I Hate to do this but...

I really hate commenting on Apple launches as all it does is lend them more publicity but again, the latest launch just pises me off…

Apple has rolled out a new Apple TV, new shuffle, Nano and iPod Touch.  They also rolled iOS 4.1 to fix a number of issues that should never have been issues from the get go.

The thing that got my nickers in a twist was the presentation quotes on Engadget here and here.

For the love of god, what a leap of faith and a stretching of reality!!!  Jobs makes it sound like every iPod ever sold is still in operation today!!!  I know that their product is compelling and not at all crap but this is too much.  I know people that are totally wrapped into the iPod universe and where there really is not an overall better total experience out there, when their iPod dies, they simply toss it out and buy a new one.  I see it all the time (I rescued one and revived it).  This, however, raises a pile of questions and invariably the environmental one.  People are tossing batteries and the whole shot in the garbage because the annointed one hates battery doors and user serviceable parts.

And as that was not enough, to then think because there are a ton of iPod Touches out there, that this makes them a bigger gaming platform than Nintendo or Sony???  Really!!!  Most of the people that I run into that get a Touch are doing so becasue they do not want to get roped into an iPhone on a cell plan.  In Canada, it is a bit better as of late as we now have 3 parent carriers that have the iPhone so people are able to stay with the carrier of their choice.  Still not so in the USA.

Single purpose devices still have a REAL place in this world as is evidenced by the iPad vs. Kindle situation.  Since the iPad launched in the spring, there is almost no one out there in the tech press that would even a little bit claim that the iPad was better than the Kindle for reading.  The fact that those that LOVE the iPad to death very quickly state that they cannot use the iPad for reading and still have their Kindle for that job.  Paul Thurotte, Steve Gibson and many other people from the TWiT network of shows have come out and said so.  But if that is not enough to convince the Apple devotee, then the fact that the Kindle cannot seem to stay in stock should be the final tell.

So Steve can go on about his iPod Touches (and the iPhone) giving Apple a larger gaming base than Nintendo and Sony but the reality is that those companies make a device designed to give the player the best overall gaming experience.  Anything on a phone is either a showoff thing or a time filler for when you are waiting at the doctors office or in the DMV.  And for the record, I have a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant that is WELL capable of playing really nice looking games and I am not that impressed.  I also have two Nintendo DS’ in the house so I am not speaking without experience.

/Rant_Off