CAUTION: this post contains information iPhone users will be bored to tears with

I recently went mobile.

No, I'm not hitting the road, which is unfortunate

because it sounds much cooler than just getting a

pocket computer, which sounds more like goin' nerd.

This nerd got the iPod Touch, the less expensive brother of the iPhone, and I say this because it can do everything the iPhone can do EXCEPT be a phone and take pictures.  Oh yeah, and the iPhone has bluetooth — so what!  So what!  You gotta pay $600 for it, plus many pay $100/month for all the wireless services it can take advantage of.  For a cell phone I have a $20 Nokia 2610 powered with AT&T's Go-Phone service.  It's $1 for every day it's used, plus 10cents/minute.  I don't download anything to it cuz they charge a penny/kilobyte, and when you download only a couple megabytes, that's a serious rip-off.  Digital novices beware:  a megabyte = 1,024 kilobytes = $10.24

Are the airwaves the new Oil?  YES.

So anyway, in one pocket sits my go-phone, and in the other is my iPod Touch, which was $300, holds 16 GB, and that can be music, videos, photos, apps (which include some awesome games), calendar and contact info, text notes, PDFs, e-books, blah, blah.  And it receives wi-fi.  Best thing about that?  The Google Maps app.  It's been difficult so far to connect to a wi-fi network while driving, but once you do you can pinpoint your exact location on a satellite-image map, type in an address or business you want to find, pinpoint it on the map, and the iPod connects the two pins and gives you directions.  Or you can navigate through an area by zooming in on the screen so close you're looking at a single streetcorner, and slide the map around with your finger to explore the neighborhood as you're driving it.  The first time I saw this I was a passenger watching the driver steer with one hand and play with the pod's touchscreen with the other,  dragging his finger over the map like he was playing a maze game, finding out what street was coming up next just barely before our eyes could see it, all the way to our destination.  Dangerous, yes, illegal in California, yes, cool, oh yes.

You have a talking GPS system in your car?  Waste of money.

You have a Nintendo DS?  Waste of money.

You have a Kindle?  Don't make me laugh.

You have a Go-Phone?  Good for you.

You have an iPhone?  Well, you just have more money than me.

Good for you.