When you lock your iPod Touch and enter the wrong passcode you will see an iPhone Error…Looks like Apple forgot to change this when they were working on the iPod Touch OSx. Recently people have been complaining that Apple took time to take away features from the iPod Touch OS. Why didn’t Apple just leave the features on the iPod Touch…and we wouldn’t have thought this was a big deal…I guess thats the million dollar question.

I’m smack in the middle of my hands-on testing of the new iPod touch and the full review will be posted by Monday, but in the meantime I know there are some of you who are seeing a handful of iPod touch models come and go in your local Apple Store and trying to decide right now whether to try to get your hands on one or just pony up for the iPhone and the contract that comes with it. So in that light, here is a (preliminary) list of things you’ll lose out on by buying an iPod touch instead of an iPhone, and a bit of explanation as to whether each of them might or might not matter to you:

EDGE network

Just because the iPod touch has Safari and the iTunes Store doesn’t mean you’ll be able to use either of them whenever you feel like it. If you’re not within range of a wifi network, you’re not getting online with the iPod touch. If wifi access is sparse in your daily routine, you may find yourself wishing you had the iPhone and its (slow but almost always accessible no matter where you are) EDGE network. If you live amongst pervasive open wifi access (say, on a college campus) then you might not miss EDGE at all.

Mail application

The iPhone’s built-in email application has gone missing on the iPod touch, meaning that the only email access you’ll get is via webmail in Safari. Users of Gmail might not miss a beat, but those accustomed to using a client might not feel the same way.

Safari link sharing

Steve Jobs seemed to imply in his keynote that the iPod touch only has wifi so you can buy music from iTunes, and it only has a web browser so you can sign onto public wifi hotspots and then proceed to buy music from iTunes. But just because Apple doesn’t seem to want you to go websurfing on the iPod touch, it doesn’t mean you can’t surf to your heart’s content. The only missing feature I’ve found in Safari (so far) is the ability to email a web link, which has a lot to do with the iPod touch not having an email client.

Adding items to calendar

Even though the iPod touch features the same cool calendar application as the iPhone, and even though you can sync your calendar from iCal on your Mac to the calendar on your iPod touch, you’ll find that you can not add new calendar events directly to the iPod touch. Apple could seemingly change this easily with a software update, and might if there’s enough public pressure, but for now it’s not there. Oddly enough, however, you can add contacts directly to the iPod touch’s Contacts application.

Notes

Not only is there no way to add a calendar event, there’s no clear way to jot down random information of any kind. The iPhone’s Notes application is missing, which combined with the lack of a Mail application means that the only way to jot down a few words for later use would be through the web.

Bluetooth

The iPhone only has Bluetooth for use with wireless headsets, which wouldn’t make much sense with the iPod touch anyway. But be aware that unless Apple snuck Bluetooth hardware into the iPod touch and has hidden it from us for the time being, you won’t be able to use any Bluetooth accessories with the iPod touch without the use of some kind of third-party adapter.

Screen quality

Speaking of hardware, one of the iPhone’s best features - its brilliant screen - is (sort of) missing from the iPod touch as well. Although I’ll need to do more testing to quantify it, immediately clear is the fact that the iPod Touch’s screen is neither as vivid or (seemingly) as detailed as that of the iPhone. I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the final review, but unless my eyes are thoroughly deceiving me, there’s a world of difference between the two.

Rear surface

Just as many iPhone users are finally growing comfortable with the idea that they don’t necessarily have to carry their iPhone in a case in order to keep it pristine-looking, the mirrored chrome backside on the iPod touch is every bit as easily scratchable as with traditional iPods.

External volume buttons

Perhaps because Apple expects you’ll spend most of your time on the iPod touch merely consuming content and not simultaneously using other applications, the only way to control the volume of that content is when it’s right in front of you via the on-screen slider; the iPhone’s external volume buttons are nowhere to be found on the iPod touch. On the other hand, you can press the iPod touch’s round front button twice to bring up basic playback controls (including volume) at any time, something I wish Apple would hurry up and bring to the iPhone.

Built-in speakers

The iPod touch lacks the iPhone’s built-in speakers, but many iPhone users have concluded that those speakers aren’t good enough for listening to music anyway. I suspect Apple only intended the iPhone’s speakers for speakerphone use on phone calls.

Included dock

While the iPhone comes with a sturdy dock with playback for the iPhone’s built-in speakers, the iPod touch comes with a comparatively lame little piece of clear plastic which can be used as a stand. On the plus side is that while watching video or otherwise using the iPod touch in horizontal mode, you can easily pick up the touch and reset it into the stand sideways - try doing that with the iPhone’s dock.

Camera

While the iPod touch can display photos that have been synced onto it from your computer, you can’t use it to take pictures. Not that I would have expected the iPod touch to have a built-in camera, but be aware that it’s not there.

Maps, Weather, Stocks

While you can still use Safari to look up all of this information via the web in one way or another, the individual applets on the iPhone for Google maps, weather forecasts, and stock prices are missing on the iPod touch.

The point of all this

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t buy the iPod touch. In fact, based on my early testing, I’d have to say that the iPod touch is by far the most amazing product to ever bear the “iPod” brand name. But be forewarned that the iPod touch is not necessarily the mythical “iPhone without a phone” that some users have been looking for. Instead, think of it as an “iPhone lite without the phone.” If the iPod touch suits your needs, then don’t let any of the above stop you. But with as much as has been arbitrarily removed from the iPod touch, it sure looks like Apple still wants you to buy the iPhone, and then only wants you to consider the iPod touch if you’ve already ruled the iPhone out.

By Bill Palmer from iprong

As recently reported on Slashdot, Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has added a checksum to the iPod database apparently to restrict non-iTunes products (like Amarok via libgpod) from having the ability to add music. To me this sounds pretty familiar. This is the same thing they did to iTunes 4.5 to make it harder for other apps to read off their DAAP shares, they changed it again in iTunes 7; open source apps are still unable to read iTunes 7 DAAP shares.

But there’s better news on this iPod front.

From #gtkpod today:

<wtbw> okay guys

<wtbw> i think we’re done.

<wtbw> let me code something just to check

[30 minutes later]

<wtbw> can i hear a fuck yeah?

<wtbw> works for both mine and xamphears :>

wtbw suggested donations from thankful users go to Cancer Research UK.

Really the only “correct” solution is for folks to stop using Apple products. The iPod might have its own version of DAAP’s iTunes 7 which has a checksum more difficult (apparently) to crack. But for the time being, things are fine.

iFixit seems to be the first site with pictures of the iPod Touch internals. They show how they got it apart and have descriptions on most of the images talking on what they have found. Hopefully soon we will have some confirmation either way on if bluetooth is in the device. Either by iFixit finding something in the internals or someone snooping in the iPod Touch OSX.

Update: Well…it looks like the people at iFixit have found no trace of bluetooth in the internals. So the rumor that the iPod Touch may have blutooth but it comes disabled looks to be a no-go

Apple plans to extend business hours at its London-based flagship retail store following Tuesday’s press conference. Meanwhile, Best Buy is being stocked with the new iPod touch this weekend, NewsCorp. has a change of tone, talks are underway to bring the iPhone to Spain, and Apple has updated its iPhone credit terms.

Extended London Store Hours

Apple has called a press conference at its London-based flagship shop on Regent Street for next Tuesday. As a result, the store will not open to the public until 4:00 p.m. that day.

Employees of the store, however, have been asked to arrive at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday for a 90 minute briefing. They say Apple plans to extend the store hours till 10:00 p.m. that day and that employees will be asked to remain on site until 11:00 p.m.

Additionally, Apple at around 10:00 p.m. last night is said to have begun some modifications to the store’s theater area. No further details were available. It’s widely expected that the Cupertino-based company will use the press conference to divulge plans for its iPhone launch in Europe.

Best Buy gets Touch’d

Meanwhile, several Best Buy stores — Apple’s new best friend in the retail business — began receiving their first shipments of Apple’s new iPod touch player on Friday. A source at the retailer tells AppleInsider that all locations should have both the 8GB and 16GB models on sale over the weekend, or no later than Monday.

A change of tone for NewsCorp.

Over at NewsCorp., executives appear have tweaked their tone regarding iTunes video licensing talks with the iPod maker. President and chief operating officer Peter Chernin, who on Tuesday said his firm enjoyed a “perfectly good relationship with Apple,” later told Reuters that the two companies have a “pretty limited relationship.”

“[W]e’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I assume it will be prickly and dicey and contentious like all negotiations are and like all negotiations should be.”

The change in tone may spell trouble ahead for Apple, which, amid growing opposition from content providers, has failed to advance its iTunes video download service with any significant improvements since last fall. NBC Universal’s recent decision not to renew its video licensing agreement with the electronics maker may have been the first sign of backwards progress.

Those sentiments were outlined in recent piece over at Forbes titled “the iFlop,” where columnist Scott Woolley called out Apple chief executive Steve Jobs for his failure to follow through on promises to evolve Apple TV into the future of television.

iPhone in Spain

Meanwhile, Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA has acknowledged that it is in talks with Apple over the right to sell the iPhone in Spain. On Wednesday, Spanish news agency Efe quoted Telefonica’s Chairman, Cesar Alierta, on the matter, adding that Apple is sealing exclusive contracts to sell iPhone with only one operator in each country

$100 iPhone credit good for iTunes gift cards

Finally, Bloomberg reports that Apple incorrectly stated Friday that its $100 iPhone credit couldn’t be used towards the purchase of iTunes gift cards and has since updated its terms. While it remains true that users can’t add the credit directly to their existing iTunes accounts, they can use it to purchase new gift cards, the publication said.

EDIT: This article was picked up by Computerworld - go check it out there.

More Newton than iPod, more tablet than music player, the new Apple Inc. iPod touch unveiled this week by CEO Steve Jobs breaks into a new hardware category that should scare the ultra-mobile PC/Nokia Tablet world.

Apple’s much-anticipated launch of the iPod touch this week heralds a new era for Apple’s
wildly popular line of music and video players. The iPod, which emerged
first as nothing more than a portable music player — albeit one
dripping in cool — grew up to become a music and video device in
adolesence and is now a semi-full featured Internet tablet device.

The iPod is a mass market device, an international device. One that every high school kid from Tokyo to Paris to Albuquerque absolutely “needs” to have. Presidents use them, grandmothers use them, soccer moms and NASCAR dads all have used iPods for listening to music, looking at photos and watching videos. Now, for $299 Stateside and slightly more abroad, this device can also take a bigger bite of the workload from the population’s laptops and televisions.

Sure, the iPhone
launched last June opened the floodgates in this area, and most of the
iPod Touch’s technology is leveraged from the iPhone. But the iPhone
came with a special surprise inside: you had to sign up with AT&T
for two years. (You also had to pay a fairly steep pricef or the
hardware, a point Apple attempted to fix with its decision to drop the
low-end iphone and cut the price on the other model by $200 — a near
public relations disaster rectified at the last minute by the offer of a $100 credit to early-iPhone-adopters.)

Unlike the U.S.-only iPhone, the new iPod touch is a true mass market
device with international appeal. Every high school kid from Tokyo to
Paris to Albuquerque — and a lot of their parents — will decide they
absolutely “need” one. Presidents use them, grandmothers use them,
soccer moms and NASCAR dads use them. All have used iPods for listening
to music, looking at photos and watching videos. Now, for $299 and
$399, depending on whether you’re drooling over the 8GB model or the
16GB model, this device can also take a bigger bite of the workload
from the world’s laptops and TVs.

Go check out the rest at Computerworld

The iPod Touch headphone jack is a standard plug that accepts any 3.5mm stereo headphone connection. The jack also distinguishes itself from the iPhone by being located on the bottom of the player, instead of at the top.

Since iPod touch uses a standard 3.5mm headset jack, you can use the headphones of your choice with this model–no adapters required. In contrast, the iPhone has its headset jack inset into the unit and requires the use of an awkward dongle to accommodate any headphone other than the one the unit ships with.

In terms capacity, iPod Touch can hold up to 10 hours (8GB) or 20 hours (16GB) of video. The iPod Touch can hold up to 1,750 (8GB) or 3,500 songs (16GB) in AAC format.

Other Audio formats supported include AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

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.
While there wouldn’t have been much use for monophonic Bluetooth headsets in the iPod Touch, the lack of Bluetooth precludes the possibility of wireless Bluetooth stereo headsets or microphones that could be used with a future third-party VoIP application.

Update: Some eagle-eyed readers have pointed out that there are Bluetooth icons on images on the Apple.com pages. (See this post’s comments.) Since Apple roundly denies there is Bluetooth in the Touch, I think we can chalk it up to a Photoshop blunder. (Once they hit the street and someone tears it apart, we’ll know for certain if there’s Bluetooth hardware in there or not.)

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