The only thing holding me back from opening the touch was Apple's restocking fee. One of the reasons for exchanging the first one--the 16GB model--for the 8GB one was the fee I'd have to pay. If I opened the 8GB one, I felt more comfortable owing Apple $29.90 for the temptation than $39.90 for the other.

Something just didn't fly with a $39.90 fee, though only a difference of ten dollars, the $29.90 felt like a small chump of change at "twenty" while the $39.90 felt more like "forty." (It was forty!). Definitely not chump change.

As luck would have it, it was an early Christmas of sorts.

At yet another electronics store, shopping for something other than iPods, I found the 8GB iPod touch in stock. This chain also had a 30-day policy and this employee told me, even before he took the box out of locked storage, that if I didn't like it for whatever reason, just bring it back. I asked if there was a restocking fee, and he said "no."

So three weeks after buying the iPod touch, I finally broke the seal open on the package--the newest one--and got to play around with it without worrying about restocking fees. (I of course, returned the other one again back to the Apple Store, except in another location).

Nothing beats playing around and test driving a product when it's in your possession so that you can really see what's inside the product. When you're in the store, you feel rushed and it's not a true sense of the product. Also, in your hands, you can load it up with your own content.

I went a step further and loaded the exact same content on all three iPod models. This was how I was able to compare each one in an, apples to apples (sorry) sort of way.

By doing a side-by-side-by-side comparison, I was able to appease myself and really make a "scientific" decision on which one was really the best of the three (remember, the shuffle was never a consideration) and also to provide you with an in-depth review... which came as an afterthought by the time I had all three iPods with me.

After all that? From touch, to nano, back to touch, then over to classic... what did I choose?

In the end, as much as I loved the nano for its cuteness and size (the "true" iPod mini, since it looks exactly like the classic, only smaller, as opposed to a totally different version of it), and as much as I drooled over the touch for its features not found on the others (the real iPod, with the "i" standing for "internet"), I went for the classic.

The iPod classic.

Also, it's a no brainer that come Spring or Summer, we'll be seeing an update to the nano and touch lines, with double the capacity and that more-for-less attitude. Also, by then, hopefully the touch will have more built-in applications like that of the iPhone.

(On the iPhone, I think that they should strip it down to a cell phone. Get rid of the iPod aspect of it. Or, make the iPod features less of an attraction so that the "real" iPods get the attention).

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