Should I Buy My Ten Year Old Child An Ipod Touch?

Ipod Touch for a 10 year old? This was my deliberation, less than a couple of months ago. My son really, really wanted one of these things for his tenth birthday. 'Oh, but so and so has got one, they are so cool,' was all he could say, before going on to reiterate that there was nothing else he wanted.

Well, my son is always wanting something or other. One day it's this, the next day it's that. One day he's saving up for an X Box, the next he's spent the money he's been saving on something completely different. You just never know. The trouble is, there's so much aggressive marketing around these days, not to mention the things friends have.

But he really, really, really wanted an Ipod Touch.

Ipods are all about music - well they were, before they started to come with a whole load of other functions designed to please Apple fans. But even though the Ipod Touch may come with other features, the music element is supposed to be the main point of it all. Whether a child should have an Ipod Touch or not should perhaps come down to one little factor - do they or do they not like music? In fact, does your child like enough music to warrant spending all that money on an Ipod Touch?

Children aged around ten often do start getting into music. My son had gone from not knowing all that much about current bands, to knowing quite a lot in a short space of time. He had started asking to listen to the radio every time we were in the car. He had started watching music videos on TV. He acquired a free Ipod Shuffle, the cheapest sort, when his dad was given one at work. And he really did spend a lot of time listening to it....but he still wanted that Ipod Touch.

In fact, it reminded me of my own youth, when we bought 7" singles at weekends and Sony Walkmans were becoming all the rage. I remembered my sister getting her first Sony Walkman one Christmas, when she was just eight or nine - she really loved it. Was an Ipod Touch really so different? After all, it is just a sign of the times - the times our children are growing up in.

Since those bygone days with the good old Sony Walkman, times have moved on and technology has reached new heights. As it stands, the Ipod Touch is the must-have personal music player for the current generation. In truth (and perhaps obviously) it is literally worlds away from the old and clunky Walkman, and even from more recent MP3 players (though the concept and enjoyment of listening to a favorite track through personal headphones is still the same). Apple first released the !st, then 2nd Generation Ipod Touch, followed by the 3rd Generation in September 2009. But now the 4th Generation model has hit the streets and the Ipod Touch has never been better.

The Ipod Touch has always been slim and elegant, but now it measures just 7.2 mm. It boasts the highest resolution Ipod Screen so far - an impressive Retina Display with 326 pixels per inch for sharp text and graphics. It also has a built in three-axis gyropscope which, when combined with the accelerometer, provides more motion gesture and a better gaming experience. Because these days, a music player is about so much more than just the music....

In the end, yes we did - the 8GB version, which is the least expensive. And he was absolutely thrilled with it. He had come up with the idea that if he could have the Ipod Touch then he wasn't bothered about having a party. That was the cost thing sorted out, as the party he has usually costs around $150 or more. Instead of the party we just went out for the day with a couple of friends, and to tell you the truth, he enjoyed it more and it lasted for longer as well.

Today his Ipod Touch is seven months old and it is still his favorite gadget. He has built up a large collection of music, and is also a big fan of the ITunes Apps Store:

Like most boys, my son loves games, and the ITunes Apps Store has thousands of both games and other apps - to be precise, about 75,000 of them. Some of the games he has purchased have been free, most of them very cheap - between around $1 and $6, I would say. Some of the games might not be suitable for a child, but he usually tells us when he is buying something as this is what we have requested. Anyway, he does not have his own ITunes account - he uses his dad's - which means his dad receives information entailing everything that has been bought.

The games seem to be of good quality, and are certainly a lot cheaper than the DS and Wii games he usually buys! My son's games are all advertised as being suitable for 9+ years, if you are at all concerned about the content. (The newest, 4th Generation Ipod Touch, also has access to the new Game Center.)

It's not all games, though. He has downloaded an app bringing him updated information about his favorite football team (which was free) and several apps regarding popular bands. You can even download books from ibooks. There is a whole lot more as well, detailed under the Ipod Touch product information.

Please note that downloading a lot of games will decrease the Ipod's capacity to store music - you can't have everything, but there is plenty of room for enough of both.

The 8GB Ipod Touch that my son has can hold over 2000 songs and 10 hours of video. Of course, the 32GB and 64GB can hold a whole lot more, but whether that is really necessary for a ten year old is a matter of opinion. Though my son is indeed becoming interested in music, he would not be able to find even a quarter of that number of songs to download. Rest assured, 8GB is perfectly adequate for a child.

The newest 32GB model can hold 8000 songs, or up to 40 hours of video or film. The 64GB can hold 16,000 songs, or 80 hours of video or film. These models are obviously more expensive, however, so whichever model you purchase for your child will probably depend on your budget - both what you can afford and what you feel you are happy to spend.

With the Ipod Touch, it is possible to download music videos and even films. My son downloads videos sometimes, but not films. Films are not particularly cheap when compared to a typical dvd, and I have managed to persuade him that watching a film on the small 3" screen of the Ipod Touch will not be quite the same as watching it on TV.

If you think this is something your child would really like, then I would say yes, go for it. In fact, perhaps that should be edited to Is this something your child would really love?, because for a ten year old, the Ipod Touch is, indeed, a special gift.My son really loves his, he has already said it is the best present he has ever received. His friends love it too, and several of them want their own now! The only other point that you might want to consider is that the front of the Ipod is glass, so a child will need to take care if they don't want to have a broken Ipod. My son is not exactly the sensible type, but I will say that he acts very sensibly when it comes to his Ipod Touch.

He also received some money for his birthday, from other relatives, and with it he bought himself an Ipod docking station, so that he can listen to his music in his bedroom without headphones. Sometimes I think I have a teenager up there - but then I remember my sister and I, with our Sony Walkmans and old fashioned record decks, and can't help thinking that youth hasn't changed that much after all - it's only the technology which has moved on and left the cumbersome Walkman buried in the dust.