To not consider the major improvements of the new Touch or consider buying a used one for less than a new Nano, but to consider buying an MP3 player, a watch and a pedometer seems a bit 1987 to me….

To each his own…

I don’t understand (don’t really need to I guess) the decision making process. You list a host of uses on the Touch that you seemingly couldn’t live without and for a measly $65 you said it was too expensive. And to boot, you were given a FREE Touch and used it for nearly three years! The new one you could purchase would last another three years and for $229, you would have 6-years of Touch use!

Like someone else mentioned, why not consider buying used with Apple care warranty left for the same price as a Nano (or LESS!)? Even so, since you have kids and the new Touch does HD video, wouldn’t that have made you want to spend the extra $65?

It is a flat-out DOWNGRADE to a Nano and you will either figure that out soon with all of the Nano’s inadequacies and your three years of using a device that did a ton more.

I too had been wrestling with the decision to get an iphone when my contract expires. I am now doing a more detailed review of my uses.

Thank you for this more comprehensive post.

Not that this will change your mind, but just thought you should know.

For professional reasons, I’m interested in the iTouch apps. And I like the idea of being able to get WiFi on the fly (and also make calls via Skype), which you can do with the iTouch, without having to pay high fees each month for a phone contract.

But there are other considerations in purchasing besides desired and necessary functionality. I have real issues with a company like Apple and the way it controls how and what you can download onto its products. The fact that I have tons of MP3 music that I would NOT be able to load onto the iTouch annoys me beyond belief (I’ve tried on a friend’s unit). Why should I be forced to pay for the same stuff via iTunes? So there goes the MP3 function.

The iTouch is definitely sexier in design than MP3 players and various droid small tablets. And frankly, a lot of people do succumb to it without really analyzing how they use it. To be honest, if someone gave it to me, I’d use it, too. But I would not buy it. Same situation trent is actually in.

Kudos to Trent for resisting the “easy” solution and really thinking about what he needs.

If we were all more honest, we’d admit that far too many of our electronics and tech purchases are about having the “cool” toys and not just what we want or “need.” (Need is relative. If you work in certain industries and don’t have a smartphone or even an iPhone, you seriously reduce your credibility. it’s the same with the whole Blackberry vs iPhone stuff. Depending on where you work, all this matters. It shouldn’t but it does.)

At this juncture, I’m one of those waiting for the next round of smaller (say 7-inch) Android tablets. I’m tired of small keyboards and small screens on smart phones. They don’t work well for me. If the new models have the updated Android system and Android apps keep increasing, I know where my $ are going. In the meantime, I listen to music, podcasts, and make recordings as needed on my SanDisk MP3 player. It also holds pix and though it supposedly plays videos, there have been ongoing problems with the software and I still can’t get it to work (It doesn’t help that I’ve got a 64-bit Win 7 OS that Sansa does not support; it doesn’t even work on my old Vista laptop either.)

But I paid something like $30, so I’m not complaining.

I would likely have made exactly the opposite choice, however, and spent the extra $65 for a replacement iPod Touch.

It isn’t a “lifestyle upgrade” for me as some others have suggested this type of device is.

I don’t have a great memory – I’m a divergent thinker. I come up with good ideas but I need a place to keep them.

A mobile device with the ability to record and organize data helps me organize my work, my hobbies and my personal time.

So, for me, it’s necessary. I keep a notepad handy but tools like DropBox and EverNote let me do more with my time and not misplace information.

“Nosce te ipsum.” Know thyself. Clearly Trent does and has made a choice that fits with his lifestyle.

First of all I’ve sold my GPS unit…don’t need it anymore – iphone does it with constant free upgrades and free traffic service. I was considering buying a laptop to compliment our desktop computer since we have a fairly large house. Don’t need it. I can do everything on my iphone I would do on my desktop (or a laptop). I read the NYTimes daily for free instead of buying a copy as I used to do, ditto for USA Today. It has replaced my MP3 player. As others have mentioned I use it as a note service so I am never stuck at a store without a list. I’ve used the LED light as a flashlight. I’ve used the phone as a leveler. And, of course it makes phone calls and texts.

I don’t think I’ve even tapped the surface of the things my phone can do. This thing is amazing. And since I have no debt other than a mortgage. Max out all retirement options and still manage to save 30% of household income on top of this I feel this is a lifestyle upgrade I can easily afford. Isn’t that the point of reaching this point in your life – the ability to buy affordable things you want?

I’m not criticizing Trent’s well thought out decision about buying the Nano. If it suits all his needs for less money then he’s made a wise decision even if he has tons of extra money to spend. If I could find something cheaper than my iphone I’d certainly explore the use of it. But to consider this lifestyle inflation is just not true when the main tenets of saving are being met.

Speak for yourself. I didn’t buy an ipod for a long time (because of the price), and then I didn’t upgrade it for even longer (because I was wary of the constant connectivity issues people mention here). But, for me personally, having all my music to carry around with me in a portable package has been a real benefit to my life in a lot of ways. Is that true for everyone? Of course not. But nor are the benefits I’ve realized illusory and I a dupe of the company just because someone else doesn’t really want an ipod.