We had to know it was coming. It’s the next logical step. The iPhone is, as Steve Jobs promised, “the coolest iPod yet.” But what if your phone service isn’t with AT&T? Or what if you don’t need a phone, and you just want an iPod?

Apple has announced the iPod Touch. As far as I can tell, it’s an iPhone without the phone. Apparently, the removal of the phone functions not only made it possible to drop $100 from the price, but it also made room to double the storage capacity. Unfortunately those two things are mutually exclusive: either you get it cheaper, or else you get it with more storage.

My generation IV iPod, from the dark ages before video was added as a standard feature, gave me 20 gigabytes of storage, and I tend to keep it loaded pretty close to capacity. I can’t imagine how you add the ability to play video — and on a bigger screen — but don’t add storage. In fact, they reduced the storage!

Well, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure I don’t need 7.8 days worth of nonstop music with me everywhere I go. I could probably start managing what’s loaded instead of just taking everything with me everywhere.

But you see, that’s the problem. The thing that made the iPod so cool was that you could take your entire music collection with you everywhere you went. In my opinion, that’s the first and most important feature.

So why can’t they just add one tiny little memory card slot? They don’t have to include the memory or upgrade it, they can just put a CF slot, or SD slot, or something, allowing the user to upgrade at will. Why did the company who thinks of everything not think of that?