New iPods? Apple (AAPL) should get the existing ones to work right first

Riddle me this Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) bulls, gadget lovers, and self-identified nerds: why should I get excited about new iPods if my existing one doesn't work right now?

Much I love my iPod, it drives me bonkers. Sometimes my podcasts don't update even though I make sure that my software is updated. Sometimes the iTunes doesn't recognize it. Sometimes, I can only play music I downloaded from my CDs. Oh, how can I forget the times it's crashed.

Tech companies including Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) all follow the same product introduction playbook. They introduce a device or Internet feature before the bugs are worked out in the hopes that consumers will give them "feedback" about problems they should have caught themselves. Good thing for Apple that the iPod is so cool that people will put up with this nonsense, but it is irritating.

Apple seems to expect me to buy new, expensive devices every few years that in theory should have fixed the problems in the old iPods though likely they will have their own set of problems for consumers to sort out.

About the only help that consumer can get is "support" documentation that's written by geeks for other geeks.

That seems to be the way things work in the digital age and that's sad.