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iPO Reports - Apple Unveils iPod touch with Wi-Fi [Updated]

The iPod family gained a new member on Wednesday during Apple's "The Beat Goes On" media event. The newest iPod, called iPod touch, looks like the iPhone and sports many of the same features including Wi-Fi wireless networking.

The iPod touch is 8mm thick, includes a multi-touch interface, a 3.5-inch wide-screen display, and 802.11b/g wireless networking built in. It also includes Calendar and Contacts applications, World Clock, Calculator, and the Safari Web browser. iPod touch also includes Google Search and Yahoo! oneSearch.


iPod touch

Along with its It also supports YouTube video playback, and just like its phone-enabled cousin automatically rotates the screen orientation when watching movies, and activates Cover Flow when browsing through albums.


iPod touch, thinner than iPhone.

Thanks to its Wi-Fi support, iPod touch can take advantage of Apple's new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store to download music when away from your computer. When in range of a Starbucks coffee shop, a new icon will automatically appear that lets users purchase the song that is currently playing in the store along with the ten most recently played songs.


iPod touch at Apple's media event.

It has been localized in about 20 different languages, and offers about 22 hours of audio playback and five hours of video playback.

The iPod touch will be available in an 8GB model for US$299, and a 16GB for $399. It requires a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.10 or higher, Windows XP or Vista, and iTunes 7.4.

[This article has additional information about the iPod touch.]

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DaiMac said:

member since 29 Jun 2001 with 952 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Ok, I definitely want one of these. Also, if we can use the iTMS wi-fi on this thing, does that mean that functionality is coming to AppleTV? I hope so, I think that will be the "killer app" that gets people into the aTV if they aren't already, ability to load video/audio on it without a host computer.

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shrink said:

member since 26 Aug 2007 with 5 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Hot diggity dog! This will tide me over until I can use an iPhone on T-mobile. In the meantime, I'll keep my Blackberry and grab one of these new iPhones. It's a great solution for me!

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A guest said: (hide)

Does the iPod Touch still have that ridiculously incompatible recessed headphone jack?

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A guest said: (hide)

Great, I'd have to buy 3 of them just to hold my music collection. Good move Apple, sell a product that will fill up quickly so I will have to stop buying songs from iTunes.

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 999 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

OK, now that I've had a chance to absorb this... Why no e-mail client on this guy?!?

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Terrin said:

member since 29 Jan 2006 with 388 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Well, let us see. maybe because Apple couldn't offer you the product at a reasonable price point using flash memory any other way. I also will not buy another iPod unless it has flash memory. Maybe it is my active lifestyle, but I have went through more then one iPod harddrive. For you, Apple updated the iPod Classic to 160 GB. Of course, that is a regular hard drive.

Guest wrote:
Great, I'd have to buy 3 of them just to hold my music collection. Good move Apple, sell a product that will fill up quickly so I will have to stop buying songs from iTunes.

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Dirt Road said:

member since 24 Oct 2002 with 1238 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Sweet. My 60GB iPod is a little over a year old now, so I don't expect to have to upgrade soon — but I'll probably go with one of these when the time comes (they'll be up to 32GB by then).

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A guest said: (hide)

Great looking product and I want one. I am curious about the recessed headphone jack as mentioned above and I am assuming that their is no email client because you can use Safari to get to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, etc... but that's just a guess!

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A guest said: (hide)

Guest wrote:
Doesn't look recessed to me...

That photo makes it look like it might be, because of the way the white plug appears to be snugged by the enclosure, not butting up against an opening for a jack. But we'll really need a photo of the headphone jack WITHOUT a headphone plug in it!!

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2076 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Anonymous wrote:
Guest wrote:
Doesn't look recessed to me...

That photo makes it look like it might be, because of the way the white plug appears to be snugged by the enclosure, not butting up against an opening for a jack. But we'll really need a photo of the headphone jack WITHOUT a headphone plug in it!!

Notice one thing: the headphone jack on the iPod Touch is on the BOTTOM, next to the dock connector (like the Nanos), vs the TOP, like the iPhone. My view of the photo is that the jack is flush, not recessed.

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A guest said: (hide)

Honestly, they way I look at this is more of a really cool PDA with iPod functionality.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2076 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Anonymous wrote:
Honestly, they way I look at this is more of a really cool PDA with iPod functionality.

Agreed, though it apparently lacks email capability other than through a web interface. My Palm TX does do email via WiFi, though its browser is pretty pathetic. It's likely that I'll get an iPhone, rather than the iPod Touch. I don't need more than 8 GB on a daily basis. My Palm TX has a 1GB SD card that's nowhere near full and I use a 2GB Nano 2G in my car for audiobooks. I have a 30 GB iPod 5.5G (also not full) that I carry in the car to have videos and more stuff available. I used to use the iPod 5.5G (and its predecessors, a 30GB iPod 5G that was stolen and a 20GB iPod 3G on loan to a friend) with the car, but they are less reliable with the iPod2Car adapter than the Nano is. Plus, the Nano is easier to use when I'm cleaning my horses' stalls, walking, etc.

The important question for me is whether the iPhone will work with my iPod2Car adapter. (It goes to the CD changer input on the stock receiver in my 2004 Prius.) I'll have to find someone who has an iPhone and try it out. If it does work, then it can replace my el cheapo Samsung cell phone, the TX and both iPods.

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A guest said: (hide)

No e-mail because they still want you to have a reason to upgrade to an iPhone. Touch is for people who absolutely can't get the phone so Apple doesn't lose that bit of the market...

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1865 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

I watched the TMO coverage and my reaction was 'Yawn'. I have a couple of iPods and really don't see a need to get any more for a while. Up here in Canada we can't get an iPhone and anyway, I'm not a fan of custom ringtones, they are if anything even more annoying than the stock ones. So for me I figured it was a non-event.

Then last night my wife called me over and we watched the demo movie of the iPod Touch. Holy C&@*! That is just about the coolest thing I've seen this year. I defenitly see a 16Gb in our future.

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bluevoter said:

member since 30 May 2007 with 13 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

I bought a 16Gb iPod Touch yesterday and am looking forward to getting it in about 4 weeks. I also have a Nokia N800 ($399 list) which does many of the same things, though not quite so elegantly. The N800 has four other nice features that I would like to see from a future Apple product: 1) a Skype client, which is not likely to happen soon since Apple wants to preserve the iPhone/AT&T relationship; 2) an SD card slot that lets me view pictures and MP4 videos, as well as listen to MP3s stored on the card; 3) a webcam that lets me do a video chat, and 4) an optional GPS package that supports both drivers and pedestrian route mapping ($249). Apple is going to be dominant in the US and in some other countries with the ITunes store, but Nokia is in a strong position elsewhere.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2076 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

bluevoter wrote:
I bought a 16Gb iPod Touch yesterday and am looking forward to getting it in about 4 weeks. I also have a Nokia N800 ($399 list) which does many of the same things, though not quite so elegantly. The N800 has four other nice features that I would like to see from a future Apple product: 1) a Skype client, which is not likely to happen soon since Apple wants to preserve the iPhone/AT&T relationship; 2) an SD card slot that lets me view pictures and MP4 videos, as well as listen to MP3s stored on the card; 3) a webcam that lets me do a video chat, and 4) an optional GPS package that supports both drivers and pedestrian route mapping ($249). Apple is going to be dominant in the US and in some other countries with the ITunes store, but Nokia is in a strong position elsewhere.

You don't need an SD card slot in the 16GB iPod Touch. The N800 really does. According to Nokia, it has only 128MB built-in RAM. You can add up to 16 GB with SD cards, but, have you priced an 8 GB SD card? A Class 6 card, the minimum you'd need to watch videos, is around $85-100 for an off-brand, more if you want one of the premium brands like SanDisk. (They don't make their Extreme III cards in 8GB yet.) You'll have to add $170-200 to the cost of the N800, plus you'll have to load stuff onto them. Is that as easy as syncing with iTunes?

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A guest said: (hide)

I'll wait a year and then have a look because as nice as apple products are they always bring out a way way better version as soon as you part with your cash for the Mk 1. We'll probably be looking at an itouch with 60 gigs and all the bells and whistles.

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A guest said: (hide)

You are all techno whores lmao! I want one now!!! get real people. You just know you'll be looking at some kid sat next to you on the bus with a far better version in a few months and feeling like a shmuck hahahaha

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