When I upgraded to the 3GS I deactivated my old gen. 1 iPhone, popped out the SIM, put it into airplane mode, and loaded all the kids games right to front screen. Now my older son has an "iPhone" but really I am thinking in a few years he will scoff at the D.S…. The only thing I could think of that would make him want the D.S. would be specific games that his friends play.

I do however understand @Sherbert's comment above regarding initial cost. For our family we don't see the cost… at least directly. Our son has a "hand-me-down". Eventually when the crawling bugger gets older he will get my wife's 3G. In both situations though my boys will have "Touch" devices, even if they are phones.

All this considered I find it amazing that he has played less and less with the DSs and never fails to pass on a chance to play something, anything, on my iPod Touch.

I have a 6 year old daughter that turns 7 in April. She has a DS but has been begging for an iPod Touch. She "borrows" my iPhone all the time. I would say that there are more games on the DS that cater to the things she likes, but the huge library of iPhone/iPod apps is hard to ignore. As such, yes, I walk around with a "Dress up" app on my phone.

Anyway, I agree with Peter's advice. Parental controls are there, but more importantly, you should keep the password for your account private and review all apps before synching them to your son's device. The other benefits as described in this article heavily favor the iPod Touch over the DS. Anyone who has kids that have a DS can relate to this article.

You also can specify age rating limits on movies and TV shows, and allow or disallow explicit-rated music and podcasts (so your precious snowflake's tender ears aren't burned by my Angry Mac Bastards podcast, for example).

Depending on how you have it set up, you have as much or as little control over what makes it onto the iPod touch as possible. I don't generally let my younger son download content from the App Store, and since he's using my account and doesn't know my password, it stops there. I check the app out in iTunes before I download and sync it.

But thanks for reenforcing the point, I think it's important to underscore, because some people get confused about that.

The one thing I (er she) has questions about is parental controls on the iPod Touch. I told her it shouldn't be a problem since it would be tied to our iMac and I'd see all the apps that were on there, but I'd be interested in hearing your opinion. My son is 6, and this would be his 7th birthday present.

I REALLY don't want to get him a system that has cartridges and other pieces that he can lose. Right now he's got one of those Leapster systems and we never can find the games for it.

The home sharing thing is amazing. I'm really surprised that doesn't get touted more often. $3 game and you can play on 5 computers. Ground breaking. And even as a single guy without kids, I intend to use that to share between iPad and iPhone. And I actually think it encourages spending more. I think parents are way more willing to spend $20 on 4 games their kids can share than $20 on 1 and pass the cartridge around.

I still think the iPod Touch is a good deal, and in the end will probably cost you less, but consider your initial output as well. You might want to start with the DS and GameBoy cartridges for your younger kids. The cartridges are bigger and can be bought used for as little as a few bucks, sometimes, and are still available starring characters the kids know. Later you can move on to the smaller cartridges when they've become more responsible. When the kid is a little older (8? 11? depending on their maturity) I think the iPod Touch would be great, for all the reasons you listed.

Great article. Thanks!