Uncle Walt weighs in on the iPod 5G

You've read C.K.'s review, but perhaps you're waiting for someone with a little more clout to chime in before you take the plunge. Fortunately, our good friend Walter Mossberg takes the new video-capable iPod for a test drive today in his Wall Street Journal column.

His verdict is similar to C.K.'s in many respects. Thumbs up for "watchability", all things considered, but thumbs down for skimping on things like cables, a wall charger and a stand so that you don't have to hold or find something to prop it up when you're, let's say, in the kitchen.  The battery, you'll be happy to hear, even exceeded Apple's claims in the 30GB test unit, providing 2 hours and 20 minutes of video playback (Apple claims only 2 hours for video playback).

Overall, Mossberg encourages us to "think of it primarily as a music player, just as Steve Jobs does," and consider the fact that it plays video as a nice bonus. As more content becomes available without having to convert your own, I imagine the video aspects will become more and more important – even to me, and I don't have much interest in watching video on such a small display for more than 30 seconds.