[jamesa]

- same form factor as iPhone
- 160GB hard drive
- speaker and microphone
- bluetooth
- all functionality except for, literally, the ability to connect to a voice network

I'm thinking that the one thing that would have blown this unit out of the park is if it had the ichat camera in it also. Imagine - you'd be able to videoconference with people using the device (hence why you need the speaker and mic)

Thoughts?

-- james

[Brien]

I think at some point the video chat is possible. Probably in the iPhone Rev. B, though.

I'd have loved to see a HD-based touch, but I didn't plan on it, either.

[Big Mac]

For everyone disappointed by the 8 and 16GB storage in the touch, did you really expect a hard drive in the same form factor as the iPhone? If you want a scaled down iPhone (which is what so many here claimed to want), then you have to accept the space limitations inherent to the iPhone, which means flash memory is what you're going to get. Talk about unrealistic expectations. (X2)

[cenutrio]

I miss Mail. If they wanted to really get me, camera and iChat

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

For everyone disappointed by the 8 and 16GB storage in the touch, did you really expect a hard drive in the same form factor as the iPhone?)

I'd take a bigger form factor, scrap the mic and camera, and have some storage for music. 16gb is feeble. Feeble I say.

[MacinTommy]

I think when they were designing it they also has iPhone customers in mind. They didn't want to overkill the iPod touch and at the same time make iPhone customers angry because the only feature that would be missing is the phone. and if you had a mic and speaker then skype is a possibility. So I think they thought this one out more than most people think.

[Simon]

I would have liked Mail. I don't really understand the reasoning there. People will use webmail anyway, so why make them go that painful route if there's already such a nice iPhone Mail.app?

The 16 GB flash is obvious. A large HDD would have required more space, more power and ultimately encouraged too much downsell.

The touch is a widescreen iPod nano with wireless. Not more, not less. Once it reaches >64 GB flash, I'm in. Unless of course, there's an iPhone with a decent memory capacity available at that time.

[-Q-]

Originally Posted by Simon 

I would have liked Mail. I don't really understand the reasoning there. People will use webmail anyway, so why make them go that painful route if there's already such a nice iPhone Mail.app?

Until the iPhone mail app stops downloading old messages as new, I won't consider it 'nice.'

Besides, I'd imagine most of the decision in regards to apps was based on product differentiation. The iPod is a device to consume media. To add more communication features, like Mail, would start to eat into the iPhone (a communication product with really cool media features) market and cause confusion. My hunch is that b/c the iTunes store is built on Apple's Webkit, Safari was required to make the WiFi Store work. YouTube was probably thrown in due to the same access requirements.

And as it's been pointed out in other places, the Touch may or may not have bluetooth built-in. I'll be interested in seeing if it's added in an update later if they were using iPhone mock-ups for the Touch and one with the BT icon slipped thru...

[himself]

There is speculation that the iPod Touch already has bluetooth, but it is either disabled, or one of those features that won't be officially unveiled until it is actually available for purchase. If it does have bluetooth, skype/voip may be possible with a bluetooth headset (which people are trying to get working on the iPhone right now.

As for those other features, a speaker and mic would be overkill and add extra expense for features that most folks would never use (there are times when a speaker could come in handy, but I can imagine the annoyance of people blasting their music/video in public -- I'd rather do without it)... more storage would be great, but even at 1/10th the storage of the new iPod Classic, 16GB is good enough to work with -- just have a process to rotate your content on each sync with the use of smart playlists and the like.