With talk of virtual click wheels, full screen iPods and even iPod phones, speculation and debate has raged on how Apple might outdo its existing iconic design. A touch controlled bezel is one possibility Apple is publicly considering through a US patent application. And that iPod phone? It’s already here. Want to see it?

  
    A potential new touch sensitive bezel interface for the iPod

News has raged all over the Internet about Apple potentially dumping the click wheel in favour of a touch screen bezel. If you haven’t seen the pictures, I’ve included some further below.

Of course, the click wheel is but one of the elements that has set the iPod apart from any other music player on the market, even those such as the Sansa eSeries with a ‘scroll wheel’ of its own.

Apple’s success has come from tight integration with iTunes, where even if you aren’t purchasing songs from the iTunes store, synchronising your iPod with your music collection has been simplicity itself, and iTunes 7 (ok, ok iTunes 7.0.1) has made it even easier.

I remember setting up an iPod with the MusicMatch music software in the days before Apple decided to release a Windows version of iTunes. Thank goodness they released iTunes and ditched MusicMatch – from memory, it was a pretty painful experience.

Windows Media Player is still like that today. If you want a simple and enjoyable experience, being able to easily and reliably transfer music from your PC or Mac to your mp3 player, you want an iPod.

So, for Apple to change one of their key points of differentiation, one of the things that makes the iPod so easy to use, they must have a design in mind that makes using the iPod even easier while giving you the ability to do even more.

Anything else, and it wouldn’t be Apple. It’d be one of the clone makers trying to get cute, and maybe even releasing a product that would get attention for a while. But when the sales figures are compared, it’s still Apple selling iPods by the bucket load.

It’s been noted that companies patent all kinds of things, and not all of these make it to market. Some of these things are even done to create a wrong impression, to throw everyone off the scent.

The thing is that the patent is very detailed, and the accompanying images are likewise well thought out. It all seems very plausible, and it’s from Apple themselves, not a rumour thanks to some fuzzy pictures from an Apple rumour site.

While much speculation has rested on Apple ditching the click wheel altogether, the last time the widescreen, touch screen iPod rumours came around a few months ago, the virtual click wheel along with a touch screen seemed to be the direction Apple was heading.

Of course it’s quite possible that this is still going to be the case. A touch controlled bezel coupled with a virtual click wheel when you need it. We may just find out at MacWorld, unless Apple really has such a device ready to go ‘now’ and will launch it in stores sometime in the next four weeks. We all know that Apple is pretty good at keeping secrets!

So… what about that iPod phone? Does it really exist or am I just pulling your leg? Read on, dear reader, read on…

The iPod phone is one of those mythical devices that everyone professes to want, despite there being Sony Walkman phones, Nokia music phones, an even the ROKR and RAZR V3i with iTunes support built in.

While the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones are the most popular music phones around, they’re still not iPods, even though they’re technically brilliant devices.

It’s just that the idea of a real iPod phone is very compelling, as we imagine a device with the design quirkiness of the US $1275 Bang and Olufsen ‘Serene’ mobile, with the practicality, expected ease-of-use and true cool factor a real iPod phone would theoretically have.

So, let me say right here – Apple has not released an iPod phone. Not yet, anyway. But iPod accessory manufacturer Gear4 have released the closest thing yet, a Bluetooth device that works with your existing Bluetooth phone to transform your iPod… into a phone!

It’s called the BluEye and is billed as the missing link between your iPod and mobile phone.

   
        The Gear4 BluEye: turn your iPod into a phone today!

It’s a 3-in-1 Bluetooth hands free mobile connection with FM radio and remote control which allows you to make and receive calls on your iPod.

As you can see from the image below, it plugs into the dock connector on any compatible iPod, with the example in the picture being a 2^nd-gen iPod nano. This connects to a wired remote control unit which incorporates an FM tuner and a Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connection to your phone. It also has a microphone to pick up your voice.

Plug any headphones you like into the unit, and when a call comes in, you’ll see the Caller ID number appear on the iPod’s screen. The music will automatically pause when a call comes through, and will resume again when the call ends. You can do a last number redial from your iPod, but sadly you cannot dial numbers or send SMS messages directly from the iPod as you do when using the search function on the latest generation iPods.

However you can use voice dialling to call numbers in your phone’s address book if your phone has that option. The FM radio has an auto scan function, as well as allowing you to set 15 FM stations for easy retrieval. No extra battery is required as the unit is powered through the iPod itself.

With this device, you really can be listening to your music, or FM radio, and when a call comes through, you don’t have to remove your headphones just to put the phone to your ear – it’s all seamless, just as a real iPod phone would be.

A company called Mavizen is the company that worked with Gear4 to bring the BluEye to life, and finally, it has arrived. The price in AUD is $149.95, so that’s probably going to be something like US $99. Stock is literally on the way to Australian shores, with only one demo unit in the country at the moment.

To find out more, visit the Gear4 website and contact them in your country to find out when they’ll be available in your local area. Australians will find them in stores in the next couple of weeks.

It’s not a real iPod phone… and you’ll still have to carry two devices around. But at least the two are integrated at last. It’s the closest thing to a real iPod phone yet!

Related: