Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Hacks, iPhone
Making the impossible possible: iPod Touch VOIP
One of the very first questions that popped into my head after hearing, during the liveblog last week, that the iPod Touch had wireless capability was how soon the hackers would get wifi VOIP running on it. Michael over at the Apple Gazette had the same thought, and he's even got a plan on how to do it-- if the iPhone's mic-enabled headphones work in the iPod Touch, we're golden.Unfortunately, I agree with what Erica said on the last Talkcast-- it's probably not that easy. But even she agreed that if someone can hook the dock connection up to a microphone, then we might be in business. Skype is already working (in some form) on the iPhone, and considering the iPod Touch and the iPhone are as similar as Apple says they are, the software shouldn't be a problem. Getting the audio in and out to the right places is where the trouble lies.
But after everything we've seen come down on the iPhone, you won't catch me betting against the hackers. If there's a will, there's a way, and so if you really want to get your iPod Touch running wifi VOIP (like some kind of psuedo iPhone clone), my guess is that you'll eventually be able to do it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dradu said 10:43PM on 9-10-2007
I would love to have this even on my iPhone, it would be great to talk with all of my Skype friends, as I don't know all of their cell or home phone numbers.
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nate said 10:51PM on 9-10-2007
No, actually -- that's not Skype as you know Skype. That version of Skype requires the phone part of the iPhone to work, since you're basically asking an intermediary to call both your iPhone and your Skype contact. So the software is still a problem, particularly since Skype itself isn't open-source, and I don't see actual big companies getting behind unauthorized applications for these devices yet...
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MB-switcher said 12:27AM on 9-11-2007
I think if that could be done on the ipod touch the point of having an iphone drops a little more again...would love to see this happen.
MB-switcher
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Sam said 12:40AM on 9-11-2007
ringtones are now available on itunes...
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gmac said 12:45AM on 9-11-2007
why connect a mic via the dock? Seems like the best solution would be to enable that Bluetooth antenna on the iPod Touch (which Apple forgot to remove and make any mention of), load up the SIP software on the device and buy the additional bluetooth headset and you are good to go.
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JoshN said 3:37AM on 9-11-2007
I don't even care for skype. However, it's sad to see that the touch offers no way of offline data entry -- no appointments, no notes, no email. If it did I'd replace my "iPod (with video)" in a heartbeat. As it stands, I won't!
Josh.
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Tom said 4:32AM on 9-11-2007
I think it's highly unlikely that the iPhone headphone's mic will work on the iPod. There's no reason for them to include that functionality... unless they plan on adding their own VoIP solution somewhere down the road...
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Anthony said 4:01AM on 9-11-2007
I would love to have voice over IP with the iPhone style headphones.
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LAce said 4:31AM on 9-11-2007
There are already Microphone Add-Ons for the iPod Connector:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italkpro/
So it is only a matter of time until the Touch gets VoIP-Support :-)
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shaun said 6:43AM on 9-11-2007
Seriously pissed at having no offline data entry on the touch. I want an iPhone but I dont want the service plan, I spend about £50 a year on my phone as I get a lot of free messages, and I'm at university so all buildings I go in have wifi so I wouldnt even need EDGE.
and the iPhone isnt even out here! (UK)
Do you guys think that maybe we could use online PDA functions with it like google calendar etc
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ryuworks said 7:30AM on 9-11-2007
well, if the touch and the iphone have the same OS, won't hacking the damn thing be so so so simple? I will think that very soon we will have all iphone functions on the touch (except for the phone ones)
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Matteo said 9:26AM on 9-11-2007
Maybe.... Just maybe....
Did anyone notice a similarity to the iPhone? The iPod Touch also seems to have a "missing icon" in the line of icons. Maybe Apple is holding a surprise for the last minute by adding something to the iPod Touch like they did with YouTube on the iPhone.
My guess is that the missing icon is going to be "games". But it might as well be iChat or even some sort of VoIP.
I think iChat on iPod Touch and even iPhone is delayed until Leopard. But both devices, in their "unhacked" versions, seem to have an awful lot of free screen real estate for icons...
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shaun said 9:25AM on 9-11-2007
I would gladly get a touch if it could be hacked
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Klink258 said 9:41AM on 9-11-2007
Did I call it or did I call it?
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/05/apple-announces-ipod-touch-iphone-without-the-phone/2#c7182236
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brian said 11:08AM on 9-11-2007
VOIP would be a neat hack, but it's not going to cut into iPhone sales. Who would want a phone that can ONLY be used via WiFi? Handy, sure, but not essential--this will have very limited appeal. (Not to mention limited battery life.) You can buy a used PocketPC for nearly nothing that will legitimately, easily run skype all day long. (I've got a 640x480 Axim that I've been meaning to get around to selling for months--I'd better post it soon before its value drops to zero. :-) )
On the other hand, Apple can officially not care about this at all--unlike the iPhone, the iPod has no ties to AT&T.
shaun--yeah, no local storage is a sore point for me too. (More than anything, I'd like to be able to upload things via a web form, but with no browsable filesystem, that doesn't work.) For PDA functions, you'll just have to find online equivalents or roll your own. For example, Google Notebook--which I love and live in--doesn't work with desktop Safari, let alone on the iPhone, so for that reason (and several others) I wrote my own super-simple clone:
http://brian.brianashe.com/notebook/
Source--about 125 lines of PHP--is available upon request. (Only because it's too ugly to publish now. :-) ) Creating a to-do list is, um, next on my to-do list. :-)
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JeffDM said 11:58AM on 9-11-2007
gmac, as far as I've seen, iPod Touch does not have bluetooth.
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Alex said 12:27PM on 9-11-2007
@13, my screen doesnt have any real estate... i have about 20 icons on it right now, (24 with dock) and i have to scroll to see them all using summerboard... makes me wonder when the wifi itunes musicstore comes out where it will be placed on my springboard. i hope i dont have to restore it again...
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mlivebc said 12:32PM on 9-11-2007
My idea was a little different than getting VOIP on the iPod touch. I saw the touch especialy the 16GB version the perfect opurtunity for someone to transform it into a perfectly working 16GB iPod Touch Phone. What I mean is that someone take the phone capabilities of iPhone and some how modify the touch to have the sim slot and mic and whatever else the iPhone has. If somebody could get it to work and I don't see why not then it would be the best iPhone ever. You can check out my idea here and vote on it: http://thinkspotting.com/entrytype1_des.php?entry_id=326
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brian said 1:31PM on 9-11-2007
mlivebc--no chance. Among other crucial differences, the iPod is thinner than the iPhone. No way are you going to swap in all the missing guts. You've got a better chance of putting a larger memory card into an iPhone... or just wait a few months for a higher-capacity model.
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A.B. Dada said 8:18PM on 9-11-2007
It would be VERY cool to have an iPod Touch with VoIP software of any kind. I currently have an AT&T 875u broadband wireless modem hooked up to a portable WiFi router -- giving me WiFi practically anywhere I go (even in the car, at a client's site, at home, etc). With my current PDA, I can use Skype over my router (with about 150ms latency, though) and it's decent enough.
An iPod Touch would make life much easier with the faster interface and excellent web browser than my current PDA phone combo.
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