Never mind what Steve Jobs tells the New York Times, the iPod Touch is getting a camera, likely sooner than later.
The new iPod Touch has an internal space for a camera, a teardown by iFixit has discovered. And there’s a couple more surprises also.
iFixit has just dismantled the new Touch, and found a space between the Touch’s WiFi chip and antenna that measures 6mm by 6mm by 3mm.
“It appears that Apple left room for a camera in the top of the device,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens. “There isn’t enough depth for an iPhone-style autofocus still camera, but just enough room for the camera that Apple used in the 5th generation iPod nano.”
The camera in the 5G nano measures only 2.75 mm thick. It records video at the relatively low VGA resolution (640 x 480), but cannot take still pictures.
Wiens said his technicians couldn’t find a connector on the Touch’s circuit board for a camera cable, but Apple is likely to also update the internal circuits when it adds the camera.
The exclusion of a camera in the touch is a real puzzle because there was more evidence than normal to support the rumor. Pictures of prototypes were published, and dozens of case manufacturers were leaked the specs of the camera, which was put in a new position — the center of the back, rather than being offset like the iPhone before it.
Wiens also discovered that:
* The touch has hardware for 802.11n high-speed WiFi. “This is a big deal, as even the iPhone 3GS doesn’t support 802.11n,” says Wiens. The software may not yet support 802.11, just as earlier Touch models had hardware for Bluetooth that wasn’t turned on until Apple released the 3.0 OS update.
* The 802.11n is part of a new Broadcom BCM4329 chip, which also supports FM transmission. If Apple adds an antenna and software support, the iPod could stream audio to car FM radios. “But that’s a lot of ifs,” says Wiens.
Wiens concludes: “While we were all disappointed by Apple’s underwhelming iPod touch announcement, it is clear that there is more engineering effort under the surface of this device than meets the eye.”
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
