TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Yes, I was more than a little ticked off that, with its allocation of new features, Apple seems to be trying to push potential customers toward a Nano, which is worthless for reading or writing. I also suspect, with its tiny screen and battery, the Nano will make a poor video camera.

Below is what I just sent to Apple’s feedback page for the iPod touch. Feel free to make your own comments there.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html

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Apple has got me so ticked off, I’ll probably put my energy into getting a 1-G iPhone cheap and forget buying these ho-hum iPod touches. That way, Apple won’t get a penny and I’ll probably save money.

I need a camera, and I need a mike and I don’t want to pay AT&T fees. I also need them soon. I thought I would get that in the new touches. Instead, Apple is giving the tiny Nano more features but not the iPod touch. Why? With that tiny 2.2-inch Nano screen you can’t see much of what you’ve taken and the equally tiny battery isn’t likely to last long in video mode.

What’s going on? If Apple has production problems with camera-equipped touches, they should say so, give us the details of new touch, and a release date. This cult of secrecy is such a pain. You’d think they were the Kremlin circa 1935. Both have a cult-like obsession with not admitting mistakes.

Still worse is the possibility that Apple wants to build high walls between its products, doling out features in odd ways to fit a marketing straight-jacket. The iPhone would be for work and business for those with the money. The touch is for games but not recreation, hence the lack of a camera and the boring length of game promotion today. Color touch users fat and flabby couch potatoes. The Nano is for mostly outdoor recreation (camera and Nike added), but has nothing that lets you get work done. If so, it’s stupid move.

To add insult to injury, I just checked the specs on the new touches. The 8 gig model ships with the old-style earphones not the remote earphones and without a plastic dock adapter. Total saving for Apple? Probably about 25 to 50 cents. Cost to customers who don’t want to pull their touch out of their pocket every time they pause music: $30 That stinks. Heck, even the cheap little $59 Shuttle ships with remote earphones. While Jobs was gone, the niggling little bean counters seem to have been running Apple. This is the unfortunate result.

I hate companies that treat their customers as if they were stupid, and that’s precisely how I feel Apple is treating its customers now.

“Nothing new for the ebook crowd” ???
Are you sure?
How about the iTunes LP ?
Were they using ePub format… it would be big news; but I bet they aren’t… which is still news.
I think the tablet is coming, it’s just not there yet… Jobso only came back from liver transplant 2 months ago… it’s not enough to work out all the details to the level of quality that he likes.
However iTunes LP could be the first step towards a new document format…
I could easily imagine that once the tablet is ready they will use the same format to distribute textbooks – which would appeal to their audience. Arnold is going for free textbooks in California… just add them to iTunes-University… one more reason why every college student will want to buy a tablet.

Regards

Tamas