IPod Touch

The iPod Touch is the iPhone without the phone and GPS features--no cellular voice calls, no texting, and no EDGE or 3G wireless service. The remaining features that the two have in common are often the criteria on which the Touch is judged. In the case of the fourth-generation Touch--available in 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities--the two come closer to feature parity than ever before.

The 4G iPod Touch is thinner still--two sandwiched 4G Touches come very close to the thickness of the iPhone 4. It's also a little less wide and lighter than the third-generation iPod Touch that preceded it. Its edges are also more angled. This angling is sharp enough that owners of iPhones and previous iPod Touches will have to train themselves to search for the volume and Sleep/Wake buttons near the back edge of the iPod rather than the side and top, respectively.

The 4G version lacks the small black plastic patch on the back's top-left corner that covered the Wi-Fi antenna. That corner now holds the iPod's built-in omnidirectional microphone and its high-definition rear-facing camera.

Voice Control works only for playing music, however. You can't use it to initiate a FaceTime call.

With the new Touch you can make such calls without a headset. Even though the mic is on the back of the iPod, it's sensitive enough to pick up your voice. And the speaker is audible enough to carry on a conversation.

The iPod's camera is more zoomed in, hinting at a smaller sensor. Also, iPhone 4's camera captures stills at 1936 by 2592 pixels, while the iPod Touch's rear-facing camera shoots at 720 by 960 pixels. That's 5 megapixels on the iPhone 4 versus less than 1 megapixel on the Touch.

Given the lower resolution and lack of a flash, it shouldn't be surprising that the 4G Touch's still pictures don't measure up to the iPhone 4's. The images it produces are far less detailed and the camera's more susceptible to being blown out when capturing bright images--vibrant yellows, pinks, and reds, for example. Inside, in under-lit conditions, the Touch's camera pushes very hard to get the image, but in the process can produce grainy and washed out results.

The iPod Touch is an extremely versatile device--media player; pocket gaming machine; productivity tool; Internet communication device; and, with this latest update, pocket camcorder, still camera, handheld recorder, and FaceTime video phone.