Those of you that know me will probably also know that I collected my new iPod Touch yesterday morning. What you will not know is what I have discovered so far about my latest gadget.

I think it is fairly clear from the reviews elsewhere on the net that I was going to be impressed by the new iPod Touch. The reality however was much more than even I expected.

No matter what your thoughts on Apple or Mr Jobs when you first get your hands on a Touch for even the briefest of “flicks” around its stunning User Interface it is virtually impossible not to be amazed by the slickness of this piece of technology. Using the Touch in person is just a revelation. From the very first feel of it to the first moment you slide through the touch screen menus it just oozes class.

Last night I had the opportunity to demo it to my next door neighbour, a self confessed technophobe who has not even sent an email. The look on his face as I showed him the Photo library, scrolling through the images with a dab of the finger on the screen, was an absolute picture. He was literally speechless. For a moment he sat looking at the screen, then just said “Its just like Science Fiction”.

Then again this morning I took the opportunity to spend 10 minutes quiet time with my three year old daughter by showing her some snaps of herself as a baby. Within two minutes she was navigating through the photos, stretching and squeezing the images and scrolling them around the screen, all without me teaching her anything ! I would like to think this was because Emily is a prodigy of some sort, but I think I know the reason is more because the user interface is just stunningly well designed and completely obvious to anyone who sees it.

From a technical point of view it is also very hard not to be impressed. The responsiveness of a device as small as this is pretty remarkable. Every option selected appears instantly, scrolling through cover art is as smooth and stutter free as on my desktop iMac, rotating the screen re-generates the on screen image in the correct aspect ratio without hesitation. Everything just feels like there must a hugely powerful processor inside this tiny device, which of course there can’t be.

Recent reports have hinted that the next product for Apples portfolio is likely to be a larger tablet or slate format PDA/notebook computer using all the technology developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. If this doesn’t happen I would be extremely shocked. Apple have a clear lead in the touch screen market now and they would be foolish indeed if they did not capitalise on this. I suppose the only issue is what market place they will target for this solution ? Apple have made no secret about not being particularly interested in taking on Microsoft in the corporate sector so it seems unlikely that they would target the Windows Tablet PC as a direct competitor in the first instance. More likely I think would be to hit where they typically have strongholds in their niche markets such as design and possibly education.

Whatever happens I think this is the start of an exciting new era in PC hardware and software design.