3G iPod Touch Would Be My Dream Communications Device

Mat Honan ?A Dutch website is reporting that the next iPod Touch will support 3G, just like an iPad. I'm skeptical, but also would buy that in a heartbeat. What's more, it would be the death knell for my voice plan.

I use my iPod Touch as a communications device all the time. While it's not very effective as a phone due to the speaker placement (although I do use it for that on occasion, thanks to the Skype and Google Voice apps) it makes a great text messaging device. But of course, I'm constrained by Wi-Fi. So I only use it around the house.

But add 3G and suddenly it's practical to use anywhere. It's a phone, minus the onerous voice plan.

I don't have a land line, so my mobile phone is my primary communications device. Yet over the past several years I've used fewer and fewer minutes in my account. That's largely because I now make so many calls using VoIP, either on my mobile phone, or my computer. I even use my iPad to make calls on occasion (and to send SMS messages all the time). It's weird-looking, and kind of ridiculous, but it works and it's come in handy more than once.

Despite that, I'm still paying AT&T about $100 a month for the voice and data plan on my mobile phone. Meanwhile, I pay about $30 a month for the data plan on my iPad. If I could use a similar plan on my iPod, and port my existing number to Google Voice, it would be a huge cost savings to me over the course of the year. More than enough to justify buying a new iPod Touch.

If Apple relocates the speaker on the iPod Touch to align with my ear, and adds 3G support that lets me pick a data plan from a variety of carriers, I'm kissing my mobile phone service goodbye forever. It would be a gut punch to carriers, but it would be a massive boon for consumers. And it would make the iPod Touch every bit as revolutionary a device as the original iPhone.

So while, yes, I'm skeptical, I'm also very, very hopeful. Bring it.

[AppleSpot via 9to5mac]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5819439/3g-ipod-touch-would-be-my-dream-communications-device

alaska airlines angry birds game andy irons nbs luke bryan la fitness concord