Lots of people on these here Internets are ga-ga over the new iPod touch, which is being described as the iPhone without the phone. However, more than just the phone is missing from the new iPod. There are a couple deal-breakers for me right now:

• No bluetooth. It does have WiFi, and USB of course, but no bluetooth means no wireless headphones, and no bluetooth syncing. And, while Salling Clicker works over WiFi, Bluetooth is the way to go for small utilities like that.

• No mail client. While I can’t say anything about the mail client on the iPhone, the iPod touch has no mail client at all. WiFi is apparently only for Safari and the iTunes store, which, I’ll admit, is great, but if I were to invest in a portable ethernet device, I want more than webmail.

• No notes app, what about the calendar? The calendar has an icon on the home screen, but there’s nary a mention of it. Is it the same as the iPhone’s calendar app, or a read-only app like previous iPods. One assumes it’s the same as the iPhone, which makes it much more useful. There’s no icon for the notes app, though, and, serious PDA users know that notes are extremely useful, not just for note taking but for reference. Previous iPods had notes capabilities, so, again, it seems logical that the functionality is there in some form.

Well, there, I said it: PDA. I’m not really after an iPod. I want something that will feel like a replacement for my Newton. My MessagePad 2100 is the most perfect PDA I’ve ever used (and I have some experience in this area; the gadgets and systems left in the 2100’s wake would take two hands to count). The new iPod touch is not this device, but it and its cellular-capable cousin come closest:

• The 16GB size of the iPod Touch seems right. Better than the 8GB, if I’m going to use it as a PDA. Ideally, I’d be able to take several PDFs for display, some space for utilities that I could use as a USB or WiFi drive, as well as media like a traditional iPod. I carry a 4GB flash drive, and would like that much space on my PDA for utilities & files.

• While cellular internet access is great (even if it is only EDGE), it’s not something I can reliably use where I live now. Not that I’d be able to afford it, either.

• A real web browser is a huge win. I’ve never used a phone with a mobile browser, but I have used the web on Palm and Windows CE/Mobile devices, which is an extremely painful experience. And, while it is possible to browse the web on a Newton OS device, and I’ve done that, too, it is the worst internet experience since IE 2.0.

The real question here is how customizable or hackable these devices are. There’s been a flurry of activity on the iPhone, as has been well documented all over the ‘net. So far, it’s not simple, and even the legality of some of the hacks is in question. One assumes the iPod touch would be similarly customizable. It certainly seems plausible that it’s running Mac OS X like the iPhone, but I haven’t seen that confirmed as yet. And, while we’re on the subject of Mac OS X, InkWell has been a part of the Mac OS for a while now. If it’s included in this “Mac OS X Mobile,” I’ve got my handwriting recognition, which I absolutely love on my MP2100. If you’ve not used a 2000 or 2100, your preconceived notions about the Newton OS’s HWR are wrong; the HWR not only works, but works extremely well. At least for me. And if you’ve seen my handwriting, that’s high praise.

What won’t be duplicated on an iPda is the incredibly intuitive and usable Newton OS interface. The GUI, metaphors, controls, everything, are perfectly suited to a pen interface and a small screen. While the iPhone/iPod touch interfaces are designed around the finger, multitouch, and the predictive keyboard, a pen interface is much more usable for me, as I tend to scribble sketches and “ink” as well as text. That, plus, if I’m going to use HWR, which I really want, a pen is a much more suitable interface than the finger.

All told, we’re getting closer, and the iPod touch is a bit of a step in the direction towards an iPda. Steve Jobs once said that the PDA market is dead, and, certainly, if you look at Palm as a barometer, it’s hard to disagree. He was making the case that smartphones are where it’s at, that a handheld organizer needs to be a phone to be useful. The iPod touch is all iPod, to be sure, but there’s enough of a PDA / handheld computer in there to be a interesting device to me.