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After two years of creating excuses for NOT immediately draining my wallet, I finally succumbed to that itch known as Apple Fever, got on Amazon and ordered an iPod Touch. There were three important milestones that the iPod Touch had reached which made it feasible for me to finally buy it. First, the flash drive capacity was finally at a storage level that could handle my music and video collection. Second, Apple finally added a headphone that came with a default microphone, plus those cool remote controls. Third, Skype was released into the App Store.

The Skype app in particular fascinated me. Since cell phones are discouraged, if not outright banned at my job, I rarely used my funky little clamshell Samsung phone and when I did, I was usually already at home. The reality of using my cell phone at home and the sudden appearance of the Skype on the App Store led to this cool, calculating equation.

Home = (WiFi + iPod Touch) Skype = Cell Phone

In other words, since I was usually at home when making calls where WiFi is readily available at all times, why not just ditch the cell phone, buy an iPod Touch and use Skype to make my calls?

This sounds great in theory, but the iPod as phone equation suffers from a couple distinct problems. Although the sound quality on the iPod Touch is very clear (assuming you have broadband internet), the current version of Skype on the iPhone/iPod Touch doesn't support push notifications, and you can't receive a call on Skype unless you're already logged into Skype. In other words, you can't receive a call unless Skype is running in the background at all times. And since Apple doesn't currently allow multi-tasking with third party apps on the iPhone/iPod Touch, there is no way to get a call unless you already know someone is about to call you, which defeats the purpose of having a phone in the first place (Although, I have to add that Skype works perfectly on a Mac and you can also make free video calls).

Of course, the people at Skype could very well be on the verge of updating their app with push notifications any day now and there are a couple of positives with using Skype in its current state. Using Skype over the internet removes any penalties involved in calling someone long distance, but only if that person is also using Skype. Skype-to-Skype calls are always free. Of course, it is also possible to call regular landlines and mobiles on Skype, but you have to buy "credits," which is just minutes disguised under another name. The per minute rates vary from country to country, but overall they're not that bad. The rates in the continental U.S. hover around the 2 cent a minute mark or 5 cents a minute if you call a state like Hawaii or Alaska.

Considering the current limitations, using the iPod Touch as a phone is not an entirely a feasible concept, but with a few changes with either Apple or the people at Skype (background processes or push notifications), it could become a reality in the not so distant future.

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