I’ve been testing the newest member of the iPod family, the big-screen iPod Touch.  The iTouch will be released September 28th, but I was able to try it out at home a week in advance!  It’s a close cousin of the iPhone in that it connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi wireless networking, and replaces the famous iPod click wheel with a touch screen.

Like earlier iPods, the Touch is elegant and capable, and interacts smoothly with Apple’s free iTunes software for Windows and Macintosh PCs, as well as with it’s computer-based online iTunes Store which sells far more downloadable songs and TV shows than any other legal outlet. Not only that, but the Touch introduces a mobile version of the iTunes store. It’s called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, and it allows you to buy, via the iPod, any of six million songs for the same price you’d pay on a computer. This portable store will soon be made available on the iPhone as well.

In my experience the music and video playback went perfectly, as did viewing photos. The Wi-Fi functions, including the Web browser, a YouTube video viewer and the new mobile store, also worked perfectly.

Apple’s new iPod touch is a great media player, and the iPod remains the best end-to-end portable solution for playing and purchasing music and video.

It’s available in 8GB and 16GB.  More info at Apple.com, including a video demo.