Last month I finally had a chance to spend some time (and money) in Florida, so besides going to the beach and meeting alligators I decided to get myself a nice gadget for Christmas. Technically speaking it's a present for my wife, but I picked it. 

Originally I was going to get myself a netbook, not because I particularly needed one, just because -- I thought -- for $300 I may as well get a computer.
I was actually tempted to buy a Kindle or a Nook, but then I decided against it: why spending the same amount of money on so ethibg you can only use to read books? Nonsense: a netbook is ten times better.

So I went to Best Buy and decided to ask one of the guys for tips. surprisingly, the shop assistant was very honest and told me "well, if it was up to me I'd get the cheapest possible: you are probay gonna change it in a year or so, right"?
Errr... No, actually. So I started looking at tablets and other similar gadgets: I mostly wanted something with WiFi connectivity, as that was the only thing I really missed in my Palm Treo 750 (yes, Windows Mobile, I know, I know... But I was young then!). 

At this point, my wife comes along and goes: "Can't you just get an iPod touch then? It has what you need and it's sexy as well" (note: yes, since she got her mac she's kind of partial to Apple).

Indeed I decided to go for an iPod touch, and I'm very happy with it. This thing is sleek, responsive, and powerful. Originally I was going to go for an 8GB model, but then I read the specs more carefully and discovered that Apple just upgraded the OS on the 8GB models without changing it's hardware, so the 8GB iPod "3G" is Actually nothing more than an iPod 2G with a different name. So I went for a 32GB model.

Are 3G iPods that different from the previous generation? Well, enough:
- 256MB of RAM instead of 128
- 833MHz (underclocked to 600MHz) ARM processor instead of 600MHz (underclocked to 533MHz)
- better graphics card
- hidden FM receiver/transmitter
- hidden WiFi 802.11n receiver

I think all this (and of course the extra disk space) is well worth the $100 price difference!

What can I say? I've been using this for a few days and the GUI is so addictive and awesome that I've been neglecting my laptop, even for writing this very post.

After 2 days I loaded it with about 80 apps, all free except the following that I purchased with a 15€ iTunes voucher:
- Ocarina
- Notebooks
- 2Do
- Air Share

Why didn't I get an iPhone? because it would cost too much, it wouldn't have worked in Italy and because my current phone works fine. Plus I can live without a GPS (I have my wife for that) and a camera.