Decaflon

To answer your questions, yes there is a speaker on the iPod touch. However, it's a low output, beep-only speaker. While you can set alarms, you're most likely not going to hear them unless your iPod is not muffled by anything and the room is completely quiet. I definitely would not count on it reminding you for anything important.

Regarding a lock, I just looked on mine, and yes it does have the same lock as the iPhone.

Thanks Ron esp. for the "real world" observation on the speaker's usefulness (or otherwise).

I have one, and I can tell you that in daily use it's loud enough for it to remind you of events and such but it's not a reliable alarm for say... waking you up.

Just want to point out, alarms can be set through to go through the headphones or any external audio source you have connected. So, your iPod could be used to wake you up if you connected it to something before you went to sleep. It could also be useful for reminders and such if you were in an office environment or whatever, and had your touch connected to a speaker dock or something during the day.

Coming from a Palm device for PDA functions, I don't really find the missing useful speaker a huge loss. I never used the alarms to begin with because I was always at school or in some environment where it wouldn't be socially acceptable to have an alarm sound. So, it's no big deal for me.

What is a big deal is the PDA functionality is spot on and will get even better with the SDK later this month. Having one device that is both great as a PDA and great as an MP3 player has been perfect for me.

I'm not convinced about the PDA side being "spot on" Ron, at least not compared to my own Palm experience. As I reflect here, the lack of tasks/ to-do lists with priorities/ due dates and sync which is a critical PDA function; so are notes that sync. 1Password has the secure data side covered; everything else is icing. But Apple shouldn't be counting on 3rd-party developers to fill in these gaps.

The impact of the SDK will be interesting. No only may it address such basic shortcomings, but if I go for a touch cf. iPhone I may be foregoing much more in the medium term e.g. voice memos and VOIP (iTouch: no mic) and connecting to my GPS for geocaching/ navigation or to a projected laser keyboard (iTouch: no BT). The SDK could very well turn the few differences (i.e. phone functions) btw the iPhone and iTouch into a gulf. True, iTouch 2 may add a mic, BT, but I suspect not so as to avoid lost iPhone sales.

Related Q: Can you unlock an iPhone without jail-breaking it? I believe the terms are not synonymous.

unlocking and jailbreaking are two totally different things.

Unlocking is needed to run the iPhone on non-AT&T networks. Jailbreaking simply accesses 3rd party apps and non Apple "hacks" to the look and function of the phone.

RightOn, I understood they weren't synonyms but I'm not 100% clear if you can unlock it without also jail-breaking it. A 16GB iPhone costs the same as a 32GB iPod touch to buy (about $US640 equivalent in the UK), but the cheapest plan on O2 in the UK is around $US70 per month and their coverage is inferior where I live; I want to converge my devices (phone, Palm, iPod) but not at that cost.

Jail-breaking seems an unnecessary risk with the SDK just around the corner. If I bought an iPhone and unlocked it, and I right in saying that I couldn't apply any subsequent Apple firmware? Or if so, the iPhone would re-lock? My limited understanding is that unlocking your own phone is not illegal in the UK; I accept that doing so would void the Apple warranty but I wouldn't be breaching the contract with O2 if I never activated the phone on their network/ signed up for an O2 contract.