The iPod Touch now has a competitor.

It didn’t take long – less than one month – for the iPod Touch to be copied. Stumbling along online, I found a device that almost completely resembles the iPod Touch. Digital Touch released their multi-touch display, which rivals iPod Touch and iPhone’s sharp display of icons. (I’d give you a website here for the manufacturer, but there isn’t one listed anywhere on the box or the manual. However, if you simply search for Digital Touch DT-2 online, you’ll find several links).

In general, this “revolutionary new Portable Media Player with a large multi-touch display screen and with an innovate new software that empowers you to glide through music, videos, flip through photos and radio stations, with a simple touch of a button.” Well, that’s what’s printed on the box anyway.

The unit is about the size of a standard iPod 5th gen – about the size of a deck of cards. It uses a standard USB connection to connect to the computer (Mac or PC), which allows a simple drag-and-drop solution for getting your media on to the device. The device supports MP3, WAV, WMV and FLAC formats of music and AVI encoded video. There’s software included that converts formats such as MPG, MPEG, RMVB, VMV and DAT or XVID/DIVX to formats that the unit supports.

Whether the items are in folders or not, the software sorts automatically so when you click the music button, you only see music; click the video button and only see movies; etc.

Okay, so I mentioned the unit resembles the iPod touch – and after playing with it for less than 10 seconds, you realize that other than cosmetic, there’s no resemblance!

The interface is bright with nine icons (3 x 3 grid) displaying Music, Videos, Photo, FM, eBook reader, Recording, Navigation (for organizing device content), Games and settings. Interestingly, it adds some features that the iPod lacks: FM Tuner and voice record specifically. The unit also sports an SD Card slot, which can hold up to a 4-gigabyte memory card. The unit I tested came with 2 gigabytes of built in memory. I’m unclear as to whether adding the SD card increases the available memory to the device, or simply just to allow it to be used as a portable drive. And in regards to getting online - this device does not include any WiFi connectivity.

The touch-screen is not glass, but a smooshy plastic similar to that on an automotive key-fob or touch-screen TV Remote control. A simple touch doesn’t work, you must give it a firm push with your fingertip for the sensors to pick up the pressure. The unit comes with a stylus pen, but the device lacks a built-in pen hold to store it when not in use – a very obvious oversight.

The inclusion of the stylus became apparent when traversing through the menus or attempting the play/pause music or videos, as the text gets smaller and smaller, almost too small for my fingers to easily push the proper button. A very poor design considering I have very small hands to start with!

At a price tag ranging from US$100 to US$130 online, I would simply say “it does what it’s supposed to do.” But that’s the end of the comparison. If you want a small, portable, video/music player, with a few more bells and whistles, picking up one of these devices will certainly do the trick. But I think you’ll find yourself very frustrated within minutes of opening the box that it’s NOT an iPod.

My advice: save your pennies and buy the real thing. There’s a reason it’s the number one selling portable media device on the market.

-Chuck Freedman