My Exercise In Futility

I am an Apple fan and therefore by default, also a gadget whore. But even I’m going to throw the bullshit flag up in the air on this one. I was really hoping that I was going to be wrong about today’s big announcement from Mr. Jobs. I honestly thought that Apple couldn’t possibly rebrand the iPod yet AGAIN and still cause the commotion we’ve seen today – and all for nothing more than what I see as an oversized iPod.

Don’t believe me? Go to the Apple website and watch the video for yourself. Watch the video and then tell me if you see anything different than what the iPhone already does. Am I supposed to run out and spend $500 just because they are going to build Apps specifically for the iPad? (And isn’t that just rebranding of the slogan, “There’s an App for that!”)

Mind you the $500 is if I want the watered down version of an iPad. However, if I’m willing to spend almost $300 more, I can get an oversized iPhone, err iPad, with the same shitty 3G service AT&T has been overcharging consumers for years now. Ok, ok – so it will now have iBooks with an iLibrary that you can see in color. And the way it handles e-mail – it’s optimized for a device that has a multi-touch display and no physical keyboard. WOW!! REVOLUTIONARY!! See Apple’s video for the iPhone when it was first released, I think they said the same thing back then, too.

Again – I love Apple. I’m sure I will eventually even own an iPad. The thing is – right now I have no living expenses. I’m not paying rent. I’m traveling for work living off the company. Did I mention I’m a single, gay man with no dependents?  Basically, I can afford to be stupid and throw my money at an overpriced, oversized iPod, can you? I hope I can fit the iPad into my backpack with my MacBook Pro, 32GB iPhone, and 120GB iPod.