It’s Apple’s world, we’re just living in it

Even though I love the idea of the iPod and the iPhone and the iMac – really everything Apple – I own nothing built by the company. My laptop is an HP with Vista and my video/MP3 player is a pink Creative Zen M Vision with 30 GB of capacity (which I LOVE by the way – plug plug). My cell phone is some basic Samsung model that Sprint sent me when I dropped my other phone off a ski lift. What we learn here is that I’m cheap and clumsy, apparently.

That said, I still find everything Apple very appealing. Moreover, Apple is arguably doing the most of any company to turn TV into something that is truly on-demand and portable, what with Apple’s super easy user interfaces, sleek designs and interoperability, at least among all its own creations. For example, nothing could be easier than plugging your iPod into iTunes and syncing up all your new music and podcasts. I love my Creative Zen, which I use with Rhapsody, but I haven’t had the same experience with it.

I do object to Apple’s closed systems – Steve Jobs’ recent moves to open up DRM, notwithstanding.  I was actually cheering last week when some 17-year-old hacker figured out a way to make the iPhone work on any cellular network, which is as it should be, in my view. Oh yeah, and there is this whole issue with trying to control pricing, which NBC could probably tell us a thing or two about.

So Apple isn’t perfect. Still, today the company took a bunch of things it already does well and made them better.

To me, the most important announcement in this spate of them – you can read about them in full detail at Apple.com and on some blogs, such as IP Democracy and Engadget – is that Apple already has dropped the price of the iPhone from a ridiculous and purchase-preventing $599 to a more reasonable $399 for the 8GB model.

It also introduced the iPod touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone. The 8GB model is $299, while the 16GB one is $399. The cool thing about the iPod touch is that it includes wi-fi networking. Apple also launched the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store, which means Apple users will be able to download songs, videos and TV shows on the fly. So if you are stuck waiting out the fog for hours at SFO, it’s no sweat to download a few episodes of Mad Men or the Daily Show and while away the hours. Plus, that’s a great option for people who already have a phone and a wireless contract and don’t want to make the forced move to AT&T. If I knew I could watch Mad Men anytime, anywhere, AND I didn’t have to pay a small fortune to change wireless companies, I might be forced to drop this phone off the ski lift too and invest in a sleek new iPhone.