No noticeable defects either, luckily.

Syncing the device seemed 2x faster compared to my iPod Nano 3G which I might is now an official dust collector and/or paperweight.

The built-in speaker is great. It sounds clear and crisp and doesn’t distort when you crank it up to the max. Although points to note, if you’re in a noisy environment, you are likely not going to be able to hear it as it is only a tiny speaker.

The pretty chrome back is just as scratch-able as ever, so I recommend everyone who purchases one to do as I did and get a bodyguardz case or a invisibleSHIELD case. The only cases I’ve found that don’t add any bulk to the device, show off it’s natural beauty and actually provide full-body coverage.

Overall:
A great product once again from Apple.. If you can indeed afford one, buy one! It’s worth every penny in my opinion. I love being able to check my email, surf the web and do everything else it does while I’m on the go, as little as that might be. I hope my quick little review helps anyone considering buying one. Below is some quick Pros and Cons off the top of my head.

Pros:
- It’s pretty.
- Unlimited possibilities thanks to the addition of Apps.
- Great built in speaker.
- Preloaded with most perfected version of software.
- Comes with a microfiber cleaning cloth (Awesome).

Cons:
- It’s pretty chrome back will get scratched from pocket lint.
- Expensive.