iTouch? good or bad?
 

I'm trying to make some purchases in advance for Christmas and my 17 year old has been hinting he'd like an iTouch. I looked at them at Costco today (they have a $20 off instant rebate at costco) and then I scoped out the apple site too. I'm really torn on if it's a good purchase or not. I can't afford the $70+ a month contract on the iPhone or I'd consider that instead. My son basically lives with his current iPod Nano permentally attached to him, so I know he'd use the iTouch a lot just for the music. I'm just really torn on it. I'd love some feedback on it. And if you have an iTouch, why do you have it instead of an iPhone?

Is there some way to get the iPhone without an expensive contract?
and if anyone knows of the cheapest place to get an iTouch, please share! :)

An iTouch is at the very top of my wish list too. From the research I've done it seems that the iTouch does pretty much everything the iPhone does except make phone calls and you don't have to pay the extra $$ for the monthly data plan. I've heard to get the biggest one you can afford so you have plenty of room for music, photos, videos, movies, apps, etc. I've seen some pretty good prices at Target & a lot of times you get either a Target gift card or an iTunes gift card when you purchase one there.

I absolutely love love love my ipod touch!!! one of the best investments I did

My husband has one and loves it. Not fair that he can get on the internet with it because it has WiFi and I can't with my phone because it doesn't. I can't afford another $25 a month just to get internet on it! :( The reason he has it instead of the phone is because he needed an MP3 player and he gets a cell phone through work.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my iTouch. I use it constantly. I love all the different apps that I can get for it. I bought it instead of an iPhone because we didn't want to switch to AT&T. The iTouch is like the iPhone without the phone function. Some of the apps have GPS or other functions that only work with the iPhone, but for the most part, I've not felt like I've missed out on anything (besides the phone, of course!) by having the iTouch instead of the iPhone.

My hubby LOVES his iTouch... and since he is an anti-apple person, that is saying a lot. The reason for going the iTouch was that he couldn't justify the cost of the iPhone plan... and if he had one, he would have have to get me one too. LOL! He is really loving all the choices in apps. His brother has the iPhone and every time he calls (he lives in Seattle, us in Wisconsin) his voice is really muffled and his calls get dropped... don't know if that is common, but it has been with Jimbo's phone and he has had every upgraded iphone since they first come out.

I don't know about cheaper places... unless looking on ebay or Craig's list for an earlier model... my hubby was able to get his through the safety incentive program at work.

My brother has an iPhone and his phone calls sound okay....but, he uses Rogers.

Another huuuuuuuuuge fan of the iTouch!! I don't have an iPhone because AT&T doesn't have service here, so it's just not an option. Love my iTouch though!!

I love my iTouch. So much.
I use it mainly for music but also the apps are fun and a great way to kill time when you're at the dr's office, etc.
I can plug mine into the radio in my car and listen to it that way too. And the podcasts are great as well.
Totally worth every penny.:thumbup:

my hubby has one! it was a gift at work for getting his prof eng license so... we had no choice. but we only have 1 prepaid cell phone anyway, so an iphone would not be something we wanted.

anyway, he LOVES it and uses it ALL the time. Mostly for games and music... so if you don't mind the game playing. :) he also uses it to read his email sometimes and check for sports updates. it also has great little kid things and is a special treat for our little girls when they are having meltdowns (which I know would not be an issue for your son, but I had to throw is out there.) :)

Andrew bought me an iPhone for my birthday a couple weeks ago. Honestly, if I hadn't needed a new phone (mine finally died after a long and painful water damage death while we were in SC), I'd have been more than happy to get an iTouch. It was on my list for possible Christmas gifts. It really does do everything the phone does without the extra monthly fee.

I ♥ my iPhone. Andrew's jealous of it, so he's plotting a way to get an iTouch since he doesn't need a phone. IMO, totally worth the expense! I'm thinking of surprising him with one from Costco soon. :thumbup:

LOL... you haven't experienced a kid with teenage angst yet, have you? LOL I'd trade a toddler meltdown for that. :p :D

I'm going to guess that that's a service area issue. I've not had a single dropped call or complaint about sounding muffled since i got my phone. (Like you, I'm in WI...near the IL border.) Oh--I have the 3G, so not the latest version. Video wasn't worth the extra $100.

The $20 instant rebate at costco ends on 8/31 if that sweetens the deal :)

I have an Itouch and absolutely love it - I never really got it for the music part (although that is nice) but I wanted all the apps. It would be too costly for me to get an Iphone esp since all the people I talk to on the cell phone belong to the same plan I do now....just not cost effective for me. Everytime I get bored with one of my apps, I just browse through the store and find more - most of them are free and I have paid for a few. Someone here recommended the Ikindle app and now I download books to read during boring meetings and conferences :p. It is a great babysitter for when you are at a drs office or on long trips....I would highly recommend it if you can. I was fortunate to be able to get mine using reward points I get at work or I would have had to wait longer for it.....

LOL! It does, especially since our membership expires that day too!

no way!! okay, this might now be on MY Christmas list! I didn't know it could do that!

Is there any way you can put recipes and make lists in an iTouch? (not that my teen would want that, but I would for me)

I know I wanted a kindle for Christmas but with this app I am not really seeing why I need one. The type is not that small and it works great and because of its size, no one could see that I was reading lol!

I have Kraft Foods recipe app that gives cool ideas for dinners but I am sure there are more. I have a drink recipe one too uh for those NON-alcoholic drinks I might want (right!) and yes it has a notepad that you can write whatever you need to.

Yep, you can make lists. It comes with a notepad-type thing.

I am so glad for this thread. I was thinking of asking for one for my birthday and was really on the fence. So, do you get internet everywhere or just where there are WiFi access? I looked on the apple website and couldn't find this answer. Thanks! You guys know so much about everything!

on the iPhone, you get it everywhere because you pay $30 a month for the access. On the iTouch, you can link to WiFi like in your home or where there is an open free network.

I just watched the apple video on it and it was pretty cool
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/guidedtour/

There's a shopping list app that I like (it was a few dollars in the app store) or you can also use the notebook app that's included to make lists. There's also included to-do apps for other kinds of lists if you want to check things off.

Some of my other fav apps are my budget app (I can customize it into lots of different categories), AP News feed, Couch-to-5K app (so I can also listen to my music), a Weight Watchers point calculator, and a few random games.

I won mine at a raffle at our office. It's awesome, but because I'm not really much for the applications, I'd rather have an ipod nano instead.

I have it, love it, use it ALL the time. I don't have the iPhone because I already have a cell phone through work and don't want to commit to an additional $X a month just for the phone capability. I got mine on Black Thursday last year through MacConnection.

Oh, excellent point... just different meltdowns. :)

Ours has helped immensely at the doctor's office (waiting 100 years) and in the car. :)

I and my husband use ours all the time. I got mine because I won the Survivor pool at work and my husband loved mine so much that I got him one for Father's Day. I love that I can connect to the internet with it. It's one of my best purchases ever! :)

Weight Watchers point calculator? Seriously? I looked for that but didn't find it... what's it under?

Gah, you all are making me want one. :p

LOL... well, I'm now sold on getting it for Jacob and now am thinking about it for MY christmas list. :p

I absolutely LOVE my iTouch!!! I use it all of the time!

My niece won an iTouch and loves it, so does my Bro and SIL. She can put all her music on it, but I guess you can put a bunch of games on it too. She plays with it all the time!

It's actually not made by WW (you can get a WW app if you're doing WW Online, but you can only use it if you're on Wifi). The app I use to calculate points at a store or something is called "Calculate Points." It's .99 cents right now in the app store.

I am thinking now, that I must own one of these too!

I LOVE my itouch! one of my best investments.