[Hands0n]

What a strange title - but also what an enthralling commentary on Le Register this weekend. It made me smile, laugh and even brought a tear to my eye towards the end. How can we let such things leave these shores unexploited? We do that so well as a nation, don't we?



So was nine months of relentless iPhone hype and froth just a distraction? Not quite, but you could be forgiven for thinking so. I believe Apple's most important product of 2007 was actually announced this week, and its significance has been slow to sink in. It might be one of the cleverest moves Apple's ever made.

The 'Jesus Phone' today looks like it was really 'John the Baptist'.

Full article posted here:- The Register (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/09/07/apple_ipod_touch_coup/)



So what do you think? Is he on to something? Scary to think what the future versions of the 'Touch will bring forth. Is Apple going for the PDA market by stealth? This kit does have OS X as its basis and is open to independent programmers. Even if that is not Apple's intention, surely the independents will make it a full on Multimedia PDA by default. Who that can program code could possibly resist?

Intriguing thoughts - even more so the prospects for the very near future!

[miffed]

Yes , definately think there is something in this

Apple haven't touched the PDA market since the Newton , and were probably due to make a return - what better way to break into the PDA market than piggybacking on the back of an already successful device ?
I really hope this is accurate , and amounts to something being a PDA fan myself - I like Window mobile , but would happily drop it in favour of OS X devices :D

[Ben]

I also think this is Steve Job's long awaited return to the handheld computing market. He obviously has great passion for the form factor, but isn't so short sighted that he thinks Apple could badge up a PDA and have a big hit with it. The approach would appear to be a mature and sensible one, and there's certainly a chance that the iPod Touch will, ultimately, be the new iPod - a 'pod' that takes everything with you wherever you go.

[miffed]

If it takes off as a PDA , then it's a successful PDA and this will probably be reflected in future incarnations - but if it fails as a PDA , then nothing is lost and it will simply continue as the "Media Player" it is supposed to be in the first place !
Stroke of marketing genius IMO - venturing into a new market (or revisiting a previously failed one really ) effectively without taking any of the risks associated with such a move is brilliant

Much as I love Windows mobile - the irony that Apple could move into a market which is dominated by Windows mobile (and pretty much dead on it's feet ) and revive it is very sweet !

Roll on the 28th ! I can't wait to get my hands on this touch thing - the one thing I'd have liked is Bluetooth though - but not to worry !

[Hands0n]

I am really intrigued at the prospect of the iPod Touch becoming Apple's very own PDA - even if it is in a successive generation of the product. But, if the developer community's previous form is anything to go by, I would wager that we will see some bona fide applications appear on the 1st Gen iPod Touch. Why wouldn't someone write to it if it is (a) OS X based and (b) Safari empowered.

Sure, it is missing one or two things - an SD slot wouldn't go amiss, nor would Bluetooth. But both of these could be accommodated in a 2Gen 'Touch. Designing them in would be extremely simple. But even without these, the WLAN capabilities of the device cannot possibly be ignored. This device could do some serious business. Imagine a scaled down version of Neo Office.

With 18GB of main memory this device outstrips any PDA on the market today, or ever! Perhaps SD is totally redundant - although I do think that it is nice to have some removable storage.

Where is Apple going with this product? Only time will tell, but my money is on the author of the Register article that leads this thread. I fancy that he is bang on the money.

Edit: If you haven't already, take a look at the Safari demo on the Apple Store website (http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodtouch/features.html?feature=safari)