I read an interesting blog post today from Lisa Bettany, who was basically asking the question:

“Do we really need another NEW iPod?“

Apple launched another new iPod flavour yesterday, another nano, that has been re-designed with new features in 16GB and 8GB in a plethora of colors.  It also has the accelerometer built into (like the iPhone and iPod touch) which allows the screen to turn when you turn the iPod sideways (or get this – shake it and it shuffles the music).  This launch coincides with the launch of iTunes8, which comes with a genius feature, but I am digressing away from my point.

Lisa’s article was interesting and I liked the points she made, especially about “50% of recycled computer waste ending up in China and how toxic it is for the workers “recycling it”.  The post also attracted a lot of responses (mine being oneof them).  I get the feeling that she doesn’t feel the world needs another iPod (or iTouch for that matter), and most of her responses agreed with her to one extent or another.

I think you could, and perhaps should, re-interpret Lisa’s question:

“Do we really need technological advances?”

I admit that any release from Apple will have masses of people upgrading and Apple will no doubt make a lot of money from it, but that money (will hopefully) be ploughed back into the development of newer “shinier” Apple products.  Grasping at your iPhone or your iPhone 3G right now?  Do you think that this would have been developed without the iPod?  I am not saying that we should be crazy and buy every Apple product, but I don’t think we should bitch about it when they, as they inevitably will, update the product with better features functions and also make it more recyclable with less toxic crap in it…

Not on the same scale as Apple but the launch of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has been hailed as a success (so far) by the scientists operating the 5billion GBP machine. The LHC is hopefully going to give everyone a better understanding of the universe (although only a few of us will understand it).  It is for projects like this that we require technological advances, or new iPods.