While losing the iPhone’s cellular guts may have made the iPod Touch a whole lot thinner, it does mean you’re at the mercy of WiFi hotspots when you need your internet fix.  And let’s face it, mobile Safari is so luscious that it really should be connected 24/7!  So the news that Steve Jobs has shown a particular degree of interest with broadband-sharing community FON - culminating in a meeting at Cupertino last week - opens up all sorts of possibilities.  FON - which uses a modified WiFi router to split your connection into private and public networks, giving fellow FON users access to the internet through the latter - has recently signed a deal with UK telco BT, who will be upgrading all their own-brand routers to support the sharing protocol.  The rumor now is that Apple envisages a network of pooled WiFi connections that the iPod Touch and iPhone could use instead of relying on EDGE or other hotspots.

Whether Apple would cut some sort of deal with FON allowing iPod Touch owners access, or intends to adopt the standard for their own, self-branded routers, is unclear.  Currently, FON’s user-base is made up of connection-sharers, who are allowed to log on to other FON routers free of charge, and paying customers who do not share their broadband but wish to use that of others. 

“He was very interested in FON; the meeting went on for an hour and a half.  He’s extremely curious. He asks a lot of questions. He’s not the nicest guy — I mean his questions are inquisit [sic] to say the least. He’s to the point … I really think [Jobs] liked the idea of FON. I think he loves the idea of a world where people share WiFi. That I could tell”Martin Varsavsky, FON founder

With Apple maintaining that 3G purposely excluded was purposefully excluded from the iPhone because of battery concerns, and their repeated backing for WiFi as the best mobile option for connectivity, it’s not hard to imagine them keen on utilising this growing network of available internet access.

[via PSFK]