But rather than using certain of the iPhone's components as a starting point for an even better iPod, Apple decided to downgrade them, creating an iPod that now sits in the cell phone industry's shadow rather than pointing the way forward, or serving the greater capacity and performance needs of iPod buyers. And those downgrades are numerous: you don't just lose a cell phone by buying iPod touch instead of a comparable-capacity iPhone; you lose the dock, charger, camera, external speaker, microphone, battery life, screen quality, resilient back casing, Bluetooth, and several applications. Try to read that list aloud without taking a breath. You gain only a limited video-out feature, and a few millimeters of thinness, which we'd gladly have traded for superior performance.

That said, we cannot in good conscience generally recommend the iPod touch to all of our readers. The essential elements of the "true video iPod" we and others have been waiting for are obvious-an iPhone-matching screen with iPod classic-matching capacity and battery life-but between its so-so screen, limited storage and below-nano battery life, iPod touch doesn't equal or surpass the best portable products Apple has released this year. If you need similar storage space and don't need a big video screen, get an iPod nano. If audio quality and capacity are important to you, buy an iPod classic. And if you're a video fan, consider an iPhone if it's available in your country, or save your money. Wait until Apple (or someone else) gets the "true video iPod" formula right. We sincerely hope that it will be sooner rather than later.

As a postscript to this review, iLounge is currently on its fourth iPod touch unit, having replaced two previous units because of screen problems, and one due to a failed firmware update that rendered the device fully inoperable and incapable of recovery. None of the units has removed the screen issues we noted in our review, or dramatically improved iPod touch's audio or battery performance. Consequently, though these new applications add additional value for new iPod touch buyers, and might otherwise have merited revision of our rating, we continue to feel that our original rating of the device is merited based on Apple's failure to address the continued technical issues the device has experienced.