Apple promised a big announcement today, and the Kingdom that Jobs Built did not disappoint. No longer does your iPod have to feel dowdy next to your iPhone and all its sexy touchscreen maneuvers. Here comes iPod Touch, a sweet little gizmo with some flashy moves all its own.

The iPod Touch is outfitted with a superswank WiFi system that not only lets you cruise the web with Safari-powered ease, but also hooks you into the brand new iTunes WiFi store, letting you search for, preview, and buy music from just about anywhere. Not bad.

As an added bonus, Starbucks will soon be teaming up with iTunes WiFi as well. When you walk into a participating Starbucks location, you'll be instantly connected to the iTunes WiFi store for free. You'll also be able to identify and buy the song currently playing in the store, as well as the last ten songs on the playlist. Groovy.

The rest of the fifteen-minute-long guided tour is mostly devoted to explaining in handholding, button-by-button detail the use of a device that was essentially designed to be self-explanatory in the first place. In fact, for the average Joe, the iPod Touch itself may be a bit like that -- a great-looking doohickey that gives you a lot of cool stuff you didn't particularly need to begin with.

But for hardcore music lovers, technophiles, and loyal Starbucks customers, today is a very good day.

Ever wonder how a Gmail message travels from sender to receiver? Well wonder no more! This video pulls back the curtain and details the entire process, which apparently involves skydiving, juggling, stop-motion Legos, cgi robots, and a whole host of wacky video effects. For an ostensibly cutting-edge technology company, this seems like a needlessly complicated algorithm. The cost of delivering even a single email must be enormous. Watching this video, I’m not sure how Google manages to stay in business. I think their stock might be seriously overvalued. Call your broker and get out now.

This video is actually a collaborative effort created by people from around the world. Several weeks ago Google posted their own video showing how a Gmail message goes from Point A to Point B, and then invited everyone on the web to film their own ideas and post them on YouTube. Over 1100 videos were received and then whittled down into today’s final cut. You can visit YouTube to see all of the videos, including ones that didn’t make the cut. Also, this Google blog has a rad map that shows where each of the videos came from. Overall it’s a cute bit of promotion, but again it begs the question: how well can Google really be doing if they’re subcontracting their advertising out to John and Jane Q. Public? I predict a WorldCom style collapse within the next three weeks. When it happens, just remember that you heard it here first.

Borg-like connotations of the title aside, this commercial is adorable. Not only that, but it sells the actual product, which seems a fairly low priority in many ads these days.

A cubicle dweller in a Japanese office is handed a report and asked to have it finished by the next morning. From the expression on his face, it's clear that he's already at the end of a long day. Sigh. Thankfully, inspiration strikes.

He makes a few sketches and notes on the report and sends it off in the fax machine. Now, because Ricoh's got a global network, with local support everywhere they sell, the Little Report That Could proceeds to jet from time zone to time zone, getting changes made in India, then France, then New York, all while our worker bee has a delightful evening with his friends. Then, in the morning, he pops over to the fax machine, picks up the (great-looking) completed report, and hands it to his boss.

All in one minute. One minute to tell you that if you use Richoh products, your offices will never close, because you'll have the world working for you 24-7. Plus your work will look fantastic and you'll have time for karaoke with your buds.

If I had anybody to fax, I'd be buying a Ricoh fax machine right now.

Okay, I'll admit it: I don't know the first thing about hardware-based security. But thanks to this ad for Intel's vPro and Centrino Pro, directed by the inimitable Christopher Guest, I want to know more.

In the spot, "Old School" rocker Dan Finnerty strolls through a cubicle maze, crooning about his software and IT problems of yore, before meeting up mid-office with indie artist Rob Giles, who's done up for the occasion like the unholy spawn of Axl Rose, Ozzy Osbourne, and, uh, several other unholy people. Together they rock the place out with lyrical tales of the magic things that happen with hardware-based remote managability.

Did I leave the experience knowing more about the topic than when I started? Not so much. But I was left with a powerful urge to forth and look stuff up about it. So there you go. Plus, I dig that one guy who can't get his lighter to work. Hee.