iPod touch Where will Apple take the iPod Touch next?

I believe memory updates in the short term are enough to get people to buy again.

Colours would defiantly be a possibility.

What benefit would faster memory give, as the current memory can sustain video at a decent enough quality for the touch's screen. Wouldn't faster memory need more power?

What if they added video out that was HD, that might need faster memory (i really dunno).

xUKHCx said:

What if they added video out that was HD, that might need faster memory (i really dunno).

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Nah, you'd just need a faster processor. Flash memory on USB thumb drives is fast enough to play 1080p video.

Personally I think the iPod Touch is the future for the iPod once the prices of flash memory drops.

What about a pre recorded wifi download? You download 1hr of wifi time just like if it was an itune movie into your itouch then you take that around with you so when ever you want to access the web you can, it wont be live feed but it will allow you to surf the web for an hour.


A software package that will allow all cell phones to "share" the phone wifi signal to be used by the touch.


An itouch finder, you can call it using your computer and it will beep in order for you to find it when you misplace it.


A snug pack that would fit in the back of the itouch with extended battery,bluetooth,mic and speaker with built in universal remote control...

There, I'm done dreaming

efedor said:

What about a pre recorded wifi download? You download 1hr of wifi time just like if it was an itune movie into your itouch then you take that around with you so when ever you want to access the web you can, it wont be live feed but it will allow you to surf the web for an hour.

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You mean downloading the whole internet onto your iPod touch? Then having it expire in an hour?

I could see maybe downloading an archive of macrumors but even that would be huge.

TouchUser said:

Faster memory would make me purchase a new one. It took forever to sync my library and with more people being able to put more content on there Touch (ie the 32 GB) it will only get worse.

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I have the iPhone as syncing my library didn't take what I consider to be long time for what is essentially a one time process. As memory increases the tendancy for a need to add lots of music in one go will also be reduced. Faster memory for this would be a waste of money and battery life.

TouchUser said:

I am sixteen and don't plan on purchasing a new touch until I go to college.

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by then an ipod touch may have been replaced by something else from apple.

id like to see the touch get an isight camera in the future!

TouchUser said:

I disagree. And it would certainly not be a waste of battery life due to the iPod would be plugged in. Only if you can get some sort of wireless syncing would battery power matter. And then faster memory probably wouldn't matter due to the time it takes to sync would be dependent on the connection speed.

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What I meant was that with the current 8Gb on the phone (well current before today) there could be a reasoning to change all 8GB quite regularly if you had a big library. Now if the capacity went up to 32GB then you would need to change it 4 times less often assuming linear, however as the capacity reaches the size of peoples music library then the need to change all the music essentially drops off only needing small time changes with a one of sync. In this instance faster memory is pointless, and to be honest I think it is pointless anyway. Also the faster memory would need more power generally and not just on the sync so it would have a negative effect on battery life.

What I think would be a great addiction is an iSight camera with iChat video conferencing. Think of how awesome it would be to have a video chat when you're out boating, or when you're on a picnic, or whatever.

Another thing I would love it is worldwide wifi to remote locations. I know this isn't just a feature in an iPod. There's alot more technology to it. I would love if Apple participated in making WiFi more available. I don't know much about how Wifi works, but I suppose satellites would be a good way to get wifi everywhere? Again, not sure if it's possible.

I've been to the mountains in Europe a few times. I've always had the urge to stand on top of a mountain and use the internet right there, maybe have a video chat too.

TouchUser said:

A camera would be soo nice for the Touch. Video chat is a little extreme in my mind though.

One thing that would make this product a million times better... A NON SHINY SCRATCH RESISTANT BACK!!!

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Well, the way I see it, Apple is positioning the touch to be the replacement to the upper end of the iPod line. Therefore, no need for a camera. It's an iPod.

But a brushed aluminum back, like the 2G nano or the classic would be great.

The SDK is what will determine the future of the touch, I think. They made a great, simple interface and the apps that could be made in the coming future could turn it, possibly into a portable, simple computer. Even though it pretty much is a pda the apps could allow it to read and write documents, run flash videos and provide people a slew of utilities and games. This is the future I see for the touch but it seems like an obvious one.

TouchUser said:

One thing that would make this product a million times better... A NON SHINY SCRATCH RESISTANT BACK!!!

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Me thinks that you should go spend 90 cents on a Scotch Brite and have it bond with your iPod touch and some elbow grease for a while. Problem solved.

One 2 or 3 times the screen size - the new Newton or eMate!

The iPod line needs to stay competitive with the cheaper alternatives out there that have more features. One major thing is THEY NEED RADIOS built in! Not a $50 dongle option, they need digital AM/FMs in the next iteration, desperately, imo.

I completely agree

brasscat said:

The iPod line needs to stay competitive with the cheaper alternatives out there that have more features. One major thing is THEY NEED RADIOS built in! Not a $50 dongle option, they need digital AM/FMs in the next iteration, desperately, imo.

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A radio feature would be awesome! As well as the ability to record from the radio like my sansa mp3 player.

I have a digital camera so I dont need my ipod to have one as well. (My pda phone also have a camera which I seldom use- which suggest I'll hardly use an ipod touch camera)

I wish the ipod touch could create more than one playlist on the go. Can the playl;ist be saved without connecting to the computer? Also I noticed recently when I connect my on the go playlist disappears. Maybe I need to check some settings in itunes

A great improvement would be syncing via wifi

cheaper price!!!!

efedor said:

What about a pre recorded wifi download? You download 1hr of wifi time just like if it was an itune movie into your itouch then you take that around with you so when ever you want to access the web you can, it wont be live feed but it will allow you to surf the web for an hour.

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Agreed!!! Apple will surely go on with the new iTunes WiFi Store since it's "iPod + iTunes". My guess is that they wil be a combination of the iPod Nano and iPod Touch. The Nano will get part of the Touch power but not completely, you can make a difference of the MacBook MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and so will be the iPod lines.

The Mac lines is doing incredible job right now, even if there were specialists who predict this "Halo Effect", the result is beyong everybody guess. We will see the Mac lines leading the iPod lines in the near future

xUKHCx said:

I have the iPhone as syncing my library didn't take what I consider to be long time for what is essentially a one time process. As memory increases the tendancy for a need to add lots of music in one go will also be reduced. Faster memory for this would be a waste of money and battery life.

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Hmmm, for me I still don't think the Touch or the iPhone is the best choice for listening to music, I have six iPod right now (You can see below) and still think the Classic is the best choise for music lovers. The Touch is great at making On-The-Go list and navigating through your music library, the view is magnificent but ………… I don't know why , I still think Classic is better for handling music

TouchUser said:

Colors. Colors will be the next generation of iPod Touches. It has been proven with the rest of their iPod line that colors can be an effective way to keep getting buyers.

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This is an obvious idea, but lets think of clientele for a second. An iPod classic is for someone who has a lot of music, someone over say 14 years old, and doesn't really care for LOOKS at this point. Hence why it has always been in only two colors. The touch has applications, is an iPod + PDA device for people at least 16, but more so 18+...again people where looks are cool but the form factor of a touch is already very sleek...a color upgrade probably won't be a huge deal. There are cases that get that job done. The iPhone probably won't make colors at all. The touch I expect to come out maybe with a white...but more on this in a second.

TouchUser said:

SilverThorne. SilverThorne processors will cut way back on power consumption, and as batteries get smarter and other innovations occur, battery life will be a major selling point. I would not be surprised if Apple jumped on the “Going Green” bandwagon as they already are with other products such as the MBAir.

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Agreed. I think first they will mess with their older iPod line before moving to the touches.

TouchUser said:

GPS. This idea needs a ton of work, but it may be possible by the next update, if not next year. GPS is not useful unless you have a way to get maps when you are out of wifi range. AHA! The SDK is coming out. I would not be surprised if there is eventually a way to download “Map Packs” from Google or others for a fee.

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Map Packs was on my mind when the Google Maps app was on there. I see those VERY soon. But expect it to take too much space for users to care unless they put it on for a trip and take it off later. Which is too much of a hassle.

And a GPS unit to be small enough to fit in a touch is ridiculous, otherwise this may have been a no brainer to put in with the iPhone, as other phones have GPS Technology. There is so much other crap in a Touch/Phone that could you really fit that in there? I expect a little dongle/thingy similar to an itrip perhaps. And its going to be small. And people will fork 100 bucks for it I bet. I can't wait to see where it goes though.

TouchUser said:

Faster NAND Flash Memory. It will come eventually, but I don’t see the iPod Touch ever getting more than 64 GB of Flash memory. I believe that instead they will keep putting faster memory in it.

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You think it is slow? The speeds are so quick on my touch, I think the move rather would be to make bigger iTouches for all those applications and the music demand, of course.

TouchUser said:

iPod Touch ______. The blank stands for a new adjective for small. It will not be Mini due to the negative connotation of the “ipod mini-flop”, and I don’t think it will be called nano either. Any sweet adjective ideas? The smaller Touch will be equal to what the touch is today, and probably wont have some of the sweet features the new “bigger” (regular size) ones have.

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This I hadn't though of, but now that I sit and ruminate it, I think I can expect a new kind of multi touch device, that will lose the small button on the bottom and stick it on the side, and have volume buttons on the side. Also, the form will have a shell like a macbook, and not like an iPod that smudges a lot.

This device, will be a PDA focused device this time, and maybe not even carry the iPod name anymore. It will be the "Newton" like device people are looking for. The PDA that has wireless/bluetooth/infrared sync with the Macbook that syncs notes, calendars, and emails the moment you WALK UP to it. The battery life will be tremendous. Safari will be updated around this time to have full flash support. An iWork mini suite will be on there, supporting docs and ppt as well. The appeal will be more for college students and business people, but it will definitely be revolutionary when it comes to PDA devices. The only kicker is that people would want to carry that as well as a phone, and until this point, no PDA has had SO much appeal that it would want to be carried separately from a phone...but we'll see.

By the way, as a "one more thing", maybe the device will have some sort of satellite capability and for a small fee can have a network similar to the EDGE but as fast as a 3G...

TouchUser said:

For Dreamers:

DVR. As much as I would love to see the Touch get DVR, I don’t see it happening. The Archos 605 wifi has this feature, but I don’t see it coming to the iPod because of Apples TV store… but hey, we can all dream!

Squirting… or something similar. This is the only desirable Zune feature in my mind. How cool would it be to say, “Oh sweet song, pop it over bro!”

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Squirting is a cool idea, and the DRM movement could be realized, but Apple is big on not music sharing, so I don't see that really..