Apple iPod touch 32 GB (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL Review

I just bought one of these. I wanted a lightweight device for displaying thumbnail photos from my web page when I'm on a buying trip, so I can quickly determine whether I have an item or not when considering a purchase. My web site has over 2,000 different varieties of the items I expect to see on my next trip, so this will be a convenient reference in places where I know there will be no Internet access. This tool allows me to create a nice index of thumbnails that is exactly what I had in mind, so I'm pleased with it for that reason. There are other things I'm not that pleased about.
Right out of the box I'm hit with something I don't like because if I want to use my iPod Touch for any purpose whatsoever I have to use an iTunes interface on my desktop computer to load media onto it. To do that, just to install the iTunes application I have to give Apple a "payment method" IN ADVANCE before I can do anything else. Apple has already sold me a pricey piece of hardware, but now before I can even use it I have to set myself up for more payments by putting my pocketbook on the line with this "payment method." This portends some other nasty things.
There is nothing really objectionable about the way iTunes provides a channel for moving pictures from my web site to the iTouch. Still, I can't just use the iTouch as free hard drive space where I can name all the folders myself and move or remove image files with basic Windows commands. I have to use a new set of Apple applications, folders and commands with far fewer choices.
I compare this iTunes tool for capturing shoppers to other portable devices such as the ones Creative makes that just give you storage space with some simple media player functions. No iTunes! Apple should give users options for loading their media with or without iTunes, with or without providing Apple with a "payment method" and with or without using Apple's plan for organizing their media instead of their own. I know Apple is not open to suggestions like that (if it were the iPhone would be sold with an unlocked option) but it needs to be said anyway.
It amazes me people are willing to pay such high prices for Apple devices without getting for their money versatile and flexible tools they truly own themselves. This is what "style" mania does to people: put me in handcuffs, but make me look good! (I didn't have any of my own ideas anyway)
There is no reason why an iPod Touch can't access the internet using its USB connection, but for some reason Apple chose to make it wifi only. That makes it more difficult for me to prepare mine for a road trip with my home configuration, because I don't use wifi here for security reasons. For the price it should not have this limitation.
The audio department is where Apple gets most most egregiously meddlesome. In the big computer world one can take any mp3 file and put it in any directory with one's own chosen directory name. Not with an "iTouch." Your mp3 files have a "media type" definition (which you don't even see--or need to see--in Windows or Unix) which can be audiobook, music, or nothing. If your file's media type is audiobook, it has to go into Apple's audiobook folder, like it or not. If your file's media type is "music," it has to go into Apple's music folder, too bad if you'd rather put it someplace else.
If the "media type" is not defined (nothing), the file goes into the music folder whether you like it or not because that's the default. There is no way to put such files where they belong if where they belong happens to be the audiobooks folder. If the media type is "music" or "audiobook" you can change it. For anyone with lots of of media files this is a needless inconvenience, but at least it is an option. If the media type is undefined, you're stuck with that and it can't be changed without reloading or recreating the file from scratch.
If the mp3 files you are working with are audiobook files with an undefined media type definition and you don't want them mixed with other music files, the only option on this iPod Touch device is to create a playlist named after the title of the book. They'll still be mixed with the music files, but as a playlist you'll be able to access them separately.
This scheme is unnecessarily rigid. The designers probably have reasons why the mp3 media type definition is useful but if it is useful it should be used to facilitate use and access. It should not be used to prevent users from deciding what folders to use for their media. The inability to name folders is bad enough.
For now this is the only tool I know about that lets me make the kind of pocket photo index I want, but when I find something else that does the same thing but works more like a computer that belongs to me instead of someone else's selling platform and style widget I'll convert to that and drop this. Get more detail about Apple iPod touch 32 GB (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL.