If I had read Apple’s features guide on the iPod Touch, which, by the way, goes on for 85 pages, I wouldn’t be so hasty to recommend to friends outside the U.S. to wait for iPhone and resist, hard as it is, iPod Touch. Anyway, you get the same

PMP features (essentially) with something extra we call wireless telephony for the same price or thereabouts. After skimming reading through the Touch’s 85-page manual, I have totally turned a one-eighty and professed my faith, or, at least, my fancy, to the one and only Jesus-device… the iPod Touch. For starters, the iPod Touch is gifted not just with a virtual QWERTY keyboard but also with QWERTZ, AZERTY, QZERTY as well as Japanese IME. Two of the virtual keyboards can also appear simultaneously, if that seems useful for you. There is a special icon to quickly switch between keyboards. Double-tapping makes a period when you type, a much needed refinement for grammarians and the text-unsavvy. Sure, iPhone will soon see such improvements, but for the time-being these features are native to the iPod Touch.

from pmptoday

Try Google’s Gmail service to send and read emails on your iPhone or iPod touch using the Safari web browser.

iFixit has told Gizmodo that it is possible that the Bluetooth chip has been hidden somewhere in the internals of the iPod touch: “We’re looking into it. It’s hard to say because they can disguise bluetooth antenna on the PCB and the chip could be integrated into something else. I’ll see what I can dig up.”

Apparently Gizmodo (and most other people) assumed that iFixits lack of report on Bluetooth implied that there was no Bluetooth, however it seems they were mistaken. “We’re talking more to iFixit on the matter. There was a faulty consensus that their lack of report on Bluetooth implied that there was no Bluetooth. That was our mistake.”

According to Engadget, Broadcom, Marvell, and CSR all offer single-chip solutions with combined WiFi and Bluetooth radios, and they have heard from a decent source that the internals of the iPod touch are very similar to that of the iphone and that there is a Bluetooth chip in there — it’s just not activated.

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

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

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.)

Apple today introduced the new iPod touch featuring Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch user interface that enables users to find and enjoy all of their music, videos and more on its gorgeous widescreen display with just the touch of a finger. First introduced on iPhone, the multi-touch interface uses pioneering new software to present the perfect user interface for each application. The iPod touch also includes Wi-Fi wireless networking, the first on any iPod, and three amazing applications that use it-Safari, the most advanced browser on any mobile device, lets users wirelessly view web pages just as they look on their computer, and features Google Search or Yahoo! oneSearch; Apple’s YouTube application lets users wirelessly watch over 10 million free videos from the Internet’s most popular video website; and the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store lets users wirelessly browse, preview and buy songs and albums from the most popular online music store in the world. The iPod touch is an unbelievable 8 mm thin, and is priced starting at just $299.

“The iPod touch is a landmark iPod, ushering in a whole new generation of features based on its revolutionary multi-touch interface and built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “People are going to be amazed at how thin it is and how much it does.”

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store lets you browse the iTunes Top Ten lists of songs and albums overall or by genre, check out new releases and “What’s Hot,” or search for your favorite songs, albums or artists. You can preview any song for free, then purchase and download the ones you like directly onto your iPod touch over Wi-Fi. The music you download will be automatically uploaded into your iTunes library the next time you sync your iPod touch with your computer.

The new iPod touch is scheduled to be available later this month. The 8GB iPod touch model is $299 (US) and the 16GB iPod model is $399 (US)