ZTE Peel 3G Enabled iPod Touch Case Appears At FCC [ZTE Peel 3G iPod Touch Case Gives Gets Shown At FCC, Blurs Line Between iPhone and iPod Touch]

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When the iPhone was first announced back in 2007, the iPod Touch did not exist. This meant that anyone who wanted a full touchscreen device from Apple would have to sign themselves into a costly 2-year contract with AT&T (which itself wasn’t a very highly sought after option) and pay the mandatory $30 data charge on top of a normal wireless subscription fee.

Luckily, a few months after the original iPhone made the rounds, Apple came forth to release the iPod Touch which was essentially the same thing minus a speaker, microphone, and wireless data/voice connectivity. This gave everyone who could not get an iPhone the chance to partake in the goodness that was iPhone OS, now known as iOS.

However, while most of the features were there (minus the App Store which came at a later date) the only way to connect to the Internet was through a WiFi connection which means your ability to roam freely while surfing the web was severely limited. Luckily, some options came to give the iPod Touch 3G like mobile hotspots from various carriers but it just wasn’t the same as the iPhone.

Today, however, a new option has been spotted at the FCC in the form of the ZTE Peel. If you couldn’t guess, the ZTE Peel is a case that also acts as a wireless hotspot. Couple it with an iPod touch and you essentially have an iPhone. Sure, the form factor isn’t exactly the same but couple it with something like Skype and one of those free text messaging clients and you have yourself a bonafide smartphone.

Now, there’s no telling when this device will actually be made available but as you can see from the above picture it’s sproting the Sprint branding so it shouldn’t be too long until we see this made available.

What I’m more bummed about is the fact that there isn’t any 4G connectivity as if there were this could potentially make an iPod touch better than an iPhone. Oh well, I guess we’ll be stuck waiting.