The iPod Touch: Apple's Sleeper Device

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A Portable Minicomputer?

If the iPod Touch version of OS X is truly as powerful as Apple says it is, shouldn't this prospective reader serve as more than an entertainment platform, as something that can help you get things done? Why not adapt Apple's "Back to My Mac" feature, which lets you gain access to files on your home Mac remotely from a Mac notebook, to let you do the same via Wi-Fi from your Apple reader? You'd be able to grab that presentation you forgot on your home computer, or play that song you were just telling someone about. Give that handheld sufficient storage, say 64GB of flash memory, and you just might go to the trouble of carrying all sorts of important documents around, not just your music and video library.

And why stop at simply displaying documents? You'd want to edit them right there on the screen. That would make it a portable minicomputer. So where's the keyboard? Right on the screen. Put that multitouch screen to work displaying a virtual Qwerty keyboard, only bigger than that found on the iPhone and the Touch, and suitable for two-fingered hunt-and-peck typing. Add a Bluetooth wireless connection—which the iPhone has, but the Touch lacks—and you'd also have the option of using a conventional wireless keyboard.

Atom Effect

Bluetooth would also come in handy for a wireless headset to make Internet phone calls on the Skype (EBAY) and Gizmo Project clients that would inevitably follow. Skype is already available on Sony's (SNE) Mylo, a Wi-Fi messaging device, and has been embedded in a series of Wi-Fi handsets from Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Netgear (NTGR). And SIPphone's Gizmo Project calling software has been available on Nokia's (NOK) Web tablets for some time.

This wireless micro-Mac wouldn't have the processing power of a full-fledged Mac notebook, but it could serve as a pretty robust dinghy that would do plenty more than most handhelds. Intel (INTC), which has been talking about a new class of devices that lie somewhere between notebook PCs and smartphones, has a new low-power chip called the Atom that it hopes will drive the creation of this new category. I'll admit I've been skeptical of the idea since it was first floated in 2006. But I hadn't been thinking of what a company as innovative as Apple, now Intel's marquee customer, might do with this idea.

The conjecture and speculation about what devices the iPod Touch may spawn will certainly be interesting to watch in the coming months. Given the signals it's sending, Apple is just starting down what looks to be a fascinating path.

Hesseldahl is a senior writer for BusinessWeek.com and his Byte of the Apple column, covering all things Apple, appears biweekly at www.businessweek.com/technology.