Apparently Apple released some sort of new phone the other day. I think I heard about it because people were camped out in front of stores hours before they opened to get the new product.

I may be wrong though because I think these Apple people were camped out in front of stores a few weeks ago for something else new, something I heard described as just a really big phone without the phone capability.

So I didn’t know at first if they really had a new phone out or if these people had just missed the memo and showed up too late for the iPad thingamajig. Or maybe they just like spending the night in front of Apple stores.

In most circumstances, the release of a new cell phone would not make good fodder for ridicule. But this is Apple. Not only do they make great products, they make great products we can make fun of.

The whole cult of Apple never really made sense to me. They make cool things, but that’s about as far as I can go with the whole concept.

To me, a computer is a computer. That whole concept got a little out of whack with the Apple people. They didn’t just have a computer. They had something you had to adore. They didn’t care if no one made software that you could run on their computers. It was an Apple. They were special.

Some of this comes from the fact that Apple computers never had to worry about viruses. The people who worship Steve Jobs saw this as some sort of superiority, but I knew the real answer.

The hackers didn’t like them. As we all know in these days of social networking, it’s all about capturing friends. We didn’t know it then, but we PC users were winning the friend battle a long time ago. We didn’t always know what kind of people we were consorting with, but at least they liked us.

Then the worst possible thing happened. Apple came out with the iPod. People like me tried to pretend that other music players could stand on their own, but, deep down, we knew that was a lie.

I finally gave in a couple of years ago and bought an iPod. I immediately fell in love, but knew that I could limit this fascination to one product. Then they came up with the iPhone. Then the iPad. They really knew how to appeal to my gadgety side.

But these were Apple products. They didn’t just come with fun technology, You got a side dish of smug. They weren’t just cool things to have. You had to stand in line to get them.

I never bought it. I wanted to, but I haven’t. Part of that is because I just don’t feel like spending that much money. Part of it is because I feel more cool trying to not be cool.

The way I see it, no technology completely hits the mark when it first comes out. So these people spending all night in front of Apple stores are simply weeding out the bad technology for me.

Without them, I wouldn’t get all the sleep I need. Just don’t tell them how much I appreciate it.