New Red iPod Nano and HIV/AIDS in Africa

Clearly, I'm not going to be able to write about this in depth, given my track record lately, but check this new collaboration between Apple and Bono.

Basically, the new red nano will market at the same price as other nanos (199 USD). And Apple will give $10 of each sale to support research/anti-retroviral medicine.  The comments section of that link is interesting - a lot of Mac-heads actually talking (sorta) about global suffering and the best use of the money.  It's nice to see that there isn't a "forget the Africans" post on there, but I also haven't seen anything in there about how Steve Jobs has been a bit of a cheap bastard for a long time, and compared to Bill and Melinda Gates, this effort is laughable.

I guess I'm a little bitter because people who use Macs are cool, but the company isn't quite so cool, and the sheer consumer culturism of the place is making me sick.  While MS and Dell and the rest of them are boring, they're just in the computer business, really.  Apple puts itself out there as a big forward-thinker, but I have a hard time buying any of that at this point. Yeah they are a smaller company, but they have a lot of money in the bank, based on the iPod sales, and they have the ability to move more minds through innovative technology than the more traditional, older companies. 

But rather than talk about movement, techno-equity, or anything else that could actually make change, they resort to comodifying the images of great thinkers as part of their marketing strategy rather than anything more.  So yeah, I'm a bit skeptical.  That said, the red looks pretty cool. :)