iPhone.AppStorm
The iPod has come a long way since 2001. The 2nd generation model sitting on my desk doesn’t have a color screen, weighs enough to be used as a self-defense aid and does little else than play music (tho’ block breaker was a pretty cool feature at the time).
My iPod Touch on the other mitt is an astonishing technological feat rivaling that of the iPhone. However, there are undoubtedly a few major features that iPhone users love that I miss out on. Fortunately, several app developers are on the task of closing this feature gap and have significantly extended the functionality of the iPod Touch.
Today we’ll look at ten apps that help make your iPod Touch a lot cooler by mimicking some of the basic features found on iPhones.
Why Not Just Get an iPhone?
If you’re an iPod Touch possessor, odds are, you truly desired an iPhone but were ultimately coerced to lodge for less (not always the case, but true for so many). This is an all too common story due to the several hurdles that stand in the way of many would-be customers who would gladly fork over $300 for a shiny fresh iPhone.
The thickest hurdle for many US inhabitants is AT&T. This story typically goes one of two ways. One group of people has eventually determined that they don’t care who their carrier is as long as they can have an iPhone. Unluckily however, they’re trapped in a multi-year contract with another carrier and turn down to pay the cancellation fees for early termination.
The 2nd group of people loathe AT&T and will never switch. Some of these people have just had bad practices, others have never even attempted the carrier but abstain because of poor reviews from friends and family.
One final group of iPod Touch owners simply turn down to pay for data plans from any carrier. Ordinary roll phones void of apps, touch screens and full-featured web browsers make phone calls just fine for half the monthly fee.
Whatever your reason may be for not getting an iPhone, the truth is that an iPod Touch is an awesome alternative. It does almost everything the iPhone does with only a few notable exceptions.
Let’s take a look at a few of the major missing features along with ten apps and/or devices that you can use to address the problem.
Phone Calls
The very first and most visible feature is the capability to make phone calls. The iPhone is a phone, the iPod Touch isn’t. It’s as ordinary as that. Neither the hardware nor the software were built with this intention in mind, so can it be done?
Let’s talk about hardware very first. The most latest models of the iPod Touch feature support for the Apple mic/remote headphones, meaning that they can in fact treat both the audio-in and audio-out aspects of a phone conversation. The bonus is that these calls can often be made downright free of charge and void of any contracts.
Unluckily, the iPod hardware doesn’t have cellular capability so the software solution will have to be VoIP. With the options below you’ll essentially be making phone calls over your WiFi connection.
Skype
“With Skype on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. You can also save on international calls and text messages to phones. Skype is free to download and effortless to use.”
Acrobits Softphone – SIP phone for VoIP calls
“Use your iPhone [and iPod Touch] to make inexpensive calls over the internet anywhere. Call International destinations for pennies a minute. Call friends on the same network for free. Save on wandering charges by using the Softphone to make calls while abroad. Set up numerous SIP accounts and switch inbetween them depending on who has the best rate for your call destination. Make calls through your office PBX, using your business number from anywhere.”
iCall Free VoIP
“Selected as a Fresh York Times App of the Week, iCall is used by over Four,000,000 people worldwide. iCall is switching the way people around the globe communicate. iCall permits you to make and receive phone calls over 3G and WiFi, even when you don’t have a cell signal. Never pay a wandering charge again!”
iCall Free VoIP
fring
“fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free movie calls and live IM talks directly from your iPhone and iPod touch. fring operates as your mobile social hub. Communicate with your friends from fring and other dearest social services including MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! , AIM, ICQ, all through one central profile, using your iPhone and iPod touch’s internet capability.”
Text Messaging
Another basic phone feature not found on the iPod Touch is text messaging. This feature can be even more significant to many users as text messaging resumes to become more popular than even calling.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of texting apps available for the iPod Touch that permit you to send free texts to whoever you want. Here are a few to attempt out.
Textfree Unlimited
“Yep, send and receive unlimited free texts from an iPod touch or iPhone to any US mobile phone. No catch, no hidden anything, no yearly fees!”
AIM doesn’t just do instant messaging, it also supports Facebook talk and SMS texting as well. It’s an awesome all-in-one messaging solution that gives you access to tons of your friends across various networks, all free!
Textie
“The creators of Tweetie and Borange are proud to present Textie Messaging, the unlimited texting app for iPhone and iPod touch. If you and a friend both have iPhones but are still paying to text each other, we certainly recommend you attempt using Textie Messaging instead–and communicate for free.”
Camera
Despite unceasing customer requests, Apple has yet to put a camera in the iPod Touch. It’s interesting to note that if you pay $149 for an iPod Nano, you get a neat movie camera, but if you fork out the extra dough and pay $199 for an iPod Touch, you get zilch.
This is certainly a improvised problem. With Apple promising to sell millions of FaceTime compatible devices, you can bet they’re going to begin sticking cameras in both iPod Touches and iPads sometime in the near future (likely in the next duo months).
In the mean time, iPod Touch owners will have to remain without a solution for taking pictures… or will they?
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
This handy app permits you to control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR camera. You can “instantly adjust its settings, fire the shutter, review photos, even get a live viewfinder preview.”
Technically, this app permits you to take pictures using your iPod. However, this is ultimately nothing like having a built-in camera (cut me some slack, it’s all I could find). Most people don’t have a 5D lounging around and even if they do you still have to connect the camera to your computer making this solution not very mobility-friendly. But for any photographers out there, this is undoubtedly a pretty neat app!
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
Internet Access on the Go
The most significant annoyance I run into as an iPod Touch proprietor is simply the fact that I often can’t connect to the web when I’m outside of my house. Fortunately, I live in a major city and hotspots are plentiful, but there are still lots of dead zones where I simply can’t connect.
The best way to rid yourself of this problem is to pick up a private mobile hotspot such as the MiFi. These awesome little guys provide wireless Internet access to any Wifi enabled devices from anywhere that you would normally have cell service.
As another option, Sprint is rumored to be releasing a fresh product called “Peel” that is essentially a mobile hotspot packaged in an iPod Touch case. This would permit iPod Touch owners to seamlessly practice the same kind of freedom that iPhone users love.
Unluckily, these options all come with fat monthly fees (my research indicates around $30-40/month on the low end). Since many iPod Touch owners see having no contract or monthly fee as a major bonus, this will likely still leave a large part of the market sticking to unspoiled WiFi.
For these users, the best you can do is download an app to help you find local WiFi hotspots so that you can lightly know if the place you’re going will have coverage or not.
Wi-Fi Finder
“Quickly and lightly find FREE or paid Wi-Fi when you travel with the JiWire Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone and iPod Touch. Download all of the locations offline, so you know how to stay connected when you are on the road. ”
Catches sight of – The WiFi Hotspot Directory
“Catches sight of is a quick and beautiful hotspot directory containing half a million hotspots worldwide. Since Catches sight of works offline, you can find hotspots from the included database. Catches sight of does not use Wi-Fi to scan for nearest access points, nor does it contact any web services.”
Conclusion
Unluckily, the iPhone will likely always remain at least a little cooler than the iPod Touch. However, apps like those found above will proceed to shove the bounds of the iPod making it ever closer to an all-in-one media and communication device free from any contracts and not tied to a specific service provider.
Leave a comment below and let us know what apps you use on your iPod Touch to make it feel a bit more like an iPhone!
Ten Apps To Make Your iPod Touch as Awesome as an iPhone – orm
iPhone.AppStorm
The iPod has come a long way since 2001. The 2nd generation model sitting on my desk doesn’t have a color screen, weighs enough to be used as a self-defense aid and does little else than play music (however block breaker was a pretty cool feature at the time).
My iPod Touch on the other arm is an astonishing technological feat rivaling that of the iPhone. However, there are undoubtedly a few major features that iPhone users love that I miss out on. Fortunately, several app developers are on the task of closing this feature gap and have significantly extended the functionality of the iPod Touch.
Today we’ll look at ten apps that help make your iPod Touch a lot cooler by mimicking some of the basic features found on iPhones.
Why Not Just Get an iPhone?
If you’re an iPod Touch possessor, odds are, you truly dreamed an iPhone but were ultimately compelled to lodge for less (not always the case, but true for so many). This is an all too common story due to the several hurdles that stand in the way of many would-be customers who would gladly fork over $300 for a shiny fresh iPhone.
The thickest hurdle for many US inhabitants is AT&T. This story typically goes one of two ways. One group of people has ultimately determined that they don’t care who their carrier is as long as they can have an iPhone. Unluckily tho’, they’re trapped in a multi-year contract with another carrier and turn down to pay the cancellation fees for early termination.
The 2nd group of people loathe AT&T and will never switch. Some of these people have just had bad practices, others have never even attempted the carrier but abstain because of poor reviews from friends and family.
One final group of iPod Touch owners simply turn down to pay for data plans from any carrier. Ordinary spin phones void of apps, touch screens and full-featured web browsers make phone calls just fine for half the monthly fee.
Whatever your reason may be for not getting an iPhone, the truth is that an iPod Touch is an awesome alternative. It does almost everything the iPhone does with only a few notable exceptions.
Let’s take a look at a few of the major missing features along with ten apps and/or devices that you can use to address the problem.
Phone Calls
The very first and most visible feature is the capability to make phone calls. The iPhone is a phone, the iPod Touch isn’t. It’s as elementary as that. Neither the hardware nor the software were built with this intention in mind, so can it be done?
Let’s talk about hardware very first. The most latest models of the iPod Touch feature support for the Apple mic/remote headphones, meaning that they can in fact treat both the audio-in and audio-out aspects of a phone conversation. The bonus is that these calls can often be made downright free of charge and void of any contracts.
Unluckily, the iPod hardware doesn’t have cellular capability so the software solution will have to be VoIP. With the options below you’ll essentially be making phone calls over your WiFi connection.
Skype
“With Skype on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. You can also save on international calls and text messages to phones. Skype is free to download and effortless to use.”
Acrobits Softphone – SIP phone for VoIP calls
“Use your iPhone [and iPod Touch] to make inexpensive calls over the internet anywhere. Call International destinations for pennies a minute. Call friends on the same network for free. Save on wandering charges by using the Softphone to make calls while abroad. Set up numerous SIP accounts and switch inbetween them depending on who has the best rate for your call destination. Make calls through your office PBX, using your business number from anywhere.”
iCall Free VoIP
“Selected as a Fresh York Times App of the Week, iCall is used by over Four,000,000 people worldwide. iCall is switching the way people around the globe communicate. iCall permits you to make and receive phone calls over 3G and WiFi, even when you don’t have a cell signal. Never pay a wandering charge again!”
iCall Free VoIP
fring
“fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free movie calls and live IM talks directly from your iPhone and iPod touch. fring operates as your mobile social hub. Communicate with your friends from fring and other beloved social services including MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! , AIM, ICQ, all through one central profile, using your iPhone and iPod touch’s internet capability.”
Text Messaging
Another basic phone feature not found on the iPod Touch is text messaging. This feature can be even more significant to many users as text messaging proceeds to become more popular than even calling.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of texting apps available for the iPod Touch that permit you to send free texts to whoever you want. Here are a few to attempt out.
Textfree Unlimited
“Yep, send and receive unlimited free texts from an iPod touch or iPhone to any US mobile phone. No catch, no hidden anything, no yearly fees!”
AIM doesn’t just do instant messaging, it also supports Facebook talk and SMS texting as well. It’s an awesome all-in-one messaging solution that gives you access to tons of your friends across various networks, all free!
Textie
“The creators of Tweetie and Borange are proud to present Textie Messaging, the unlimited texting app for iPhone and iPod touch. If you and a friend both have iPhones but are still paying to text each other, we undoubtedly recommend you attempt using Textie Messaging instead–and communicate for free.”
Camera
Despite unceasing customer requests, Apple has yet to put a camera in the iPod Touch. It’s interesting to note that if you pay $149 for an iPod Nano, you get a neat movie camera, but if you fork out the extra dough and pay $199 for an iPod Touch, you get zilch.
This is certainly a makeshift problem. With Apple promising to sell millions of FaceTime compatible devices, you can bet they’re going to embark sticking cameras in both iPod Touches and iPads sometime in the near future (likely in the next duo months).
In the mean time, iPod Touch owners will have to remain without a solution for taking pictures… or will they?
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
This handy app permits you to control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR camera. You can “instantly adjust its settings, fire the shutter, review pics, even get a live viewfinder preview.”
Technically, this app permits you to take pictures using your iPod. However, this is ultimately nothing like having a built-in camera (cut me some slack, it’s all I could find). Most people don’t have a 5D lounging around and even if they do you still have to connect the camera to your computer making this solution not very mobility-friendly. But for any photographers out there, this is undoubtedly a pretty neat app!
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
Internet Access on the Go
The most significant annoyance I run into as an iPod Touch holder is simply the fact that I often can’t connect to the web when I’m outside of my house. Fortunately, I live in a major city and hotspots are plentiful, but there are still lots of dead zones where I simply can’t connect.
The best way to rid yourself of this problem is to pick up a individual mobile hotspot such as the MiFi. These awesome little guys provide wireless Internet access to any Wifi enabled devices from anywhere that you would normally have cell service.
As another option, Sprint is rumored to be releasing a fresh product called “Peel” that is essentially a mobile hotspot packaged in an iPod Touch case. This would permit iPod Touch owners to seamlessly practice the same kind of freedom that iPhone users love.
Unluckily, these options all come with fat monthly fees (my research indicates around $30-40/month on the low end). Since many iPod Touch owners see having no contract or monthly fee as a major bonus, this will likely still leave a large part of the market sticking to unspoiled WiFi.
For these users, the best you can do is download an app to help you find local WiFi hotspots so that you can lightly know if the place you’re going will have coverage or not.
Wi-Fi Finder
“Quickly and lightly find FREE or paid Wi-Fi when you travel with the JiWire Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone and iPod Touch. Download all of the locations offline, so you know how to stay connected when you are on the road. ”
Catches sight of – The WiFi Hotspot Directory
“Catches sight of is a quick and beautiful hotspot directory containing half a million hotspots worldwide. Since Catches sight of works offline, you can find hotspots from the included database. Catches sight of does not use Wi-Fi to scan for nearest access points, nor does it contact any web services.”
Conclusion
Unluckily, the iPhone will likely always remain at least a little cooler than the iPod Touch. However, apps like those found above will proceed to thrust the bounds of the iPod making it ever closer to an all-in-one media and communication device free from any contracts and not tied to a specific service provider.
Leave a comment below and let us know what apps you use on your iPod Touch to make it feel a bit more like an iPhone!
Ten Apps To Make Your iPod Touch as Awesome as an iPhone – orm
iPhone.AppStorm
The iPod has come a long way since 2001. The 2nd generation model sitting on my desk doesn’t have a color screen, weighs enough to be used as a self-defense aid and does little else than play music (however block breaker was a pretty cool feature at the time).
My iPod Touch on the other arm is an astonishing technological feat rivaling that of the iPhone. However, there are certainly a few major features that iPhone users love that I miss out on. Fortunately, several app developers are on the task of closing this feature gap and have significantly extended the functionality of the iPod Touch.
Today we’ll look at ten apps that help make your iPod Touch a lot cooler by mimicking some of the basic features found on iPhones.
Why Not Just Get an iPhone?
If you’re an iPod Touch proprietor, odds are, you truly desired an iPhone but were ultimately coerced to lodge for less (not always the case, but true for so many). This is an all too common story due to the several hurdles that stand in the way of many would-be customers who would gladly fork over $300 for a shiny fresh iPhone.
The largest hurdle for many US inhabitants is AT&T. This story typically goes one of two ways. One group of people has ultimately determined that they don’t care who their carrier is as long as they can have an iPhone. Unluckily tho’, they’re trapped in a multi-year contract with another carrier and turn down to pay the cancellation fees for early termination.
The 2nd group of people loathe AT&T and will never switch. Some of these people have just had bad practices, others have never even attempted the carrier but abstain because of poor reviews from friends and family.
One final group of iPod Touch owners simply turn down to pay for data plans from any carrier. Elementary spin phones void of apps, touch screens and full-featured web browsers make phone calls just fine for half the monthly fee.
Whatever your reason may be for not getting an iPhone, the truth is that an iPod Touch is an awesome alternative. It does almost everything the iPhone does with only a few notable exceptions.
Let’s take a look at a few of the major missing features along with ten apps and/or devices that you can use to address the problem.
Phone Calls
The very first and most demonstrable feature is the capability to make phone calls. The iPhone is a phone, the iPod Touch isn’t. It’s as ordinary as that. Neither the hardware nor the software were built with this intention in mind, so can it be done?
Let’s talk about hardware very first. The most latest models of the iPod Touch feature support for the Apple mic/remote headphones, meaning that they can in fact treat both the audio-in and audio-out aspects of a phone conversation. The bonus is that these calls can often be made totally free of charge and void of any contracts.
Unluckily, the iPod hardware doesn’t have cellular capability so the software solution will have to be VoIP. With the options below you’ll essentially be making phone calls over your WiFi connection.
Skype
“With Skype on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. You can also save on international calls and text messages to phones. Skype is free to download and effortless to use.”
Acrobits Softphone – SIP phone for VoIP calls
“Use your iPhone [and iPod Touch] to make inexpensive calls over the internet anywhere. Call International destinations for pennies a minute. Call friends on the same network for free. Save on wandering charges by using the Softphone to make calls while abroad. Set up numerous SIP accounts and switch inbetween them depending on who has the best rate for your call destination. Make calls through your office PBX, using your business number from anywhere.”
iCall Free VoIP
“Selected as a Fresh York Times App of the Week, iCall is used by over Four,000,000 people worldwide. iCall is switching the way people around the globe communicate. iCall permits you to make and receive phone calls over 3G and WiFi, even when you don’t have a cell signal. Never pay a wandering charge again!”
iCall Free VoIP
fring
“fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free movie calls and live IM talks directly from your iPhone and iPod touch. fring operates as your mobile social hub. Communicate with your friends from fring and other beloved social services including MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! , AIM, ICQ, all through one central profile, using your iPhone and iPod touch’s internet capability.”
Text Messaging
Another basic phone feature not found on the iPod Touch is text messaging. This feature can be even more significant to many users as text messaging resumes to become more popular than even calling.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of texting apps available for the iPod Touch that permit you to send free texts to whoever you want. Here are a few to attempt out.
Textfree Unlimited
“Yep, send and receive unlimited free texts from an iPod touch or iPhone to any US mobile phone. No catch, no hidden anything, no yearly fees!”
AIM doesn’t just do instant messaging, it also supports Facebook talk and SMS texting as well. It’s an awesome all-in-one messaging solution that gives you access to tons of your friends across various networks, all free!
Textie
“The creators of Tweetie and Borange are proud to present Textie Messaging, the unlimited texting app for iPhone and iPod touch. If you and a friend both have iPhones but are still paying to text each other, we certainly recommend you attempt using Textie Messaging instead–and communicate for free.”
Camera
Despite unceasing customer requests, Apple has yet to put a camera in the iPod Touch. It’s interesting to note that if you pay $149 for an iPod Nano, you get a neat movie camera, but if you fork out the extra dough and pay $199 for an iPod Touch, you get zilch.
This is undoubtedly a makeshift problem. With Apple promising to sell millions of FaceTime compatible devices, you can bet they’re going to begin sticking cameras in both iPod Touches and iPads sometime in the near future (likely in the next duo months).
In the mean time, iPod Touch owners will have to remain without a solution for taking pictures… or will they?
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
This handy app permits you to control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR camera. You can “instantly adjust its settings, fire the shutter, review photos, even get a live viewfinder preview.”
Technically, this app permits you to take pictures using your iPod. However, this is ultimately nothing like having a built-in camera (cut me some slack, it’s all I could find). Most people don’t have a 5D lounging around and even if they do you still have to connect the camera to your computer making this solution not very mobility-friendly. But for any photographers out there, this is undoubtedly a pretty neat app!
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
Internet Access on the Go
The most significant annoyance I run into as an iPod Touch proprietor is simply the fact that I often can’t connect to the web when I’m outside of my house. Fortunately, I live in a major city and hotspots are plentiful, but there are still lots of dead zones where I simply can’t connect.
The best way to rid yourself of this problem is to pick up a private mobile hotspot such as the MiFi. These awesome little guys provide wireless Internet access to any Wifi enabled devices from anywhere that you would normally have cell service.
As another option, Sprint is rumored to be releasing a fresh product called “Peel” that is essentially a mobile hotspot packaged in an iPod Touch case. This would permit iPod Touch owners to seamlessly practice the same kind of freedom that iPhone users love.
Unluckily, these options all come with fat monthly fees (my research indicates around $30-40/month on the low end). Since many iPod Touch owners see having no contract or monthly fee as a major bonus, this will likely still leave a large part of the market sticking to unspoiled WiFi.
For these users, the best you can do is download an app to help you find local WiFi hotspots so that you can lightly know if the place you’re going will have coverage or not.
Wi-Fi Finder
“Quickly and lightly find FREE or paid Wi-Fi when you travel with the JiWire Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone and iPod Touch. Download all of the locations offline, so you know how to stay connected when you are on the road. ”
Catches sight of – The WiFi Hotspot Directory
“Catches sight of is a quick and beautiful hotspot directory containing half a million hotspots worldwide. Since Catches sight of works offline, you can find hotspots from the included database. Catches sight of does not use Wi-Fi to scan for nearest access points, nor does it contact any web services.”
Conclusion
Unluckily, the iPhone will likely always remain at least a little cooler than the iPod Touch. However, apps like those found above will proceed to shove the bounds of the iPod making it ever closer to an all-in-one media and communication device free from any contracts and not tied to a specific service provider.
Leave a comment below and let us know what apps you use on your iPod Touch to make it feel a bit more like an iPhone!
Ten Apps To Make Your iPod Touch as Awesome as an iPhone – orm
iPhone.AppStorm
The iPod has come a long way since 2001. The 2nd generation model sitting on my desk doesn’t have a color screen, weighs enough to be used as a self-defense aid and does little else than play music (tho’ block breaker was a pretty cool feature at the time).
My iPod Touch on the other forearm is an astonishing technological feat rivaling that of the iPhone. However, there are certainly a few major features that iPhone users love that I miss out on. Fortunately, several app developers are on the task of closing this feature gap and have significantly extended the functionality of the iPod Touch.
Today we’ll look at ten apps that help make your iPod Touch a lot cooler by mimicking some of the basic features found on iPhones.
Why Not Just Get an iPhone?
If you’re an iPod Touch possessor, odds are, you indeed dreamed an iPhone but were ultimately compelled to lodge for less (not always the case, but true for so many). This is an all too common story due to the several hurdles that stand in the way of many would-be customers who would gladly fork over $300 for a shiny fresh iPhone.
The largest hurdle for many US inhabitants is AT&T. This story typically goes one of two ways. One group of people has ultimately determined that they don’t care who their carrier is as long as they can have an iPhone. Unluckily tho’, they’re trapped in a multi-year contract with another carrier and deny to pay the cancellation fees for early termination.
The 2nd group of people loathe AT&T and will never switch. Some of these people have just had bad practices, others have never even attempted the carrier but abstain because of poor reviews from friends and family.
One final group of iPod Touch owners simply deny to pay for data plans from any carrier. Plain spin phones void of apps, touch screens and full-featured web browsers make phone calls just fine for half the monthly fee.
Whatever your reason may be for not getting an iPhone, the truth is that an iPod Touch is an awesome alternative. It does almost everything the iPhone does with only a few notable exceptions.
Let’s take a look at a few of the major missing features along with ten apps and/or devices that you can use to address the problem.
Phone Calls
The very first and most demonstrable feature is the capability to make phone calls. The iPhone is a phone, the iPod Touch isn’t. It’s as ordinary as that. Neither the hardware nor the software were built with this intention in mind, so can it be done?
Let’s talk about hardware very first. The most latest models of the iPod Touch feature support for the Apple mic/remote headphones, meaning that they can in fact treat both the audio-in and audio-out aspects of a phone conversation. The bonus is that these calls can often be made fully free of charge and void of any contracts.
Unluckily, the iPod hardware doesn’t have cellular capability so the software solution will have to be VoIP. With the options below you’ll essentially be making phone calls over your WiFi connection.
Skype
“With Skype on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. You can also save on international calls and text messages to phones. Skype is free to download and effortless to use.”
Acrobits Softphone – SIP phone for VoIP calls
“Use your iPhone [and iPod Touch] to make inexpensive calls over the internet anywhere. Call International destinations for pennies a minute. Call friends on the same network for free. Save on wandering charges by using the Softphone to make calls while abroad. Set up numerous SIP accounts and switch inbetween them depending on who has the best rate for your call destination. Make calls through your office PBX, using your business number from anywhere.”
iCall Free VoIP
“Selected as a Fresh York Times App of the Week, iCall is used by over Four,000,000 people worldwide. iCall is switching the way people around the globe communicate. iCall permits you to make and receive phone calls over 3G and WiFi, even when you don’t have a cell signal. Never pay a wandering charge again!”
iCall Free VoIP
fring
“fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free movie calls and live IM talks directly from your iPhone and iPod touch. fring operates as your mobile social hub. Communicate with your friends from fring and other dearest social services including MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! , AIM, ICQ, all through one central profile, using your iPhone and iPod touch’s internet capability.”
Text Messaging
Another basic phone feature not found on the iPod Touch is text messaging. This feature can be even more significant to many users as text messaging proceeds to become more popular than even calling.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of texting apps available for the iPod Touch that permit you to send free texts to whoever you want. Here are a few to attempt out.
Textfree Unlimited
“Yep, send and receive unlimited free texts from an iPod touch or iPhone to any US mobile phone. No catch, no hidden anything, no yearly fees!”
AIM doesn’t just do instant messaging, it also supports Facebook talk and SMS texting as well. It’s an awesome all-in-one messaging solution that gives you access to tons of your friends across various networks, all free!
Textie
“The creators of Tweetie and Borange are proud to present Textie Messaging, the unlimited texting app for iPhone and iPod touch. If you and a friend both have iPhones but are still paying to text each other, we undoubtedly recommend you attempt using Textie Messaging instead–and communicate for free.”
Camera
Despite unceasing customer requests, Apple has yet to put a camera in the iPod Touch. It’s interesting to note that if you pay $149 for an iPod Nano, you get a neat movie camera, but if you fork out the extra dough and pay $199 for an iPod Touch, you get zilch.
This is certainly a improvised problem. With Apple promising to sell millions of FaceTime compatible devices, you can bet they’re going to embark sticking cameras in both iPod Touches and iPads sometime in the near future (likely in the next duo months).
In the mean time, iPod Touch owners will have to remain without a solution for taking pictures… or will they?
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
This handy app permits you to control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR camera. You can “instantly adjust its settings, fire the shutter, review pictures, even get a live viewfinder preview.”
Technically, this app permits you to take pictures using your iPod. However, this is ultimately nothing like having a built-in camera (cut me some slack, it’s all I could find). Most people don’t have a 5D lounging around and even if they do you still have to connect the camera to your computer making this solution not very mobility-friendly. But for any photographers out there, this is undoubtedly a pretty neat app!
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
Internet Access on the Go
The most significant annoyance I run into as an iPod Touch proprietor is simply the fact that I often can’t connect to the web when I’m outside of my house. Fortunately, I live in a major city and hotspots are plentiful, but there are still lots of dead zones where I simply can’t connect.
The best way to rid yourself of this problem is to pick up a private mobile hotspot such as the MiFi. These awesome little guys provide wireless Internet access to any Wifi enabled devices from anywhere that you would normally have cell service.
As another option, Sprint is rumored to be releasing a fresh product called “Peel” that is essentially a mobile hotspot packaged in an iPod Touch case. This would permit iPod Touch owners to seamlessly practice the same kind of freedom that iPhone users love.
Unluckily, these options all come with fat monthly fees (my research indicates around $30-40/month on the low end). Since many iPod Touch owners see having no contract or monthly fee as a major bonus, this will likely still leave a large part of the market sticking to unspoiled WiFi.
For these users, the best you can do is download an app to help you find local WiFi hotspots so that you can lightly know if the place you’re going will have coverage or not.
Wi-Fi Finder
“Quickly and lightly find FREE or paid Wi-Fi when you travel with the JiWire Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone and iPod Touch. Download all of the locations offline, so you know how to stay connected when you are on the road. ”
Catches sight of – The WiFi Hotspot Directory
“Catches sight of is a quick and beautiful hotspot directory containing half a million hotspots worldwide. Since Catches sight of works offline, you can find hotspots from the included database. Catches sight of does not use Wi-Fi to scan for nearest access points, nor does it contact any web services.”
Conclusion
Unluckily, the iPhone will likely always remain at least a little cooler than the iPod Touch. However, apps like those found above will proceed to thrust the bounds of the iPod making it ever closer to an all-in-one media and communication device free from any contracts and not tied to a specific service provider.
Leave a comment below and let us know what apps you use on your iPod Touch to make it feel a bit more like an iPhone!
Ten Apps To Make Your iPod Touch as Awesome as an iPhone – orm
iPhone.AppStorm
The iPod has come a long way since 2001. The 2nd generation model sitting on my desk doesn’t have a color screen, weighs enough to be used as a self-defense aid and does little else than play music (tho’ block breaker was a pretty cool feature at the time).
My iPod Touch on the other arm is an astonishing technological feat rivaling that of the iPhone. However, there are certainly a few major features that iPhone users love that I miss out on. Fortunately, several app developers are on the task of closing this feature gap and have significantly extended the functionality of the iPod Touch.
Today we’ll look at ten apps that help make your iPod Touch a lot cooler by mimicking some of the basic features found on iPhones.
Why Not Just Get an iPhone?
If you’re an iPod Touch proprietor, odds are, you truly wished an iPhone but were ultimately compelled to lodge for less (not always the case, but true for so many). This is an all too common story due to the several hurdles that stand in the way of many would-be customers who would gladly fork over $300 for a shiny fresh iPhone.
The largest hurdle for many US inhabitants is AT&T. This story typically goes one of two ways. One group of people has ultimately determined that they don’t care who their carrier is as long as they can have an iPhone. Unluckily tho’, they’re trapped in a multi-year contract with another carrier and turn down to pay the cancellation fees for early termination.
The 2nd group of people loathe AT&T and will never switch. Some of these people have just had bad practices, others have never even attempted the carrier but abstain because of poor reviews from friends and family.
One final group of iPod Touch owners simply turn down to pay for data plans from any carrier. Elementary spin phones void of apps, touch screens and full-featured web browsers make phone calls just fine for half the monthly fee.
Whatever your reason may be for not getting an iPhone, the truth is that an iPod Touch is an awesome alternative. It does almost everything the iPhone does with only a few notable exceptions.
Let’s take a look at a few of the major missing features along with ten apps and/or devices that you can use to address the problem.
Phone Calls
The very first and most demonstrable feature is the capability to make phone calls. The iPhone is a phone, the iPod Touch isn’t. It’s as plain as that. Neither the hardware nor the software were built with this intention in mind, so can it be done?
Let’s talk about hardware very first. The most latest models of the iPod Touch feature support for the Apple mic/remote headphones, meaning that they can in fact treat both the audio-in and audio-out aspects of a phone conversation. The bonus is that these calls can often be made downright free of charge and void of any contracts.
Unluckily, the iPod hardware doesn’t have cellular capability so the software solution will have to be VoIP. With the options below you’ll essentially be making phone calls over your WiFi connection.
Skype
“With Skype on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, you can make and receive calls, and instant message anyone else on Skype, wherever they are in the world. You can also save on international calls and text messages to phones. Skype is free to download and effortless to use.”
Acrobits Softphone – SIP phone for VoIP calls
“Use your iPhone [and iPod Touch] to make inexpensive calls over the internet anywhere. Call International destinations for pennies a minute. Call friends on the same network for free. Save on wandering charges by using the Softphone to make calls while abroad. Set up numerous SIP accounts and switch inbetween them depending on who has the best rate for your call destination. Make calls through your office PBX, using your business number from anywhere.”
iCall Free VoIP
“Selected as a Fresh York Times App of the Week, iCall is used by over Four,000,000 people worldwide. iCall is switching the way people around the globe communicate. iCall permits you to make and receive phone calls over 3G and WiFi, even when you don’t have a cell signal. Never pay a wandering charge again!”
iCall Free VoIP
fring
“fring is a multi-award winning mobile application that lets you make free voice calls, free movie calls and live IM talks directly from your iPhone and iPod touch. fring operates as your mobile social hub. Communicate with your friends from fring and other dearest social services including MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk™, Twitter, Yahoo! , AIM, ICQ, all through one central profile, using your iPhone and iPod touch’s internet capability.”
Text Messaging
Another basic phone feature not found on the iPod Touch is text messaging. This feature can be even more significant to many users as text messaging proceeds to become more popular than even calling.
Fortunately, there are a plethora of texting apps available for the iPod Touch that permit you to send free texts to whoever you want. Here are a few to attempt out.
Textfree Unlimited
“Yep, send and receive unlimited free texts from an iPod touch or iPhone to any US mobile phone. No catch, no hidden anything, no yearly fees!”
AIM doesn’t just do instant messaging, it also supports Facebook talk and SMS texting as well. It’s an awesome all-in-one messaging solution that gives you access to tons of your friends across various networks, all free!
Textie
“The creators of Tweetie and Borange are proud to present Textie Messaging, the unlimited texting app for iPhone and iPod touch. If you and a friend both have iPhones but are still paying to text each other, we certainly recommend you attempt using Textie Messaging instead–and communicate for free.”
Camera
Despite unceasing customer requests, Apple has yet to put a camera in the iPod Touch. It’s interesting to note that if you pay $149 for an iPod Nano, you get a neat movie camera, but if you fork out the extra dough and pay $199 for an iPod Touch, you get zilch.
This is undoubtedly a makeshift problem. With Apple promising to sell millions of FaceTime compatible devices, you can bet they’re going to embark sticking cameras in both iPod Touches and iPads sometime in the near future (likely in the next duo months).
In the mean time, iPod Touch owners will have to remain without a solution for taking pictures… or will they?
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
This handy app permits you to control your Canon EOS or Nikon DSLR camera. You can “instantly adjust its settings, fire the shutter, review pictures, even get a live viewfinder preview.”
Technically, this app permits you to take pictures using your iPod. However, this is ultimately nothing like having a built-in camera (cut me some slack, it’s all I could find). Most people don’t have a 5D lounging around and even if they do you still have to connect the camera to your computer making this solution not very mobility-friendly. But for any photographers out there, this is undoubtedly a pretty neat app!
DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition
Internet Access on the Go
The most significant annoyance I run into as an iPod Touch proprietor is simply the fact that I often can’t connect to the web when I’m outside of my house. Fortunately, I live in a major city and hotspots are plentiful, but there are still lots of dead zones where I simply can’t connect.
The best way to rid yourself of this problem is to pick up a individual mobile hotspot such as the MiFi. These awesome little guys provide wireless Internet access to any Wifi enabled devices from anywhere that you would normally have cell service.
As another option, Sprint is rumored to be releasing a fresh product called “Peel” that is essentially a mobile hotspot packaged in an iPod Touch case. This would permit iPod Touch owners to seamlessly practice the same kind of freedom that iPhone users love.
Unluckily, these options all come with fat monthly fees (my research indicates around $30-40/month on the low end). Since many iPod Touch owners see having no contract or monthly fee as a major bonus, this will likely still leave a large part of the market sticking to unspoiled WiFi.
For these users, the best you can do is download an app to help you find local WiFi hotspots so that you can lightly know if the place you’re going will have coverage or not.
Wi-Fi Finder
“Quickly and lightly find FREE or paid Wi-Fi when you travel with the JiWire Wi-Fi Finder for iPhone and iPod Touch. Download all of the locations offline, so you know how to stay connected when you are on the road. ”
Catches sight of – The WiFi Hotspot Directory
“Catches sight of is a prompt and beautiful hotspot directory containing half a million hotspots worldwide. Since Catches sight of works offline, you can find hotspots from the included database. Catches sight of does not use Wi-Fi to scan for nearest access points, nor does it contact any web services.”
Conclusion
Unluckily, the iPhone will likely always remain at least a little cooler than the iPod Touch. However, apps like those found above will proceed to thrust the bounds of the iPod making it ever closer to an all-in-one media and communication device free from any contracts and not tied to a specific service provider.
Leave a comment below and let us know what apps you use on your iPod Touch to make it feel a bit more like an iPhone!