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iPod Touch VoIP likely
When Apple rolled out its first WiFi-enabled iPod Touch (pic) earlier this month, it had a marked lack of phone functionality. This would only make sense to Apple, which started selling iPhones not three months ago for around $600 a pop, and more recently, $400. It didn't make as much sense to the user community, however, because the $300 stoked-up iPod touch music player was also a wireless transceiver.
The key to VoIP enabling the touch involves jacking a mic/headphone set similar to the one compatible with the iPhone, because both run on the same browser, the Apple Gazette reports. A cabled-up iPod touch may not be as sleek looking as a regular iPhone, but it would still be $100 cheaper than the real thing.
It would also allow users to select from any number of VoIP services, compared to the short leash that iPhone users are on with AT&T (even though hackers have broken it a time or two, and a Skype app is in beta.) A new GUI version of iUnlock called AnySim was released over the weekend as well, according to Gizmodo. The advent of iVoIP is probably not far behind, but only for users willing to deconstruct their pricey Apple handhelds. In the meantime, the Nokia N800 tablet is already there. It's just not an Apple.
For More:
- The downloadsquad compares the iPod touch with the VoIP-enabled Nokia N800 Internet tablet
- Gizmodo shows AnySim
Related Article:
Skype for iPhone hits (and so do the bills) Report
More stories about wVoIP (wireless VoIP) WiFi VoIP Phones Skype Nokia iPod touch iPhone hackers Apple
Comments
Posted by Nicholas Turner | September 17, 2007 - 1:14pm
Who Cares?
I've been evangelizing VoIP for most of my professional career, including 5 years at one of the leaders in SBC's. So, my question hopefully isn't flippant.
Adding VoIP to the iPhone doesn't enhance the user experience. If it saves me a buck or two, who cares. If I paid $400 or $600 for an iPhone, I exclaimed to the market, "I want user experience".
We are the geeks of telecoms. Unfortunately, we will die penniless unless we mend our ways. I believe VoIP could allow us to communicate in innovative ways, not just over new pipes. So instead of discussing if VoIP will be opened on every type of device and network in the known universe, maybe we should spend some time discussing what we could do with it.
Posted by Deborah McAdams | September 17, 2007 - 1:38pm
Dear Mssr. Turner,
I find your bluntness refreshing, not flippant. After all, you make a good point. Mobile devices can be modified to handle VoIP... oh well.
But perhaps there will be a ripple effect on the carrier business models currently attached to the devices. As you know, iPhones are tethered to AT&T in the United States, and we hear O2 gave away the farm to be the U.K provider. If a VoIP modification can be made easily enough to the iPod touch, or if the Skype app is likewise simple on the iPhone, then the captive carrier model could be degraded.
That, I would posit, could have a salutary effect on the user experience.
I remain curious, however, about what types of alternatives you have in mind when you refer to what can be done with VoIP, presumably aside from voice comms.
D.
Posted by Anonymous | January 26, 2008 - 5:29pm
Who cares? How about me and the millions of other people that live in a dense city and can't get wireless service for their phone inside buildings, but there is a wifi hotspot sitting right next to them? How about the fact that voip service doesn't just save a buck or two, but costs a LOT less?
Posted by Paul Lopez | September 17, 2007 - 1:41pm
Older WiFi technologies such as 802.11a/b are inferior to the new 802.11n (with MIMO) standards that are designed to boost signal strength while not increasing power consumption. Most modern CMOS chips with basic WLAN features draw about 10 microamps of current in sleep mode and as little as 0.6 milliamps while in power save mode – all while maintaining association with an access point. These chips are usually 50 or 60 square milliameters packaged in a compact low profile ball grid array (LFBGA) for easy integration into a handheld device such as the Touch. They can be integrated with onboard Bluetooth and engineers have found out how to make the radio signals to play nicely together. The challenge with the iPod Touch will be the loss in the excellent battery life the device has without WiFi. With WiFi turned off, you can get nearly 7 hours of video battery life. If you are streaming video, Skyping or downloading – while playing music, you’ve got lots of heat and processing power. This draws more current with all the A/D conversions and packet capturing out of the air. I’d expect to see a 30% or 40% reduction in rated battery life under these conditions. We’ve not even considered any overhead associated with security such as WPA2 or advanced authentication to access fee-based networks. That increasing processor cycles too.
Paul Lopez
[http://lopezunwired.com]
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