A new range of wireless iPods may soon be available, thanks to an alliance between iPod chipmaker PortalPlayer and wireless solutions provider CRS. Instead of wires, new iPods will be able to make use of technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Through a combination of PortalPlayer's PP5022 applications processor family and CSR's UniFi Wi-Fi chip and BlueCore Bluetooth chip, consumer electronics and digital media player makers such as Apple will be able to produce wire-free audio and media players by year's end.
In addition to Bluetooth offering customers the ability to use wireless stereo headset connectivity, the Wi-Fi capabilities will allow iPods to wirelessly synchronising content with iTunes, download podcasts directly from the Internet and stream audio or video content from a PC or the Internet.