“Well, what do you know,” says engadget.com. "Turns out the iPod touch is a reality after all.”

In the wake of rumour solidifying into fact, a pattern has emerged on the blogs' coverage of Apple's latest gadget: the blog authors give upbeat appreciations of what the iPod touch offers, the commentators on their sites bewail its shortcomings.

And so Crunchgear furnished readers with a glowing précis of what you get for your money (£199 for an 8GB version; £269 for a 16GB):

“Want more iPod? We’ve got you more iPod,” it said.

“For months and months we’ve been hearing rumours of a full-screen, touch-sensitive iPod, we’ve called it the iPhone without the phone part. Everyone’s wanted it, and now they’ve got it. Steve rolled out the latest iPod today, starting an entirely new class of iPods called the iPod Touch, and it’s exactly what it should be.”

“Available in a few weeks, the Touch comes in 8GB and 16GB configurations, and is basically a phoneless iPhone. Same basic form factor, same motion-sensing screen turning, same multitouch, same Coverflow browsing, same WiFi, and same Safari. Yah, the amazing mobile Web implementation that Apple brought to the iPhone without signing up for AT&T.

“But the WiFi’s not just for Web browsing. You also get the iPhone’s YouTube playback. You also get a wireless iTunes music store. Find a hotspot, find your song, and buy it, just as you would through your desktop iTunes. As Stevie J said, ‘Apple’s going to do with WiFi what others have failed to do.’ That looks likely.”

So far, so good. Turn, however, to the comments from the great unwashed on the Think Secret site, and another story unfolds.

“I know the iPod Touch is cool looking but [without] a 60 gig drive it is worthless to me,” says one comment.

“One thing that is conspicuously missing from the iPod touch (as well as the iPhone) is any sort of games. One would think that the touch-screen platform would be perfect for something like bejeweled or solitaire. Seems odd to me, and is one of the few features missing from the iPhone that most other cell phones have,” adds another.

A third drawback: “No Mail! WTF! That's all I can say,” says one disgruntled commentator on tuaw.com. “There's Safari [Apple's web browser] but no Mail!? I don't get it.”

On Times Online, too, most commenters were sceptical. "Instead of introducing new iPods, Apple should support the thousands (millions?) of broken iPods out there," one reader says. "My iPod Mini died in August, just 5 months after the warranty expired. So did many other iPod Minis of the same vintage. But Apple refuses to recognize this as an 'event'. Their Tech Support suggested that I purchase a new one."

And so it was left to the bloggers and not their public to sing the device's praises.

AppleInsider said that “Apple [had] catered to the demands of iPod users worldwide” in building the iPod touch.

“With its 3.5-inch widescreen display, iPod touch is ideal for watching movies and TV shows, as well as viewing photos and album art.

“The player also features a built-in accelerometer that automatically senses when you rotate it into its landscape position, just like iPhone.

“When you're in music, it automatically switches to Cover Flow so you can browse your music collection by album cover artwork with just a flick of a finger. When in Photos, it automatically displays the photo in its landscape aspect ratio; and when in Safari it displays the web page horizontally.”

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