Without a doubt, Apple's iPod is the Walkman for the 21st century.  The iPhone may well steal most of the limelight, but the iPod Touch remains a loyal member of the family. 

But does it still deserve our initial rating of five stars, now that other manufacturers have offered their response?  Let's take a look at how it fares up with the new version of the firmware.

100% iPhone

Although you know you're looking at an iPod Touch, it's hard to remember that this isn't an iPhone.  The shiny back, which loves fingerprints and scratches from keys and coins, and the impressively thin shape prove that this is a portable media player.  But looking at the interface leaves room for doubt, where the touchscreen keypad used for typing in a PIN code looks like it would be at home on a phone.

Let's talk about the interface, actually.  It's useful, and very well thought-out.  It's very difficult to find anything to criticise about it, especially now that the majority of applications work in landscape mode.  With a web browser, contact manager and maps and route planning software, you're left wondering what the Touch is missing.

But isn't it supposed to be an MP3 player?

Let's be cynical about this: the iPod Touch would have been a great phone.  They could have called it the "iPhone Touch", or even just the "iPhone" (though it seems that name is already taken ...)  The iPod's real weakness, you see, is the quality of the sound.  The audio output is less than impeccable for such a high-end product: it's clean but lacks detail and is only just about acceptable.  The same can't be said of the equaliser presets, each of which is more ridiculous than the last, and none of which you can customise.  There's also the lack of audio formats: no WMA, no FLAC--just ALAC, which, although equivalent, is less effective--no OGG, no APE.  It's more than just lightweight.  And let's not even get on to the headphones, which are only just about reasonable for a portable device.

What about video?  Any multimedia?

Video is hardly better.  Only supporting H.264 files (including Apple's favourite, .MOV files) and MPEG-4 doesn't leave a lot of options for video.  You'll just need to keep on re-encoding if you want to watch video.  And it's a shame, because the 3.5'' screen is actually one of the biggest on portable media players currently available.

What's left is multimedia content, with contact management, maps, notes, a web browser, YouTube, stock quotes and all the other apps available from the AppStore.  But what's the use of an iPod Touch for all of these things?  Anybody who really wants to make use of these features is much likely to be satisfied by the multimedia smartphone, the iPhone 3G S.  Here, though, with the lack of 3G connectivity, the fact you're forced to use iTunes and the lack of widespread support for different file formats and the poor audio quality, it's hard to understand who the Touch is actually aimed at.