With all the attention surrounding Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad lately, everyone seems to have forgotten about the iPod Touch. Its most recent hardware upgrade was hardly an upgrade by any standards, offering a bigger hard drive, more memory, and ummm voice control? I ain’t drooling over that, Apple.

The fine people at PC World recently wrote an article listing 7 must-have features in the next iPod Touch. For example, mostly notably, they cited a new camera, retina display, and Facetime. Sorry, PC World. But that’s not called innovation. That’s the iPhone 4.

So, what must-have features should Apple really pursue in the next iPod Touch? Check out my ill-conceived wishlist:

1. The obvious stuff:

Better battery life, more memory, heck, might as well throw in retina display. Essentially, the kind of stuff that Apple would include if they decided to release another iPod Touch 3G.

2. A louder speaker:


I’m not the person who likes to blast Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber in my room all night, so I can safely say that my hearing is fine. But who knew that Apple expected people to have hearing capabilities comparable to your neighbor’s cat? Seriously, Apple. Please make the speakers a tiny bit louder? How can I possibly watch my LOL cats videos?

3. Greater customizability features so people don’t have to jailbreak

So, I’m sure you’ve heard of jailbreaking. But, since you are either a) too lazy or b) too paranoid to jailbreak your device, you are left with your very pedestrian unjailbroken iPod Touch.

Apple’s recent iPhone 4 showed some signs of promise in terms of customizability. For example, you could set up custom background wallpaper, multitask, create folders for your apps. Then again, jailbreakers are already familiar with these features since, well, the first iPhone. Apple seems to be slowly catching up.

Hopefully, things will pick up with the next iPod Touch. So much so that everyone could enjoy any of the following features:

• hide native apps
• more columns/rows in springboard
• more apps in dock
• app store sell themes
• increase app limit in folders
• folders inside folders
• custom icons for apps
• custom lockscreen
4. A way to find your lost iPod Touch:


Hey, us iPod Touch owners are no different from iPhone owners. We misplace our stuff and are just as likely to be mugged as any iPhone user. Sure, Will.i.am was able to recover his stolen iPad. But, how many stories do you hear about iPod Touch owners who recover their lost devices? At least offer an optional iPod Touch with GPS and one without.

5. A new design:

The iPhone 4 was built with a completely new design, sporting a sleek industrial look. The next iPod Touch should follow in those footsteps. Apple has done relatively well marketing the device as an alternative to the iPhone. Don’t want the phone and the ridiculous data plan? Here’s an iPod Touch.

But Apple needs to rethink this approach and head towards a different direction. Steve Jobs spoke about the iPod Touch as being more of a gaming device when he was questioned why the 3rd generation device did not come with a camera. Ok, but I’m not convinced. Are there more games that can only be played on the iPod Touch versus the iPhone? No. How can a device that is simply a stripped down version of another device ever be superior in its own niche?

So, what are you looking forward to in the next iPod Touch? Leave your thoughts and comments below or just vote above!

Image by Mingo.nl