The 2008 Macworld Keynote was very impressive, in my opinion. Lots of engineering highs, innovation, and a few surprises (and a few no-brainers, too.) MacBook Air is great (who wouldn’t want to sport that around school or work?), iTunes movie rentals are nice, Apple TV 2.0, yeah, great, but I want to talk about iPod touch.

Apple released a software update for both the iPhone and iPod touch but, unlike the iPhone, touch users have to pay–that’s right–$20 for 5 new apps: Mail, Maps, Notes, Stocks, and Weather. These are all features that should have been included from the beginning; consumers should not have to dig up $20 for an update that is, quite frankly, less impressive than its more-capable sibling iPhone. Yes, I chose to buy the iPod touch (actually, it was a gift for Christmas), but $399 was also spent on a product that should provide free updates - this isn’t a 2nd generation, state-of-the-art update. Apple marketed the touch as an “iPhone without the phone” but failed to include these 5 apps in the beginning.

The $20 update gives you:

• Preview mail before it’s opened, display photos, view HTML, PDF, Word, and other attachments
• Apps appear on your iPod touch home screen (apps can also be rearranged on the screen)
• With maps, the touch will determine your location via Wi-Fi, giving you a location marker and directions
• A Web Clips feature allows the creation of custom icons on the home screen for favorite web pages
• Ability to rent movies from iTunes

Anyone else upset about the price?