As I am off to have my colon edited for cancer on Monday and my wife and mother kindly bought me an iPod Touch to have in the hospital. That is so I would not be tempted to use my iPhone whilst there. They seem to frown on that sort of thing I gather.

The lovely Touch does remind one quite a bit of the iPhone. I bet people who have both will find themselves taking the wrong one with them if they happen to charge them in the same place. The screen is slightly wider than the iPhone and the device is notably thinner and lighter.

There is one oddity about the device: there is no email client on the thing despite the fact it has a browser. The fact that its easier, when on Wi-Fi, to get your Google mail than your .Mac is just quite frankly daft. Google has a site that is perfectly suited to handhelds while .Mac is not.

Its as if Apple is assuming that its users will hack the damn thing so they aren't even bothering to include a mail client. On Wi-Fi, the Touch seems to work a bit quicker than the iPhone; probably because there is no wondering if its on Edge or Wi-Fi.

Its a neat little device with a nice amount of memory for all my music and video (loading up on Anime for my sojourn in the hospital) when I am in not need of a phone. I still miss my iPhone when I just have my Touch with me.

Still if you don't need or want an iPhone, but you do want all the other neat aspects of the device then the Touch might be for you. The lack of email client is daft and bizarre but I am sure if Apple users grumble enough it might appear in an later update.

Apple has been very good of late at taking away features and goodies on the iPhone and the Touch. Let's hope they start giving us good stuff with their updates soon. Mobile iTunes is not worth losing all the great third party applications on the iPhone.

Then again it is Apple. Even their most loyal users, like my family, get frustrated with their decisions now and then. The Touch is another member of the Apple family of neat products.