I’m about to buy an iPod Touch as it is the most useful devise for me to have while travelling (far more than a smart phone). Right now trying to decide if it is worthwhile buying anything other than the 8G version. I always need to travel with a laptop so the extra capacity of a 32G or 64G shouldn’t really be an issue as I can always store extra files on my laptop or in the cloud.
Am I missing anything here?
I have the 8gb version. I can easily fill it up and often have to clear out the clutter (I’m tidy by nature). If you can afford it buy the most gigs you can. Wish I had an iPad TBH, more useful to me.
Thanks for the reply. So it’s simply the inconvenience for you of deleting files that would make you want more gigs?
Yes, to a point just files…
I find myself, wanting certain apps (which vary in size), music (for me lots), maybe some films and some books.
It doesn’t take long before you can’t fit all the stuff you want into an 8gb device.
[quote=“Steviebike”]Yes, to a point just files…
I find myself, wanting certain apps (which vary in size), music (for me lots), maybe some films and some books.
It doesn’t take long before you can’t fit all the stuff you want into an 8gb device.[/quote]
Okay. So I think I am not really missing anything. It’s just a matter of how much stuff I want to have on this. My needs are pretty basic.
I’ve got a 30GB iPhone and managing the memory is, for me, a bit of a pain: I definitely have to think about what audio content and apps to have on it.
But it depends what you want to do. On my phone I’ve got about 15GB of audio and 10GB of apps: since you’ll presumably be carrying around a laptop with music on it, I guess you don’t need to worry about the audio. My 15GB of audio is kind of ridiculous, but I’m foolishly wedded to the idea of having almost anything I could want available.
The apps are the key for memory consumption, because they can be used only on the iPod Touch, and not on the computer. Of the apps on my phone, almost all of the big ones (i.e. 300MB+) are games: the only other big ones are the Oxford English Dictionary, iBird Explorer Pro (a fantastic bird guide, but North America only, alas), and “Audabon Nature Pacific Northwest”. The nature ones are great when I’m in North America but not that useful in Asia (off-topic: does anyone know any East Asian nature guide apps?). As you probably know, you can add or remove different apps, and reload them later without needing to pay money again: you lose any data you’ve inputted, but usually that’s not a big deal.
In general I’d recommend getting the biggest you can afford, because I seem to always fill up whatever memory I’ve got, but I’m also a bit of a packrat. If you think you’re going to get interested in games on the iPod Touch, definitely get the larger memory (note that I played basically no video/ computer games from around 1989 to 2009, when I got the iPhone, and I don’t think I’m alone in that kind of pattern!). I never watch video on my iPhone, but if you want to do that, then a larger memory would probably be essential. Otherwise, 8GB should do it for you.
Yep. I’m very happy to have an iPod touch of any size, it’s a luxury item and I don’t take it for granted 
Enjoy. 
+1 on lostinasia’s request. If anyone know of any apps or books on East Asian nature/birds. Let us know!
Thanks guys. I don’t play games, and don’t listen to music so that saves a lot of need for memory. But I might consider a 32G.
As for a bird book, Birds of East Asia by mark Brazil is a great comprehensive guide. One of the famous bird guide publishers is going to come out with a Taiwan bird guide this or next year. It’s in the works.
I know NTU came out with a plant recognition app last year.
Also a German guy just published a book this year on ferns of taiwan.
And check out booksfromtaiwan.com/
Thanks for the book recommends
Get the biggest one you can. The 8GB is basically only good as a dedicated FaceTime device and occasional game machine.
Storing stuff “in the cloud” and actually making it useful on an intermittently connected device requires more local storage, not less. Why this is should be obvious.
If you are cloud synching anything, then the 8GB will be extremely marginal. 32GB should be big enough these days to handle a Dropbox and iWork sync.
The iPod Touch is useless as a still camera which mitigates this somewhat, but is very useful as an always-with-you 720p video camera, which once again makes the 8GB a bad choice.
Leaving margin also helps performance. You’ll start to notice a considerable slowdown when the storage gets down to 1GB, which is extremely easy to do on an 8GB.
Unless cost is a concern, the better choice is to simply get an iPhone. Once you realize what pocket computing can actually do for you, not having connectivity most of the time as with an iPod Touch becomes a total drag. The older iPhone 4 (non-S) is basically the same performance specs as an iPod Touch 4, but has a real camera and of course always on Internet. It can probably be gotten for not much more than an iPod Touch 4 given it is a generation back from what’s currently on the market.
I thought iBirds had to do with Angry Birds…
Size does matter…but what has that got to do with an iPod touch? :s