Geek Chic

Steve Jobs announced a whole mess of new iPods at the Apple Annual Autumn iPod Hoedown.

The iPod Touch. Why?

The new Nanos look pretty sweet.  No argument here.

But can we talk for a second about the iPod Touch?  Seriously.  Why?

Is the Touch’s existence for the sole purpose of making one look stupid for not getting an iPhone?  Why on earth would one pay $400 to get a limited 32GB of disk space and the occasional opportunity to access one of 2 open WiFi points in your general vicinity? (if you’re lucky — thank you “Liberal Media” for scaring everyone into locking their networks… You are all pawns in the ISPs game to make more money.)

So what is the iPhone good for, exactly?  The App store?  Just how many copies of Sudoku do you need?  The Nanos now come with an accelerometer, so that cool feature is no longer exclusive.  It doesn’t come with a camera, so that’s out.  And only the flaky pseudo-GPS.  The touch screen?  Seems cool, but if you can’t do anything on the device it doesn’t really matter what the mode of interaction is.  Silly putty responds to your touch and you don’t have to pay $400 for it.

So I ask again, what good is this expensive little hunk of plastic and metal?  Why does Apple keep it around?

Anyone?