New iPod touch could have had a camera

The lack of a camera with the new 3rd generation iPod touch left a lot of people scratching their heads at Apple’s keynote event last week. Steve Jobs even gave his explanation as to why the iPod touch doesn’t have a camera, his argument is that they want to push the iPod touch as more of a hand held video game console. Great, but we still want a camera! Well the folks at iFixit have taken apart a brand spankin new iPod touch, and what they discovered it pretty interesting indeed.

Their teardown of the new iPod touch showed that the new device can support 802.11n FM transmission. The Broadcom BCM4329 chip included with the iPod touch supports 802.11n, this isn’t even included in the new iPhone 3GS. The chip can also support FM transmission, which means users could possibly stream their own music to their car stereos, something that many accessory makers like Belkin have done with their own devices for quite some time. One of the biggiest rumors regarding the new iPod touch was that it would include a camera, we later found out it did not and that it’s little brother the iPod nano would be the iPod to include a camera. Apple did leave enough space to fit a camera however. A space that measured 6mm x 6mm x 3mm was found at the top of the iPod nano in between the Broadband chip and the wireless antenna which could hold a small camera. This does not mean Apple had any plans to include a camera, or that they might include one in the future, but it definitely is a possibility.

[Source: iFixit]