Apple's Benevolent Dictator reveals iPhone and iPod Touch Had Bluetooth Features All Along

iPhone and iPod touch owners are entitled to be angry after their benevolent dictator finally decloaks advanced Bluetooth features.

In all the talk about iPhone improvements, it was easy to miss the fact Apple will enable Bluetooth in the iPod touch in the 3.0 software update. I say "enable" Bluetooth rather than "add", because the update will enable Bluetooth in existing second-generation iPod touches. In other words, it was there all along but Apple just didn't want you to use it. Now it will cost you $10 to unlock it.

The Cupertino overlords are also enabling A2DP stereo Bluetooth in both the iPhone and iPod touch. To me this just reinforces the idea that iPhone 3.0 isn't about amazing new features, but more about playing catch up and giving people the features you'd already find in other smartphones. MMS, cut and paste and even the possibility of tethering are coming with the miraculous 3.0 update. While the Apple zealots will obviously praise the Cupertino overlords for their infinite wisdom, some of us are sick of missing out of features on the whim of a benevolent dictator.

People already knew the iPod touch had a Broadcom Bluetooth 2.1+EDR chip under the bonnet, but it seemed as if it was locked down only for use with the Nike+iPod feature. Now we know that all it needs is a software tweak to bring it to life.

So, why the hell has Apple withheld Bluetooth on the iPod touch for so long? I'd say it was because Cupertino didn't want people using the iPod touch make VoIP calls over wifi using a Bluetooth headset. It wanted people to buy an iPhone instead, or wait for the iPhone in countries such as Australia which got the iPod touch before the iPhone. This is typical of Apple, which also withholds Blu-ray drives from its computers because it wants the Mac faithful to shop at the iTunes store instead.

By holding out on A2DP stereo Bluetooth for the iPhone, Apple has also hampered efforts to build all-in-one iPhone car kits for handling both music and calls. Plenty of people have cobbled together solutions using multiple devices, money that will seem wasted now iPhone/iPod accessories makers should be able to build proper all-in-one solutions around A2DP stereo Bluetooth.

With the other smartphone platforms lifting their game, will people eventually get sick of getting dicked around by Apple's benevolent dictatorship? Unfortunately, history would suggest probably not.