I bought a 16GB first-generation iPod Touch a few years ago. It has served me well, but its battery is starting to wear out, and iOS updates will no longer work with it. So when the fourth-generation ones came out a few weeks ago, I was ready to buy a new one.

They’ve added a lot of new and drool-worthy features. Twice the processor speed and working memory. Twice the storage (I bought the 32GB version since the 16GB hasn’t being made for a while now). Twice the battery life of this one even when it was new. Built-in speaker and microphone. iOS 4, with pseudo-multitasking among other things. Hardware volume controls. Headphone-mounted play/pause button. Bluetooth support. Voice control and VoiceOver. “Retina display.” Cameras. Gyroscope. Faster wireless networking (802.11n, earlier models only supported b and g).

Apple hasn’t been sitting still, that’s for sure.

So I ordered one last week. It shipped a few days ago, and I’ve been amusing myself (and soothing my impatience) by watching its progress via the tracking information on the UPS website. It started out in China, moved to Alaska, then bounced down to Kentucky (presumably crossing Canada along the way). It stayed there for thirty hours (!!), then left for New York, where it arrived a little after 1am this morning, local time.

With any luck, it will continue its journey while I sleep. The city it’s reported to be in is only a few hours away from me as the crow flies, so there’s a chance it could be on a delivery truck today. If it doesn’t make it that far before morning, I’ll probably have to wait until Monday for it… oh well, I’ve waited this long, what’s one more weekend, eh? (To which my inner five-year-old whimpers “but that’s FOREVER!” I know, kid, I feel the same way.)

UPDATE: It only spent twenty minutes at the New York facility, so there’s still hope. Fingers crossed! 🙂

UPDATE 2: It made it here — the website says it’s “out for delivery”! 😀

UPDATE 3, 1:48pm: IIIIIT’S HEEEEERRRRRRE!