Those WiFi-enabled iPod touches sure are cool, what with the music and the YouTube and all that. But the 8GB model costs JPY27,800. What to do?

Osaka-based importer Hallods Corp. suggests you save a bunch of that money by getting its Italian-designed, JPY12,000 PASEN-F13 audio/video player instead. It's only got a 3-inch, 400x240 screen, compared to the touch's 3.5-inch, 480x320 display. There's none of that touch-panel stuff in the Pasen screen. The Pasen shouts about YouTube playback... though on closer inspection, there's no WiFi, just the ability to natively play back YouTube vids you've downloaded and transferred via PC. Memory is only 4GB. Audio playback time is 16 hours, compared to the touch's claimed 36. And you can expect to find many more little iPod niceties missing from the Pasen.

But on the positive side, there's a MicroSD/SDHC expansion slot to boost memory, an FM radio, a voice recorder, and a big selection of file formats covered, including FLV (YouTube native format)AVI, DIVX, RM, DAT, MP4, WMV, MPG, MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, and TXT-format e-books. At 66 grams, it's lighter than the 115-gram touch. And it's cheap. Available in Japan from October 25.

More info (Japanese):
http://hal6334-hp.hp1.allin1.jp/1221628579795/