Temperamental iPod Touch(s)

Dumb and Dumber. That's what my wife and I are calling our two 16GB iPod Touch devices.

This weekend, we stopped by the Apple store to replace our 30GB Video iPods (stolen from us on our recent cruise). Although we entered the store with the intent of purchasing 80 GB iPod Classics, we were completely enthralled by the fun factor of the Touch model.

Unfortunately our excitement and fascination with our new (*and expensive) gadgets quickly dwindled from the moment they were connected to our computers. Jen's iPod screen lost it's magical touch capability, completely freezing up with no online forum or tutorial offering a remedy.

Simultaneously, my troubles began when I attempted to connect my iPod. The device decided it didn' t like my USB2.0 PCI slot drive on my Powerbook, and only wanted to cooperate with my USB 1.0 input (with less-than-stellar data transfer rates). Next, iTunes refused to recognize that I actually connected a compatible device and insisted I try to restart, disconnect and reconnect an array of a dozen or so configurations before finally loading it.

Lastly, my patience wore thin when a pop-up window notified me that the music and videos I was attempting to sync were TWICE AS LARGE as the device's capacity. Then began the tedious process of weeding out podcasts, playlists and albums I guess I could live without. After a few more dances with configurations so that iTunes recognized my iPod again (it just disappeared from my devices), I called it a night and shut everything down.

My usability issues aside (well not really... I hate that i have to toggle through to get to my volume, lock my device and shut it off), this may not be the device for me. Simplicity and storage capacity reign supreme for me. It's what made me such a loyal fan of my Gen 2 and 4 iPod devices.

While my wife would like to exchange her iPod Touch for one that actually functions, I think I'll eat the $39 open box fee and send this bad boy back to the store. Anyone interested in giving me a good deal on a 30GB Video iPod?