There were some post on Engadget that some Apple stores are quietly getting shipments of the new iPod Touch models- so I decided to check with the Lenox store in Atlanta, GA- and I was able to purchase a 16GB unit! :)
I will have to say the Apple Store checkout is pretty cool; the sales guy asked me credit or cash- when I said 'credit' he scanned the iPod with a PDA and swiped my credit card in the back. I then signed the screen and he inquired if I wanted a paper or email receipt or both. I opted for both and I had an an email on my Treo before he picked up the hard receipt from the printer. 'Thank you sir, have a great day' and I was out...
Out of the box the unit had a full battery- and a screen indicating that I needed to connect the iPod to a USB cable and iTunes- so I couldn't play with the unit during lunch. I had to update to the latest iTunes for my laptop to recognize the iPod Touch.
The WiFi appears to work pretty well, but it is definitely directional: if I lay it flat on a table in the conference room I have no connection- however if I pick it up the signal goes up to 50%; back on the table drops the connection again.
It appears that the screen is plastic (instead of glass as with the iPhones), pretty glare prone and a fingerprint magnet- but it has a good interface and is smooth with video pictures. It also allows basic photo editing for contacts (although there appears to be a bug- I must save the contact with photo and then go back and edit it again to zoom/crop). The browser is VERY fast for such a small device (but I cannot scroll the main page of Google Reader).
Personally my biggest let down is that there is no direct download settings for PodCasts (at least yet); a search of the iTunes store for 'podcasts' returns song for $.99- TWiT returns nothing. I also heard rumor of being able to directly download podcasts subscriptions to the iPod- no go (until someone gets into the interface and makes some homebrew programs).
A few hack sites are popping ups: ipodtouchhacks.com and hacktheipodtouch.com are the first two that seem notable- the later has instructions on using the jailbreak exploit (from the iPhone) to unlock the iPod- but this is all designed to be run from a Mac...
Hopefully there will be an exploit that allows the rumored inactive Bluetooh module to be activated- and used for A2DP!
On the early-adopters-for-profit side, it looks like the 16GB iPod Touch is going for $425 - $475 on eBay...
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