Sprint has this new product called the ZTE Peel and it’s kind of remarkable in terms of the implications. The Peel is basically a case for the iPod touch that converts it into an iPhone and lets you make calls on Sprint and access Sprint’s data network. And instead of paying AT&T’s $65 a month 2-year contract, you can get Sprint for $30 a month on a month-by-month basis. Cool!

But there are some downsides:

I could easily live with that except for one major bummer: a 1GB data cap. Although AT&T famously said that most users can get by on 2GB per month, that doesn’t factor in phone calls. I’m not sure how much data the average Skype call consumes, but it’s a safe bet that if you’re planning to use your Touch for phone duty, you’ll blow through that 1GB in short order. Even if you don’t make calls, 1GB just isn’t a lot of data. Boo on Sprint for that.
What’s more, the Peel works only with second- and third-generation Touch models, so anyone who just bought a fourth-gen Touch is out of luck. (The current iteration of the Peel hardware would block the rear camera anyway.) And it adds nearly an inch of thickness to the Touch, making your previously svelte device quite a bit chunkier.