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New iPod Touch Has an 802.11n Chip
eggboard writes "iFixIt has discovered a Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n chip in the just-announced iPod touch (32 GB and 64 GB) models that uses single-stream 802.11n. Single-stream doesn't get the full power of N, but it boosts speed enough that — along with space-time block encoding, a feature coming soon to Wi-Fi access points with two or more radios — the iPod touch could be an effective networked media server, for streaming and transfer, possibly through the new iTunes Home Sharing feature."
Why didn't they tell us earlier? Seems odd to me.
This would be cool if it had a camera
Wireless! More space than a Nomad! I finally have a reason to get an iPod!
the iPod touch could be an effective networked media server
I doubt you could call it effective when it would still be tied down by battery life. That could be remedied by plugging it in, but if you have a computer, it seems it would just make more sense to stream from the computer than the iPod.
WTF is this link-less entry supposed to be?
Here's the story mentioned above:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPod-touch-3rd-Generation/1158/2
Home sharing is just a way of automatically keeping multiple iTunes libraries up to date with new purchases when they are all tied to the same iTunes store account. It's not any kind of actual sharing service, just a synchronization service.
It might help if the summary contained a link to the original article.
This is silly. There would be so many other bottlenecks on a mobile device of this nature that the speed of the connectivity isn't an issue. I bet the iPod can't even consume (let alone serve) data at 802.11g speeds.
Better known as 318230.
So is this something that just came out in the final standard yesterday that all of the pre-standard devices don't implement properly, if at all?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
All this means is that Apple decided to use a chip that happened to support wireless 802.11N communication. Maybe it was a planned feature, but it got cut. Maybe it was just cheaper or easier to work with than other offerings. Apple will not enable this at some point down the road, just as they won't activate the bluetooth chip inside older Ipod Touches. What _will_ happen is next year, they will sell a new model with the same chips, but this time with the necessary software support and bill it as a new compelling feature.
What I'm more curious about is any of the hardware there for it. Multiple antennas for MIMO? Any 5GHz hardware? The biggest advantage to wireless-N IMO is it moves the wireless out of the stupidly crowded 2.4GHz ISM band. The 5GHz band is (at least for now) far less crowded and this unlicensed band has quite a few more channels to spread the devices out a bit more spectrum wise.
The chip is one thing but without any other supporting hardware, it doesn't make much difference. The chip could have been chosen for better power characteristics or a few other reasons. Time will tell if apple enables any N style features but I am not holding my breath.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
Till Apple adds a 5$ radio receiver I'll not be buying one. Not everything can be downloaded from itunes.
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Cures cancer too. But not AIDS or world hunger. You need the multistream version for that.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Sorry, I didn't properly include the link.
My analysis about how the 802.11n stuff works related to an iPod touch, such as explaining what single-stream 802.11n means as a media server is here at TidBITS. The iFixIt tear down is here.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
This is not surprising, and now that it's confirmed, we can expect Apple to release an 802.11n enabler for iPod touch in the future and charge $.9.95 for it. They're so predictable these days...
What's more interesting than this is that the new iPod touch, while almost identicial to the old one aside from a faster processor and some other things, is almost the exact same inside except for one small change: a space big enough to fit the same camera found on the iPod nano (in previous generations there was an antenna cable socket, which has been moved and, in its absence is now just plastic spacer).
There were rumors of an iPod touch camera before it came out, even rumors that pinpointed the camera to this exact location in the device, and there was also a recent rumor that they pulled it due to some problems at the last minute. Looks like this confirms that, and I'm sure we can expect an updated iPod touch in the future with a camera. That, in my opinion, is far more interesting.
R.Mo
Soon after Apple activates 802.11n compliant mode, with a future firmware update, I predict a specialized iPod/iPhone botnet. It'll hook up with the recently discovered Linux webserver botnet, which has already hooked with the Windows PC botnet and woe unto the human race!
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I can't believe you drool over this over priced piece of communism. Don't you love if when people write open sourced software that relies on some garbage closed source api that is only on macs?
Apple wants people to buy a nano and an itouch, not just a new itouch.
Until the production is ramped up of the nanos and the can get more cameras delivered
they wont be in the itouch.
This 'intermediate itouch' will be gone.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
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Or maybe it's the fact that I don't actually know anyone that has a device in their home that accepts component inputs...
I have two (at least): a DivX capable DVD player and my Archos dock. Never used that feature, don't own an iPod, just sayin'...
(But actually, I'm quite impressed by this and wondering if Apple has finally started to regard video as a core feature. Do you still have to convert popular formats like AVI, FLV and WMV to that iPod-specific one?)
I've got a 2nd Generation Touch and I just updated it to the iPhone 3.1 software. I now see bluetooth options on it. This means it has that Broadcom chip that also does FM tuner too. I so want that capability.
Wonder if we will start seeing 11n in mobile phones http://deviceconvergence.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/802-11n-tipping-point/