January 11, 2006

Playing iPocket Pool

I've got a high tolerance (infatuation?) with gadgetry and have been accused of appreciating some pretty silly and superfluous "technology" before... but even I have my limits.

Levi's introduces iPod-compatible jeans

From the article:

With a joystick remote control built into the watch pocket, the new jeans will allow wearers to play, pause, track forward or back and adjust the volume on their iPods without having to take them out of their pockets.

Honestly, I'm speechless. This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've heard of in a very, very long time. I'm even having trouble summoning up the slightest twinge of appreciation for the technology behind this since I just can't get past the idea of some dude playing pocket pool out in public while he's already deaf to the world with earbuds crammed in his cranium...

Fortunately, they have cured my speechlessness with just the right amount of corporate blather. That is, if the retching noises from vomiting in my wastebasket after reading this next part qualify as a form of primitive speech:

"The Levi's RedWire DLX jean is the latest extension of the Levi's brand leadership position, by merging fashion and technology that provides consumers with the most innovative way to enhance their portable digital music lifestyle," Robert Hanson, Levi's US brand president, said in a statement.

Somehow, I'll summon the will to survive the shame of carrying my iPod outside of a special marsupial-like pouch and can even probably live out a normal life operating the clickwheel directly instead of through a wire in my trousers.

And I though the iPod Sock was inane...