Apple iPod touch (2nd gen)

There are apps like Facebook to keep you up to date with who's poking you and trying to give you zombie bites, super pokes and virtual chlamydia or whatever. Apps like Movies, which is one of our favourites, that gives you film listings, access to high quality trailers, and uses the iPod touch's built-in satellite navigation feature to locate where you are and point out which cinemas are near you, and what they're showing. There are 3D games from the likes of Electronic Arts, such as the awesome Spore Origins. You can build little organisms, and use the touch screen to send them swimming about the place. It's games like this that show how capable the touch is at being a games device, and, potentially, a threat to some of the territory enjoyed by the Nintendo DS. Naturally, you've still got full access to the Internet with the Safari browser over Wi-Fi, and it's still by far the best way to browse the Web on the go. You can pinch and stretch the screen to navigate around, and visit almost any site as you would on a PC. However, there's no Adobe Flash support, so sites like YouTube that use streaming video aren't supported. However, that's not going to be an issue, since there's a YouTube app built in too! It uses much higher quality video than those on the YouTube Web site, so it's even more enjoyable to watch Ninja Kittens when you're in the bath. Oh just look at that face. As an iPod, it's right up there with the best of the best. While sound quality is easily challenged by Sony, Creative and even the iPod classic, it's still pretty good as long as you don't use the little white earbuds that come in the box. Seriously, they're the Tesco Value choice of the earphone world, and you should consider spending at LEAST £30 on some half-decent earphones as well if you even half-value sound quality. It supports MP3, protected AAC from the iTunes store, unprotected AAC, WAV and Apple Lossless audio; plus high-quality H.264 video. The iTunes Store offers movies for download to own or download to rent, and these are compatible with the iPod touch, meaning you can rent a movie or seven for a long journey for a few quid, and watch it on the train, without having to rip DVDs and mess around with format conversion. Nice. To counter the shoddy earphones, video performance is as stunning as ever. The screen on this thing is truly amazing, and watching full length movies is by no means out of the question. Oh, and it's got one of these, too -- physical volume controls. A much requested feature. Shoved somewhere on the inside are some tiny little speakers. Sadly, while these are pretty much there for use with games, they'll probably be used by snotty little chavs on buses. If you're a chav, consider not playing music through these speakers, you someone might snatch this otherwise enviable device out of your hands, and insert it somewhere unpleasant. The bottom line is that the new iPod touch is almost a full mark out of ten better than the first model. It's probably not an essential upgrade if your first generation iPod touch has the new software and isn't broken. But if you were holding off from buying the first one because you wanted something even better, here it is, in 8, 16 and 32GB capacities. I'm Nate Lanxon for CNET UK, with the 2nd generation iPod touch.