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It's just like saying why doesn't my Mac Mini Core Duo not work on OSX 10.7. It obviously won't handle it and Apple won't compromise on the user's experience, even if that means constraining them to a less app selection and functionality pool. Nothing to get angry about though, Apple's support with older products running new OS's is great (3GS still going strong). It's just anything else simply doesn't have enough processing oomph, RAM, and Graphical capabilities to run iOS 5.

Yes but it should of at least ran iOS 4, because the iPod touch 2 did and they had pretty similar specs.
 
thread resurrection:

I think the only thing that galls me is that I no longer have local versions of the v3 software app files, or a way to copy them over, so I can't reset it to factory/clean install and then pass it to a friend for her kids with stuff like Angry Birds already on it. I've never expected to be able to cope with more recent OSes.

My what a fabulous device the Touch was when it came out.
 
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