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The iPod Touch (stylized, trademarked, and marketed as lowercase iPod touch; commonly known as the iTouch ) is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, and Wi-Fi mobile platform designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line. It is the first iPod with wireless access to the iTunes Store, and also has access to Apple's App Store, enabling content to be purchased and downloaded directly on the device. As of March 2011, Apple Inc. has sold over 60 million iPod Touch units.

Hardware
The iPod Touch has a slim rectangular shape with rounded edges, with a glass multi-touch display covering most of the top surface and a physical home button off the touchscreen. The display functions similarly to the multi-touch trackpad as implemented in Apple's current line of laptop computers. It is also very similar to the iPad interface and the Apple Magic Trackpad. The touch and gesture features of the iPod Touch are based on technology originally developed by FingerWorks.

Software
The operating system that runs all iPhones and iPod Touches is called iOS which was formally known as iPhone OS until version 4. Since iOS 1.0, the operating system has received a major update each year at roughly around the same time. The first major update to the iOS was iOS 2.0. This version of the iOS introduced the App Store which allowed 3rd party applications to be run on iPhones and iPod touches. iOS 2.0 debuted June 29, 2008. iPhone users received the update for free while iPod touch users had to pay. The second major update to the operating system, iOS 3.0 was released June 17, 2009. iOS 3.0 added features such as cut, copy and paste, data tethering and push notification support. As with the previous major release iPhone users got the update for free while iPod Touch users had to pay. iOS 4 was made available to the public on June 21, 2010. This is the first major iOS release to drop support for some devices. The iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd generation have limited features, while the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd generation & iPod Touch 4th generation have all features enabled. The iPod Touch first generation and original iPhone are not supported in this release. The major features included in this release are iBooks, FaceTime and multitasking.

Apple has received criticism for charging iPod Touch owners for major updates of iOS that iPhone owners can obtain at no charge, as well as excluding certain features from the iPod Touch software that are included in the iPhone. Apple has said that they can add features for free to the iPhone because the revenue from it is accounted for on a subscription basis under accounting rules, rather than as a one time payment. At WWDC in June 2010, Jobs announced that Apple had "found a way" to make subsequent OS upgrades available free to iPod Touch owners. However, iOS 4.0 and onwards isn't available for the first generation iPod touch and some features are only available for the 32GB and 64GB third generation iPod touches released in September 2009 and the fourth generation iPod touches in 2010.

Comparison to the iPhone
The iPod Touch and the iPhone, a smartphone by Apple Inc., share the same hardware platform and run the same iOS operating system. The iPod Touch lacks some of the iPhone's features and associated apps, such as access to cellular networks, GPS navigation (and speaker on older models). Even the SMS and Call apps are included to the ipod touch software but there are useless without antenna and therefore inactive. Also, the sleep/wake button is on the opposite side (until the iPod touch 4th generation). As a result, the iPod Touch is slimmer and lighter than the iPhone. Steve Jobs once referred to the iPod Touch as "training wheels for the iPhone".

Requirements

 * iTunes 10 or later
 * OS 10.5.8 or later
 * Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later

Synchronization
As supplied new, the iPod Touch must be connected to a Macintosh or Windows computer. There is no official Linux support. On either operating system, the iPod Touch must be connected through a USB port. This will charge the iPod Touch and Sync any songs that are wanted on the iPod Touch. Special cables that plug into a wall can also be bought separately but can only be used to charge the iPod Touch.

The first time the iPod Touch is turned on, a graphic of the iTunes logo and USB cable is displayed continuously until the iPod Touch is connected to a computer running iTunes.

Battery charging
The iPod Touch can only be charged from the 5V pin of the dock connector while most previous iPod models (including the original iPod Touch) could also be charged from the 12V pin for FireWire power. This change dropped support for charging in vehicles equipped with a FireWire-based iPod connection. Most aftermarket manufacturers of such equipment offer cables and/or adapters which convert the vehicle's 12 V to 5 V.

iTunes
To use the iPod Touch for purchasing content on the iTunes Store via Wi-Fi, a new or existing iTunes Store account (Apple ID) must be associated. Apple states that the following are required for the iPod Touch:
 * iTunes 10.2.1 for iOS 4.3 or later, iTunes 10 for iOS 4.1 or later, iTunes 9.2.0.61 for iOS 4.0.x or later, iTunes 8.2 for iPhone OS 3.0.x or later, iTunes 8.0 for iPhone OS 2.1.x, iTunes 7.6 for iPhone OS 2.0.x or earlier
 * An available USB 2.0 port

Third-party applications
The only official way to obtain third-party applications for the iPod Touch is Apple's App Store, which is a branch of iTunes Store. The App Store application, available in all versions of iOS from 2.0 onwards, allows users to browse and download applications from a single online repository (hosted by Apple) with the iTunes Store. To develop such software, a software development kit (SDK) was officially announced on March 6, 2008, at an Apple Town Hall meeting. The iPhone SDK allows developers to make applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch after paying a fee to join the development team. The developer can then set the price for the applications they develop and will receive 70% of money earned. The developer can also opt to release the application for free and will not pay any additional costs.

Hacks
Shortly after the iPhone (then also the iPod touch) was released, hackers were able to "jailbreak" the device through a TIFF exploit. The application installed by this exploit enabled the user to download a selection of unofficial third-party programs. Jailbreaking the iPod Touch was the only way to get third-party programs when running 1.1.x OSes. These third-party programs could use additional functionality not supported by Apple (such as enabling multitasking, applying themes to the home screen, or enabling a battery percentage indicator). All officially released versions of iOS through 3.1.2, and 4.0, as well as 4.2.1 with some bugs, can be jailbroken, but version 4.3.1 could not at the time it was released. Servicing an iPod Touch after jailbreaking or other modifications made by unofficial means is not covered by Apple's warranty (however, the jailbreaking process is easily undone by performing a restore through iTunes).