The iPod Touch 3G Rumor Round-up

September 8, 2009

With the “Its only Rock n Roll, but we like it” event hours away we decided to do a round-up of what the word on the blogosphere is on what to expect.

Lets start with the least believable rumors. GPS enabled?!? Ballsy to speculate. Might as well just call it an iPhone if it is going to have a 3G network. We call shenanigans on this notion.

A green light indicator is seen on the bottom left and large lens at the top right. Maybe a battery indicator or sensor. We’re not really buying the ad much after the wild 3G network prediction.

64 GB capacity on the other hand is very likely as this is a usual trend for Apple to double its storage.

New 3.0 Megapixel auto-focus camera with microphone makes sense as Apple does have the camera stock from the iPhone 3GS. Wired has reported that trusted sources have verified that Apple has already ordered the required hardware for the iPod Touch to have cameras with microphone capabilities.

Bluetooth and improved external speakers are also seen in the banner which would be nice since the iPod Touch is noticeably inferior to the iPhone 3G/3GS external speakers currently. Bluetooth may not be cost efficient for Apple but it is a great selling point.

The iPod Cyclops

With all the speculation on how these conceivable pictures came to a XM radio talk show, I decided to do some research on the the legitimacy out of my own curiosity. Here is the answer given on the (original source) the Covino and Rich blog :

I acquired this from a guy that I buy parts phones and iPods from. I believe he’s a recycler in ***********, so what most likely happened is that Apple threw this away and he some how got it and sold it for parts. UPDATE: For any blogs asking…this is not a stunt. at least not on our end. as far as we know, these photos are 100% legit.”

So Apple accidentally tossed out a prototype and the recycler came up on it and shared it with his favorite talk show it seems. Likely true? Sure, even Apple makes mistakes. Is this the final product? Not likely, but seems pretty close. There has been other evidence backing up this design also as China has already started manufacturing casing molds that would go along with this iPod layout.

Even further validating the iPod cyclops as I like to call it, is UK based case makers Hanna, as they have released to Engadget their iPod Touch 3rd Gen cases in finished production.