The iPod Touch reveals why I love Apple

This past weekend, for reasons I wish not to re-live, I was forced to use a $600 Dell laptop. 

It sucked great big donkey dick, as we used to say as nastly little boys. 

There is not enough bad I can say about its build quality, slothful response, torturous entreaties to update various software and bits of software, or the way IE shoved ads in my face. I'm still having nightmares.

Apple products may cost a lot. I'm not going to argue otherwise. What I also won't argue, because it's now too plainly fucking obvious, is that Windows-based competitors to Apple, the various HP and Dell laptops to the Mac counterparts, say, are far far too costly. Compared to a $1300 MacBook Pro, say, a $500 HP should instead be priced at about $95. If you own a Windows machine, and have Office and have the virus and spam software, essentially required, then you have paid far too much. Sort of like if a Audi A8 cost $50,000 -- which is a lot -- but a Chevy Malibu ran you $44,000. The bigger sucker is the Malibu owner.

But, as I said, I prefer to not re-live that horror. Instead, I wish to recount one reason why I love Apple. The iPod Touch.

I was having these mega large loud speakers installed into the Prius, cause that's how I roll. This killed 90 minutes. Meaning, I ws effectively stranded at a mall for 90 minutes today. So, I walked around. Ultimately, I ventured, and I realize this will surprise no one, into the Apple Store.

Apple Store employees are always so nice, so eager to serve, though so often not terribly helpful. I'm not sure this is a result of poor training, of never being able to know as much as the fanboys, of a creeping lowering of standards within Apple, Apple Stores and Apple products, or just me, but mostly during my brief stay I was forced to entertain myself.

Whereupon I stumbled, er, upon the newest iPod Touch. 

This device is truly, truly remarkable. The design is shocking in its beauty, its thinness, its power and functionality. There simply may be no better 'gadget' ever made -- dollar for dollar -- at any point in human history, from any company. Music, movies, books, games. Hundreds of thousands of apps. FaceTime and Skype. HD video recording. Superb operating system. Unreal responsiveness. WiFi. Internet. iMessage. The cloud.

I am serious. The current iPod Touch can compete against any gadget, at any price, no matter the market, the need, the user base, from any point in time. 

I have long said that author William Gibson, who stated: "the future has arrived only it is unevenly distributed" got it exactly wrong. The future has arrived. Thanks, in large part, to Apple. And it is evenly distributed. This should be acknowledged and celebrated. With due thanks given.

Anyone can have an iPod Touch for a mere $199. In Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age", there's like three of those cool tablets in all the world. Thanks to Apple, we have millions, and they are affordable to millions more.

And here's the thing: iPod is dying. It's a no growth market. It is being actively killed off by Apple. Anyone with an "iPod" now probably just has an old iPhone without a SIM card. 

Yet Apple is still making this thing better, still attaining greatness, still designing and building a product *radically superior* to any and all potential competitors. The entire iPod line contributes no more than about 2% to Apple's value. I would not be surprised if as many people buy an iPod Touch as gifts, as for themselves. There is *every* reason for Apple to pump out iPods that are just as shit as the Dells and HPs that Dell and HP pump out, but they do not. And for that I thank them.