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We made good on our promise yesterday and just finished taking apart the new iPod touch! Our main intent with this teardown was to find out if there's anything inside that would indicate that the touch had room for a camera, but we made a few unexpected discoveries along the way.

Our iPod touch teardown is here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPod-touch-3rd-Generation/1158/1

Our analysis reveals a Broadcom BCM4329 chip, which supports 802.11n. This is a big deal, as even the iPhone 3GS doesn't support 802.11n. The iPhone 3GS has a BCM4325 wireless chip, which only supports 802.11 a/b/g. We don't know yet if 802.11n will be supported in the iPod touch software, but at least the hardware's there.

This reminds us of last year when we broke the news that the 2nd generation touch had Bluetooth support in hardware. Apple didn't enable software support until 9 months later with iPhone OS 3.0.

The Broadcom chip also supports FM transmission. There's Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and an FM receiver and transmitter packed into this chip. If they built in the antennas, and if Apple adds software support, you could theoretically stream music to your car stereo without any external hardware. But that's a lot of ifs.

We also analyzed the internal layout of the iPod, and it appears that Apple left room for a camera in the top of the device. There is a 6mm x 6mm x 3mm space between the Broadcom chip and the wireless antenna. There isn't enough depth for an iPhone-style autofocus still camera, but just enough room for the camera that Apple used in the 5th generation iPod nano. We did not find any headers on the board for a camera cable.

Photos:

Getting inside:
http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/doogg4JsPgJEV6ad.huge

http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/qKRLQUyUdlxvHMcP.huge

New Broadcom chip:
http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/hUViVxGWci5NsMIp.huge

Space for a camera?
http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/F6hdqMRJ1wnvja3A.huge

Comparing 2nd gen board (left) to 3rd gen (right):
http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/I3PGkuWedMXSB3u3.huge

While we were all disappointed by Apple's underwhelming iPod touch announcement, it is clear that there is more engineering effort under the surface of this device than meets the eye.

We will post a link to a video of this teardown on Twitter in a few hours:
http://twitter.com/ifixit

Regards,
-Kyle Wiens
iFixit CEO