If the Peel sounds familiar to you, it’s because we first caught glimpse of it a few months ago with Sprint branding. The Apple Peel 520 is now shipping for those of you who want to turn your iPod touches into iPhones. The only catch is that you’ll have to jailbreak your iPod touch, which means those of you sporting the retina display model won’t be able to use this for a while. But no worries, we don’t even know when it’s arriving yet.
Go Solar USA has this to say about the new little gadget:
Apple’s iPod Touch is a powerful media player and pocket PC that can do everything an iPhone can do except place calls and text messages—until now. The Apple Peel 520 is a radical new third-party device that adds voice and text messaging capabilities to the iPod Touch for a fraction of the cost of an iPhone! This startling new technology is the creation of 22-year-old Chinese programmer Pan Yong. The Apple Peel 520 acts as a protective skin that slips over the iPod Touch’s case and includes a battery, dock connector and SIM card. Once the proper software is installed, the Apple Peel 520 adds the ability to make voice calls and text messages using any version of the iPod Touch. When fully charged, the Apple Peel’s 800mAh battery offers nearly five hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby use.
You get more battery life, protection on your iPod touch and phone and SMS capabilities. Best of all is that it will only set you back $60 if you want one of these little bad boys.
Once the jailbreak hits for iOS 4.1, you’ll be able to jailbreak your new iPod touch and pretty much forget about nabbing the iPhone 4 if AT&T and/or contracts just aren’t your thing.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated when the Apple Peel 520 becomes available, but I’m guessing it’s any day now given that it’s begun to ship.
[Update]
Peel520.net just reached out to us with the following:
Peel520.net announced today that it will be the first to sell the Apple Peel 520 worldwide!
Why wait? Pre-order Now!
You probably heard some rumors about this gadget. Maybe also that ‘Go Solar USA’ will bring the Yosion Apple Peel 520 someday to the USA. Why wait? Peel520.net brings you the Apple Peel 520 directly from China!
Transform your iPod Touch into an iPhone!
The Apple Peel 520 is a new wireless device that adds mobile voice and text messaging capabilities to the iPod Touch. The gadget slips over the iPod Touch and includes a battery, dock connector and SIM card holder. Once the proper software is installed, the Apple Peel 520 adds the ability to make voice calls and send and receive text messages on your iPod Touch.
[Via: Go Solar]