When the iPod Touch was first released, my initial thought that this was a device that could be built upon. Like a home computer or a laptop, this tiny device had enough processing power to incorporate some really great features. Built in WiFi, MultiTouch screen, and an accelerometer would give this device a real advantage over the previous generation PDA’s.
Don’t fool yourself. If Apple have their way, the iPod Touch, and the iPhone will never achieve their potential. It is a closed system. All applications have to come from them. Even their forthcoming SDK (due next month) will only allow developers to distribute applications through them. It is a shortsighted and crippling vision.
The best way to take this device to the next level is to open it up and see what the development community wants to do with it. Like Windows Mobile and the Blackberry, open it up so that people can load up their own apps. Companies created their own inventory applications, communications tools, actual productivity stuff.
So, at MacWorld this week, Steve Jobs announced that they were taking applications for the iPhone and making them available on the iPod Touch… for a $20 upgrade fee! Well, there is a way to open up this great platform…. and a hacking we will go…
