iPod Touch gets Bluetooth after OS upgrade
Stereo Bluetooth audio is coming to the iPod Touch, said Apple's Greg Joswiak at Tuesday's iPhone OS 3.0 preview event. The added Bluetooth functionality will come by way of the OS 3.0 upgrade, due out this summer. While iPod Touch owners clearly win from the addition of Bluetooth support (a $9.95 upgrade fee is required), they may be a little peeved to learn that the second-generation iPod Touch hardware has probably supported Bluetooth all along.
Will OS 3.0 unlock the existing Bluetooth capability of the iPod Touch?
A Broadcom BCM4325 chip revealed in iFixit's teardown of the second-generation iPod Touch back in September of 2008 was originally thought to be used strictly for the device's wireless Nike+ support. It turns out the chip is most likely capable of full-fledged Bluetooth audio and data transmission, but has been purposefully left dormant by Apple. After being unlocked by the OS 3.0 upgrade, the iPod Touch (second-generation only) should be capable of Bluetooth features such as A2DP, wireless accessory control (including gaming), and peer-to-peer connections.
In the end, adding Bluetooth functionality to the iPod Touch is worth every penny of the $9.95 OS upgrade, and makes the device more competitive against iPod alternatives such as the Samsung P2 (soon to be the P3) and the Cowon S9. Still, existing Touch owners must feel a little burned that Apple purposely withheld the feature up until now.
(Via iLounge)
Donald Bell is CNET Reviews' senior editor for MP3 players and portable audio, and one half of the MP3 Insider blog and weekly podcast. He also likes getting his hands dirty with digital audio tools for musicians and DJs. 
anyone, most products you bought in the past were not upgradable, even if features were disabled. For years and years, VCRs from one manufacturer all basically had all the features built in, it was simply a matter of which remote control they provided, which ports they hooked up, and which LCD they connected. At least here, Apple is enabling the features that were on the chip, rather than leaving them dormant.
Archos dropped some of the extra "Pay for what the device can already do" things with the 5. Competative pressure is a nice thing. I love the irony that to unlock my browser (Archose 605) I can use the browser already built in.
This is just Apple wanting more money to enable something you paid for already.
Who is the evil empire now?
software
cell phone data apps
cars
did they want to have to buy another Touch for bluetooth functionality?
If so, this is huge since iPod users could have the real VOIP experience. For those who don't want mobile phone service fees or internet fees associated with the iPhone, this would do the trick.
What about the people who have purchased the Ipod Touch 1st generation users....We believed in Apple to take a chance on the 1st generation...If they would have let me know I would have just only bought the 2nd Gen.
Do we know for sure that 1st gen adopter won't be let out to dry and have to purchase the 2nd Gen version?
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0903lajkszg/event/index.html
And, why would you think you could trade songs? Purchasing your songs is the only way to legally get songs onto an iPhone and you can buy songs wirelessly now. That was introduced last update.
Why coudln't you trade a song? That's fair use. "I don't like this one anymore, I'll trade you for that one you stopped listening too yourself". Works for most things we pay for. Why not music. Oh, that's right. Big Media Copyright Holders are refusing to honor the right of first sale, working to nullify fair use, and make it a point to not actually sell you the song you bought in digital format.
or they could release it late to have more hype or just more money. either way you payed like 300+ dollars for the iPod, what's ten more dollars gonna harm to get bluetooth?.
Now I can have bluetooth for $10 - IF I think thats highway robbery - then I'll not spend $10 and not have the bluetooth. But if I change my mind I can have it. Which ever way I look at it I'm ahead.
Doubt many other users will be so peeved that they are prepared to protest and return their ipod. And yep getting it free would be nicer. But its not. Live with it. When I want bluetooth I can have it.
So instead we have the business profit-making model that in order for me to get the full capability of the hardware I already unwittingly paid for, I have to fork over MORE for the "privilege" of using something that they already forced on me to begin with. Gee...where do I bend over???
It's good of you that you can be so accommodating of Apple's squeeze-you-dry policies. They can always use another billion or two of our money in their accounts, after all.
So I am disappointed, but not surprised.
Anyone with a current iPod touch bought it knowing what it could or could not do at that time. If they didn't like the lack of certain features, they didn't have to buy it. That apple is offering an upgrade to 3.0 spec for $10 is a plus, not a minus. In the history of consumer electronics, you are almost always out of luck in these situations, stuck with 'last year's model' and that's that.
- by szstudios March 20, 2009 6:49 AM PDT
- The point is that it's not $10 JUST for Bluetooth it's the ENTIRE upgrade you'll get regardless of whether you'll use BT or not. And as the bastard stepchild of the iPhone, that's the price we pay to play to have a unit that does 90% of what the iPhone does w/o the $70 /month AT&T bill.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (75 Comments)$10 bucks compared to them releasing a new model for $225 is a small price to pay. I just hope they just start releasing new models every 2 years instead of every year while updating the OS every 6 months.
Does anyone know if a typical BT earpiece & mic will work with this upgrade? If so, that will be awesome when using VOIP via Fring without the silly wired earbuds and mic.