In some of Apple’s product shots of the new iPod touch, there’s a Bluetooh icon in the upper-right corner of the display, Thomas Ricker reports for Engadget.
“Right, Bluetooth, as in the not announced Bluetooth radio in Apple’s new iPod touch,” Ricker reports.
Ricker reports, “We heard from a pretty decent source that the touch internals are very similar to the iPhone internals, and that there is a Bluetooth chip in there — it’s just not activated. We’ll all find out as soon as someone dismantles one of these little buggers, but whether or not that’s actually the case, we took a peek at the touch’s FCC filing, which went live yesterday. It only contains tests for WiFi, meaning if there IS Bluetooth in there, at very least they’re going to have to get it cleared again by the FCC before flipping the switch.”
Full article, with images and links, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fariz” for the heads up.]
Whoawhoawhoawhoa!! If this is indeed the case, this makes me one step closer to getting two of them for the wife and I. Maybe wireless sharing between two iPods can become a reality?
If not, the iPod Touch still kicks the tar out of the Zune!
First post?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
MDN word “Plan”… as in planned and well-executed decimation of the competition.
Duh fools, the Bluetooth on the iPod Touch is so one can get internet access on their iPod Touch from their present cell phone.
Looks like Apple is getting out of the cell phone market.
“Looks like Apple is getting out of the cell phone market.” Mighty big leap Chester.
Good point, Chester, good point indeed. In fact, my theory and yours can both be done, if Apple makes it happen via an update. Time will tell for sure.
And there’s no reason to resort to name calling. A fool maybe a fool, but the fool can also be right. Keep your judgements to yourself.
It looks like the images have changed. I clicked on the links to the pictures in the original article and I don’t see a Bluetooth icon anywhere.
The Touch is clearly aimed at the rest of the world. Not the just US market.
Why can’t people look outside the US for once. Think different !
Its going to have a major impact in all those markets where the iPhone is not available. It will also introduce all that patented technology to those markets and smack down the iClone makers.
After all look at NBC just burning Apple and leaving.
Apple is partnering better, but the downside is that they can stab you in the back.
Nobody likes AT&T;’s slow EDGE network, especially their buisness practice of letting the NSA snoop on their internet backbone servers.
Then Cisco has allowed backdoors in their equipment and servers for the spooks to hook into.
Both are “partnered” with Apple presently and the iPhone hasn’t been very secure either.
So Apple is planing it’s cell phone exit stradgety, with the iPod Touch getting internet (if you need it because it will be slow) over Bluetooth from your Cell.
Makes sense now?
@Chester
Actually NO that doesnt make any sense at all.
Ipod Touch has Wi-Fi — add to it Bluetooth and you have:
Ipod Touch + Bluetooth Headset = Wi-Fi Phone
Great way to access Skype and other VOIP services
Let the revolution begin.
Chester is still wrong. I don’t believe Apple would just jump into the cell phone market and turn around and plan their exit strategy. They just dropped the price on iPhones to sell MORE of them. The iPod touch is a worldwide product which has already been stated.
A remote keyboard and mouse for my Mac Mini? Sound like a super remote control to me.
And there’s no reason to resort to name calling. A fool maybe a fool, but the fool can also be right. Keep your judgements to yourself.
Ever think the poster I was responding too was deleted or imagined?
Then you take offense for no reason.
BTW…I see dead people too…
MDW “along” “Can we all just get along, fool?”
Now if it had a hard drive inside waiting to be activated I would order one right now.
Just my $0.02
Chester entertaining. He funny.
Jimmy
Calm down Chester, stop replying and having a private
conversation nobody else is interested in listening to.
AND PAY ATTENTION to the important news of the day:
The iPod Touch could be a breakthrough VOIP product.
Bluetooth means audio input, voice input, and that spells VOIP.
Now stop whining and pay attention to what we came here for.
They just dropped the price on iPhones to sell MORE of them.
To get rid of excess inventory, after all MacWorld is coming in January, right?
The iPod touch is a worldwide product which has already been stated.
And if Apple couldn’t deal with the rest of the worlds carriers? What’s the next best thing?
A device that is exactly like the iPhone, but taps off the cell phone instead of being one.
Right?
” . . . kicks the tar out of the Zune!”
If that really happened, all that would be left is a few dead spider eggs, some ovine fecal matter, a copy of The Road Ahead on microfiche and a few crunchy Gigabeat parts.
Me thinks that iPod Touch+BlueTooth will be primarily focussed for International release where Apple can’t get the right Cellphone partner fast enough.
OR, they’ve told AT&T;of their plan for bluetooth already, and have given AT&T;a grace period maybe a year, before the iPod touch get’s BlueTooth. But that being said…
I don’t think iPod Touch + Bluetooth is that great of a competitor to the iPhone though. There’s a lot to be said for the phone+pda integration of the iPhone. With a Bluetooth enabled iPod Touch, you also still need to carry two devices.
So I think Bluetooth for a different market and user need, and won’t make the iPhone obsolete.
Chester’s “exit stradgety”
See what happens when you copy Bush?
Ok my paranoid delusional imaginary friends girlfiend (who is really standing next to me) says perhaps Apple is using the iPod Touch AS A TROJAN HORSE for the iPhone!!
Listen, Apple isn’t making headway too much with other carriers (European iPhone?)
So they make a iPod Touch that taps off present cells and taps the huge iPod market to drive the Carirers, much like the Music Labels to the iTMS, to the iPhone.
Get it?
How is the music quality of bluetooth headphone with iPhone?
Anybody is using one of them listening to music?
iPhone no same as iPod Touch + Bluetooth:
iPhone = camera
iPod Touch = no camera
iPhone = seamless phone + browser experience
iPod Touch = browser experience only
iPhone = me no need buy another phone
iPod Touch = me have to buy another phone $$$
iPhone = me buy
iPod Touch = me no buy
MDN MW: “segmentation” as in Market segmentation
Like the bogus story about external video on the iPhone from yesterday, the rumor community is making way too much of a simple advertising mistake.
iPhone no same as iPod Touch + Bluetooth:
your right they are not the same
iPhone = camera
iPod Touch = no camera
2 mega pixel without zoom sucks anyway, so much better it’s gone.
Every try to enlarge a 2 megapixel picture?
iPhone = seamless phone + browser experience
iPod Touch = browser experience only
There is easy to use software for Mac’s that will connect to a cell via bluetooth and recieve internet. It’s not 100% seamless as a iPhone, but neither is setting up a Airport wireless router.
Mail will come to the iPod Touch as will more of everything else because there is no cell carrier limitations like on the iPhone to be locked down.
iPhone = me no need buy another phone
iPod Touch = me have to buy another phone $$$
The reverse is true, have a phone already, then all one needs is a iPod Touch. No snoops/cell tracking on the iPod Touch like there is on the iPhone.
Chester says, “Duh fools, the Bluetooth on the iPod Touch is so one can get internet access on their iPod Touch from their present cell phone.”
If this is the case they should have called it the iPod folio.
Though most people can tell that Chester is merely a two-bit troll whose time with us will be limited, I should note that every telco provider engages in spying for the federal government. AT&T;’s case is merely the most well-known.
Besides, that was the “old” AT&T;, and involved snooping of back-door infrastructure. Since AT&T;sells bandwidth to lots of other people, the impact had little to do with whether someone was a direct AT&T;customer or not.
The iPhone was Apples’ trojan horse into the phone industry. It allowed them to learn everything they need to know about the phone industry, as well as building awareness.
The new iPod touch will be what everyone will use to make video conference calls over the new wi-fi network that Apple will set up nationwide when it buys all blocks of the up-for-sale-in-2008 airwaves that stand-def TV is leaving behind. VIDEO CALLS!! Anywhere, anytime. iChat on the iPod. If not at MacWorld, then soon after then it will be announced. Just like iTunes came out before the store.
AT&T;knows this and that is why they aren’t wanting to sell the iPhone. They don’t want to sell something that will put them out of business, and they now know that the iPhone will still be compatible with the new network. But.. they do have a contract that binds them to it. Apple has it going on.
MacMorsel
Chester is just a troll getting in his daily exercise. Silly arguments, speculation don’t need a reply.
@MacMorsel…
uh… nice theory, but won’t the new iPod touch need a camera installed to allow people to video conference?
I’m just sayin…
And Cisco’s excuse?
Yea they want a deal with Apple alright, to tap into people’s iPhones.
Apple learned who the evil players were, temporarily dealt with them but is exting their clutches.
I am now truely convinced that most of the people that are posting comments have no brain. Apple doesn’t want people to get the internet by using their phone conected via bluetooth because that is one of the features in the iPhone meant to set it apart.
It is also not there for sharing music between iPod touchs. Ever sent a 256kps song over bluetooth. Could have taken a nap! Apple would use the wifi that is already there and so much faster to send files.
The only real reason for Bluetooth would be to use with wireless headphones, a watch with bluetooth, or…as a remote control for iTunes (although there are better ways of doing this).
There’s no Bluetooth in the iPod touch, according to Apple. That’s been reported in several gadget blogs today, via an article from Boing Boing Gadgets.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/09/06/confirmation-no-blue.html
“An Apple spokesperson has confirmed to Boing Boing Gadgets that the upcoming iPod Touch does not include Bluetooth, despite rumors to the contrary today. An image had made the rounds earlier today—the corner with the purported Bluetooth icon in the corner is reproduced here—but Apple has said it is not an official image…”
… yes of course it doesn’t…. right now anyway.
But can you imagine the possibilites when the iPod touch does incorporate bluetooth?
iPod Touch is the best dame PDA on the market… and Palm knows it…
The clock is ticking for the rest of the market… it’s time to jump ship if you work for a PDA manufacturer or dealer,,,
Between iPod Touch and the iPhone Apple has painted the rest of the marketplace into a very small box… with no where to go!
The clock is ticking…
@MacMorsel
You’re very close, perhaps even closer than you think. Keep pondering on this and the reality of what is coming will knock you over, much as it will knock over the remaining competitors.
The Apple era has only just begun!
MDN magic word – game – as in Steve is in this game to win.
“I am now truely convinced that most of the people that are posting comments have no brain.”
New here?
iPod Touch is the best dame PDA on the market…
Riiigghht… she’s some damn fine ladee…. alright!
I liked things around here better when the Mac was not so popular. Market share may be growing but so are the number of idiots.
In some of Apple’s product shots of the new iPod touch, there’s a “Bluetooh” icon in the upper-right corner of the display, Thomas Ricker reports for Engadget.
What In The World Is Bluetooh?
Why am I commenting on this rumor posting? Yes, I am an idiot.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> If these rumors are true, that would be great. I would love to see bluetooth support for the iPod Touch. If they did though, it would probably only be for bluetooth earphones and headsets and not for connecting to Macintosh or Windows PCs. Still, if the hardware was there, you might see something in the far off distant future. But we are all just speculating, aren’t we? So back to work for me.
I like boobies.
It’s a Marvell W8686B22 802.11a/b/g but the iPod driver only accesses b/g. This chip may or may not have BT included on board. The iPhone uses a separate CSR 41B14 BlueCore4ROM chip so it is highly unlikely that they use an integrated chip on the sister device (the Touch).
Gizmodo dissected this back in September.
Based on how phones are machined, it is almost inconceivable that Apple would order up a batch of integrated Bluetooth chips for the Touch rather than just use the same chip in both devices.
We can wish for phone-over-bluetooth all we like but given Jobs record of late (locking out apps, exclusive DRM, locking out hardware from non-paying manufacturers of docks) it seems unlikely that Apple would want to throw the hacking community a huge iPhone-killing bone.
My bad, it was Endgadget doing a re-post of Fix-it.
http://handhelds.engadget.com/2007/09/24/ifixit-digs-deeper-into-ipod-touch-bluetooth-mystery-discovers-802/
Well the question is is there a switch? are we willing to open our ipods up and flick it? will it be worth it? JUST AWNSER THE DAMN Question! It’s there or its not? People are like No! Yes! and i need an awnser if its in there because ill flick it!
There’s one button on the top right of the itouch that can put it on hold or turn it on or off. Is that what you meant?
oops top left
Top right .. top left [removed]void(0);
smirk
who cares if there is or isnt bluetooth if thre is whoopy if there isnt it doesnt matter most people already hav a cell phone already, plus VOIP sux anyway u get mor dropped calls because wifi gets slow or u get disconnected and y would even need bluetooth in an ipod?
If it has blutooth, it woudl be primarily geared towards bluetooth headphones, but if it were able to connect to an existing cellphone for data, life woudl be grand. iTouch +Sprint data enabled cell ($10/month unlimited data)= happy me
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Gadgetman,
You can already tether an iPod Touch to a 3G Windows Mobile phone (irony for iPhone?).
Google WMWifiRouter. Version 0.90 and below are free, the newer versions are now commercial, but 0.90 works just fine with my Samsung i760 WM6 Verizon phone. I love Safari on my iPod Touch! Bluetooth A2DP would be an awesome addition, too.
Apple would have my cellphone business if they would release the iPhone for 3G+ network like Verizon or Sprint. I know they have a contract with AT&T;but I think that was a bad move. They should have gone full mainstream.