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Well, I guess Apple snuck another one past everyone. The new iPod touch not only has a speaker, volume controls, curved back, and a slimmer profile, it also has bluetooth.

Well…kind of.

You see, Apple announced nothing about the iPod touch having bluetooth built in. The spec sheet fails to list it. But the fine folks over at iFixit have done the deed that I get scared just thinking about; they cracked open the new iPod touch to have a look inside the guts of the monster.

What they found was a Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth chipset, capable of 2.1+EDR.  They couldn’t figure out whether it supports A2DP for stereo bluetooth headphone support; but it doesn’t really matter…yet.

Apple could really make some great use out of this if they so choose. Think about the possibilities. First off is the use of a bluetooth headset, to enable things like VOIP or voice notes. Or how about a bluetooth keyboard? You could browse the web faster, type notes faster, and even use the iPod touch as a mini tablet computer.  They could even add mouse support, though that would seem to go against everything the multitouch interface stands for.

If it really does have A2DP support, I’d love to see Apple enable it. Cutting the cord on my headphones is something I really would enjoy doing, especially since I just bought a pair of bluetooth headphones. There’s just something about having no cords between my pocket and my ears.

I have more ideas still. How about wireless syncing with your computer, mobile file transfers between devices, game controllers, or drawing tablets? There are so many possibilities. Unfortunately, all of these possibilities have been just that since the launch of the iPhone over a year ago, where bluetooth support has been there since the start. The only bluetooth feature enabled on the iPhone is the headset. Obviously, all of my ideas will remain possibilities unless Apple enables them.

That said, the addition of the bluetooth chip into the new iPod touch does hint that Apple has something in mind.  So maybe, just maybe, touches—and, who knows, even iPhones—may be getting increased bluetooth capabilities in the days to come.

[Update]  As pointed out by Engadget, and an Appletell reader, this is very likely the Nike+ receiver that was announced by Apple to be inside the iPod touch. It’s still a shame that Apple doesn’t expand the usability of bluetooth on the iPhone.

Via [iFixit]
Via [Engadget]