If this is meant for use in the home, you can theoretically forgo the extra local storage and play media off of shared storage on your network from another machine. I've done this on family member's machines when they had shared folders with videos and music. Not that you wont want to populate the open mini SD slot of the 810, but you don't have to run out and get the biggest memory available today. Buy a 2 or 4 gig and wait for prices to drop on the larger ones in a couple of months. I don't believe the iTouch can play networked media out of the box.

On that note, WeBot works as advertised.

As Mike says, unless you're limiting your use to around the house, you're going to need extra storage. That where I decided to forego the keyboard and GPS for 2 full sized SD slots.

However, I don't think that's the way the OP had planned to use his device, not if he was seriously considering the iPod Touch in the first place

@spartan: please explain to me how "Video playback requires more effort". I call BS on this one. If you think that having to encode and then copy the files over to the NiT is a hassle, you haven't tried converting videos for the iPod (unless you plan to get all your content from the iTunes Store, in which case, the N8x0 would be the wrong choice anyway.

Also, since you commented that the N810 is "Expensive!", ask yourself this: do you really need integrated GPS and the keyboard? Your use case was stated as:

"I am in the market for a device with multimedia and wifi web surfing capabilities. (mostly to play music, vids on the road, and to allow the family to surf the net at home after I moved our desktop to the basement)"

The N800 does this, and does this well, and if you can live with the virtual keyboard on the iPod Touch, you won't hate the one on the N800. Also, the N800 offers decent handwriting recognition, which the iPod Touch does not.

You also mention that the iPod Touch offers "foolproof multimedia software". OH REALLY? I bought one for my wife for Xmas, and I am Ipod owner myself. iTunes is decent, but wait till you have to deal with converting videos to their specific MP4 format, having to copy everything to the iTunes library and then get it to sync.

Spend a couple of minutes with the N800 and Windows Media Player 10 or later, and you'd find out that WMP10 reocgnizes the N800 as a sync-able device and you can sync your movies and music to between WMP10 and the N8x0 -- a no-brainer.

As for Podcasts, I load up my favourite podcast feeds into the RSS reader and have it update daily, download the ones I want to read. I'm not sure if there is a podcast download app that will do this automatically, so if this is a deal-breaker for you, then the iPod would be a better option.

I'll be publishing some steps on how to get NITVC, WMP10 and the N800 working in tandem closer to the end of this week once i have more time.

OK, before you bite my head off here- I don't have a mp3/video player right now unless you count the 64K? diamond rio I have in my basement that I think held 10 or 12 max worth of MP3s. I haven't done any video encoding outside of playing with using my desktop as a media center when vista was in beta. My "effort" comment was based more on what I had read elsewhere that it was difficult to get videos to look good for the N8xx platform- I was looking for feedback if my assumptions were incorrect.

My "foolproof" comment with itunes was that I installed it w/ quicktime and it seems fairly easy use to manage podcasts and mp3s. I completely forgot about using wmp10, so that is something to consider. It also seems like Canola or the built in RSS reader will work for podcasts.

I understand I would be better off price wise with the 800 but I really prefer the form factor of the 810 and the integrated keyboard. I have a Gift Certificate from Circuit City so I think if the price drops to around $420 similar to amazon and buy.com I would pull the trigger. Right now the 810 is $479 vs. $379 for the 16GB iTouch (minus the new apps).

Right now the N810 is $418.99 on amzaon.com, also on ebay.com I found 2 buy-it-now, new-in-box for only $409.99 and $414.00.

Yeah- I know it. I am going to try and convince my local CC to price match tonight. I guess they don't typically do it, but the mgrs do have some leeway in some cases to do stuff like that.

I got Microcenter to price match Dell, because Dell has local stores in malls where they will sell you anything Dell in person. Last time I looked (and its what I got my 810 for), Dell was selling the 810 for $419. This way if something was initially wrong with my 810, I had a place I could return and swap it out.

Look on Dell's site to see where the closest Dell Store is compared to your Circuit City is. Go to Circuit City with the contact info for that Dell Store.

@spartan : trust me, encoding video is easy, and so is copying files over from your PC to your tablet.

are your movies in DivX or DVD format?

If you know how to copy files to and from a flash drive, you'll be very comfortable with the N8x0.

Still can't see the point of getting an N810 since you don't need GPS and a keyboard since you plan to use your tablet as a web access tool and a portable media player

i just wrote up a post about the ipod touch versus the n810 on my blog if anyone is interested. feel free to post comments if you think anything needs correcting or if you have any further opinions.

Since everyone seems to be backing the n810 let me go ahead and list some very nice pros of the ipod touch.

-Beautiful
-Web browsing is fast and the pinch to zoom makes it really easy.
-the onscreen keyboard it really nice, youd think something that small would be harder to use.
-Did I mention it's beautiful?
-It is hackable, and when done. SO MUCH FUN.
-Tilting is so much fun.


Cons.

-apple

Thought I'd toss in my newbie vote for the N800 instead of the N810.

Within two minutes of actually tried to type on the N810 integrated keyboard, I knew I'd dislike it because my fingers felt *really* cramped and awkward.

I'd quickly want to pair it up with either a Mac wireless keyboard (the very streamlined, small-footprint new one that you can see in pictures with an N800 in another thread on either this board or the one on accessories) that goes for about $80 or, for portability, the $40 iGo Stowaway on amazon.com (which is a crazy $140CAN for some stupid reason from a couple of Canadian sites).

Well... if I'm going to do that, why not just take a minor step (and a giant price drop) down to the N800? Paying another $250 for a keyboard that would drive me crazy in a short while didn't make any monetary sense at all... .

And with the N800, I picked up 2 4GB SDs on sale for $40 total so (when they get here), I'll get 8GBs to play with for music, videos and podcasts. Plenty good for long trips.

And, since I was saving so much moolah, I went on over to proporta.com and bought the neato case for $40CAN (with shipping).

If I pick up an iGo next time I'm in the States (or get my friend to pick me up one), I'll still save about $90US over the barebones basic N810 and have a pimped out N800 that has much more memory and a much more comfortable keyboard.

But if I hadn't physically tried typing on the N810 for a while, I think I would have been hard-pressed not to be wooed by the old "it's more expensive and has a bigger serial number - it *has* to be much better, non?" mindset... .

Honestly. I'd really suggest trying to type on that thing before flashing the cash. And, if it's going to be used by more than you, you may want to get other user's opinions on the keyboard, too.

Unless... unless... that was the devious ManPlan; buy something no one else likes so it becomes, de facto, yours.