Pop Culture Curmudgeon

I Want an iPod Touch

I got Mr. Pop Culture Curmudgeon an iPod Touch for Christmas. He loves it, but I was pretty sure that I could make do with my fifth generation iPod for quite a while longer. It serves me well for my music and podcasts, and that’s all I really needed from my iPod. Or so I thought.

Friday, my Verizon bill arrived. It included data charges for downloading and playing demos of games I was evaluating for purchase. Yes, that’s right. I was charged $7.96 to evaluate whether I wanted to purchase games. When I called to complain, I was told that “all carriers charge for game demos. In fact, Verizon has the lowest charges per megabyte for downloads.” (Is that true? Please let me know in the comments section.) If everyone does it, does that mean an unfair charge is magically made fair? Will the car dealers begin charging us for test driving a car? Will the people at Costco charge for their tiny samples of chicken nuggets, granola bars, and juice? Of course not, because they know that sampling is a way to get people to buy your products. Samples are not a revenue stream on their own.

I will never, ever try to use my Verizon Wireless phone for anything other than making a phone call and sending a text or picture message. The Get It Now tab is dead to me.

Thus, I want an iPod Touch. I will use it for all of my portable gaming needs rather than buying a game from Verizon to use on my phone. It’s a good thing my birthday is coming up next month.

Update: Verizon is crediting me for the download charges, but they still don’t seem to see how ridiculous it is to charge for data transmission of demos. I’m still getting an iPod Touch.