I'm thinking of buying an iPod Touch specifically for Skrittering. I found some old forum threads on the topic, but thought maybe they might be out of date. What are the minimum and recommended hardware and OS specs?

James

Considering that the 5th generation is the only ipod touch that supports iOS7, I wouldn't consider anything older than that. Current version of Skriter requires iOS7.

Thanks. What about a minimum memory requirement?

The basic 16GB model should be more than sufficient for Skrittering - you'd lose out on the rear-facing camera but $70 is a lot to pay for a middling camera.

FWIW, though, you might want to hold off on your purchase until after the big Apple press conference on Tuesday - not clear yet whether they'll launch a new iPod Touch along with the expected new iPads, but they might, and if they don't there's also a chance they might launch a new iPad at a price comparable to the Touch. Or that they might at the very least lower the price of the 16 GB iPod to a more Christmas-friendly $200.

16/32GB isn't the device's memory, it's the storage space. The storage space will matter for keeping photos, songs, and games (and maybe dozens of Pleco dictionaries!) on the device, but isn't important for Skritter. The iPad mini is worth considering too.

After Tuesday, get the cheapest (preferably used) 5th gen you can, and as others have said it has to be at least 5th gen as iOS7 support has been dropped. If a new iPod or iPad mini is released on Tuesday it might be worth getting that one though in the long run as it is likely to stay supported for longer.

If you're going for a primary Skritter iOS device definitely look at Apple's official refurbished products. Its a bit hard to find good deals on their own website however and they sell out fast, so use a site like www.refurb.me to set an alert and such.

Really great deals on all Apple products when going refurbished, typically 15-30% off.

iPod touch recommendation: iPad mini with retina display.

@lechuan why would the Retina display be important for Skrittering?

Retina itself is not super important for Skritter. But with a way better processor (64-bit A7) and double the RAM (1GB), it should have a longer life-span, at least in terms of future iOS upgradability. It's not unusual for apps to require the latest version of iOS.

A 16GB vesrion should be plenty, if you want to keep costs down, and don't plan on having a bunch of games, photos or videos. On my iPad, Pleco (all the add-ons and most of the dictionaries), Skritter, combined only take a bit over a gigabyte. That being said, the larger the storage space, the better. You may want to use it for things other than only Skritter in the future.

I haven't seen the new retina iPad mini but the low resolution of the old mini would really bug me, having got used to Retina screens - your mileage (and eyesight) may vary though, so don't be put off the old model without taking a look at it in person. If you're really just buying it for Skritter, there might be good deals on used models though now that the new ones have been released.