When the iPhone came out in June, many people (myself included) loved it, but wanted it without the phone—and that pesky two-year contract with AT&T Wireless. I'm no luddite, but I don't want my personal media player to ring in the middle of a song. That said, the multi-touch glass display was beautiful, Cover Flow was a great way to navigate tracks, and the Web browser was better than any other portable player's before it. Apple could have delivered a player with just these features and nothing more and I would have been thrilled. But it didn't.

The company added a WiFi version of the iTunes Music Store so you can buy songs on the go—now, if you have WiFi access you can download tracks anywhere. Apple also announced a partnership with Starbucks that enables iPhone and touch owners to purchase songs they hear in Starbucks stores via WiFi. Okay, maybe I'm not in love with that last feature (I'm not a Starbucks addict). It would also be nice if the WiFi store offered video purchases, too—it's currently music-only. And, yes, the earbuds still suck. But those are my only complaints—and they are minor. The relatively hefty $300 and $400 price tags for 8 and 16 GB, respectively, don't bug me either. Why? This is probably the best portable media player ever made.

The touch is a thing of beauty. It's much skinnier than the iPhone (which, for those who haven't held one, is the same depth as the old 30 GB iPod Video), and it's also a bit shorter and a hair wider, with dimensions of 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.31. The touch weighs a manageable 4.2 ounces (compared to the iPhone's 4.8 ounces). Are you going to slip this thing into your pocket? Depends. Cargo pants? Sure. Skinny jeans? No. The 3.5 inch multi-touch widescreen has a resolution of 480 by 320, with 163 pixels per inch—identical to the iPhone. The only button on the device is the same button you'll find on the face of the iPhone. The touch's rear panel is shiny stainless steel like iPods past, not the brushed metallic look that iPhones have. In the upper left-hand corner of the rear panel, you'll find the black patch of plastic that houses the WiFi antenna. The proprietary 30-pin iPod connection and headphone jack rest on the bottom panel, and the sleep switch rests on the top left edge of the player (when held vertically). There's no camera on the iPod touch, but that's not really much of a detractor since the iPhone's camera is more toy than tool. Like the iPhone, the touch has a built–in accelerometer to make possible all those view changes when the player is held horizontally.

Navigation of the music, video, and photo menus is identical on the touch and the iPhone. Similarly, the players load and sync with iTunes in much the same way. You can scroll down lists of artists, albums, and playlists when in vertical mode, or turn the player horizontally to view the excellent Cover Flow feature. For those who haven't seen it before (it's now part of iTunes and was featured on the iPhone), Cover Flow orders records alphabetically in a horizontal array, but visually, using album art. Drag your finger through the display to move the covers, as if thumbing through a virtual vinyl collection, and click on the central cover to flip the graphic over and reveal a track list. From here, you can simply click on a song and start playing. This is the coolest way to navigate a music menu I have ever seen—and it's much more effective here than it is on the new nano, which lacks the sexy multitouch screen and is less graceful in its movement of the album art. The Now Playing screen makes the album cover the main focus, filling most of the screen when vertical, and is identical to the same screen on the iPhone. When your iPod touch has finished syncing to your PC's library, you can just unplug it—none of the ejecting business that other iPods make you do (and that you inevitably forget to do once in awhile, prompting an ugly error screen on your computer).

Possibly the best new feature is a subtle one: the double click. Pressing the only tactile button on the player twice makes music controls appear over whatever screen mode you happen to be in—Safari, YouTube, or whatever. Even if the player is locked, double-clicking will bring up a set of music controls that features track information, play/pause, forward and backward within a playlist or album, a Music button to take you directly to the Now Playing screen, and a Close button to escape. This function works even if the screen has timed out and gone black, and it's a great quick way to skip that song you hate (or pump up the volume on the one you love).

File compatibility for the touch will not surprise those familiar with iPods. For music, MP3 files (all bit rates, including VBR) load and play, as do AAC (both Apple's DRM tracks or iTunes Plus, obviously), Apple Lossless, Audible, AIFF, and WAV files. Video support is limited to H.264 and MPEG-4; photo support is for JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PSD (for Macs only), and PNG. All songs, videos, contacts, photos (which are pulled from iPhoto via iTunes), podcasts are loaded via iTunes when the player is synced.

The audio performance of the touch is excellent, as long as you chuck those lame earbuds and get a real pair—try Shure's SE210 earphones if you want to actually hear the low end and would like the earphones to stay in place. One complaint I've always had about iPods is the lack of user-programmable EQ. Apple allows you to change EQ settings only in iTunes, and then the settings, for each song, will carry over onto the player. That's a solution for folks who really want to micromanage, but most people would be happy with a standard adjustable EQ, such as the Sony Walkman, Samsung, and Sansa players all have. You might get lucky with some of the standard EQ presets, such as Dance or Jazz, but I suggest just leaving the EQ off and finding the right pair of earphones.