Me and My Lust for the iPod Touch

OK, this is weird. Really weird. For years I’ve been watching Apple release some pretty cool products onto the market and last year I gave in to the hype. I replaced my trusty old Creative audio player for an 8GB iPod nano (and since then I’ve added an iPod shuffle to my collection, and bought family and friends a few iPods, too). But apart from my iPods, I’ve so far managed to resist Apple’s charm.

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve come close on a couple of occasions to picking up a MacBook Pro. Oddly enough, the thing that eventually put me off was a loaner I got from Apple earlier this year – sure, it was a nice machine, but after using it for a few weeks the sex appeal wore off and I realized I could do everything I did with the MacBook on my existing notebook (which cost less than half price of the MacBook Pro). I also managed to shake off my short-lived desire for an iPhone. I was certain that if I could defend against the iPhone’s charm, there was nothing that Apple could release this year that would get me salivating.

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And then Apple announced the iPod touch, and I was hooked. I can vaguely remember how it happened. Steve Jobs was up on stage and he was talking about the updated iPod range. The squat iPod nano – pah. The iPod classic – not interested. Then Steve pulls out Apple’s WMD – the iPod touch. It has everything that I’ve wanted in a portable device – a large touch screen, video, cover flow, WiFi, web and email (only web mail, but that doesn’t matter …). Instantly, I wanted one. Sure, I could dust off my iPAQ and put that back into service since it does about 80% of what the iPod touch does. But, well, it’s not an iPod touch.

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Wanting a new bit of kit isn’t a new thing for me, but the craving usually wanes, going from the “I want one! I want one! I want one!” stage to “that’s pretty cool” stage, then the “yeah, nice but …” stage and finally “I’ll wait for the next version” (then I see something else and the whole process repeats).

What’s likely to get me to actually buy something is if I can justify my purchase. I can easily justify getting an iPod touch. I’ve got about a gigabyte left of free space on my nano, I like the video support, the screen is massive, it’s WiFi enabled, I can access the web and email – Hey, and it’s a work tool! I can use it around the office! It’ll improve my productivity!

The Apple mothership has engaged the tractor beam and pulled me straight into the reality distortion field. I want one! I want one! I want one!

Next page: The worry sets in...