The New York Times' columnist entertains IT types with a parody of "Ooops!… I did it again."

Pogue at Interop. Photo: Philip Elmer-DeWitt

David Pogue may review technology for a living, but give him half a chance and he'll revert to his first love: show tunes.

He did it again Wednesday, ending his Interop New York 2009 keynote at the Javits Center with one of his patented song parodies: "Apps!… I did it again," a Britney Spears classic (if there is such a thing) rewritten for the age of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

The performance followed an address that entertained mostly by accident. In what he described in advance as an "exercise in idiocy," he attempted 15 live demos of his favorite gadgets and apps.

We lost track of how many failed, but it seemed like more than half. "Dr. Kevorkian, call me now!" he cried after one of his simplest — a demo of Google Info (800-GOOG-411) — was foiled by Interop's overloaded Wi-Fi circuits.

Below the fold: Pogue at the electric piano.

UPDATE: Pogue helpfully provided by e-mail this list of the 14 demos he attempted (one got cut for time):

* Mifi
* iPhone Touch as a cellphone (using Mifi+Skype Out)
* 800-Goog 411
* Blurt (for BlackBerry)–video chat with the author in Dallas
* Nikon Coolpix 1000pj (camera with projector)
* Ocarina (musical instrument iPhone app)
* I Am T-Pain
* Jaadu VNC (real-time control of Mac/PC/Linux across the Internet on phone)
* Red Laser (barcode scan/comparative price lookup)
* PushIt2Me ("push" notification of urgent email–wakes the iPhone)
* RunPee Mobile (tells you exactly when, in each movie, you can go pee)
* FakeCalls
* Retina (augmented reality for the color-blind)
* Swine Flu AR (mockup of phony future app)

See also:

• Video: "Don't Cry for Me Cupertino"
• Pogue rocks Macworld with "Where is Steve?"

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

And now, for a musical interlude: David Pogue — Emmy-winning tech columnist, "Missing Manual" millionaire and Broadway composer manqué — belting out an Evita parody at the Boston Book Festival Saturday, with Apple's (AAPL) Steve Jobs cast in the role of the Argentinian temptress.

Thanks to Mashable's Pete Cashmore for the pointer.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

Jobs. Photo: Apple Inc.

When David Pogue, the New York Times' chief technology columnist, sat down with Steve Jobs after his "It's only rock and roll" keynote Wednesday, Pogue's first question was the one, as he put it, the "blogosphere’s been buzzing about": Why did Apple (AAPL) put a video camera on the iPod nano but not — as widely expected — on the iPod touch?

Jobs reiterated what Phil Schiller, his marketing vice president, had said earlier on stage: that Apple was pitching the iPod touch as a game machine — the "funnest iPod ever." Adding a camera would have made that game machine less affordable.

In Jobs' words:

“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine. We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.” (link)

But according to AppleInsider's Kasper Jade, citing unnamed sources familiar with Apple's decision making process, that's simple not true.  "While AppleInsider appreciates the company co-founder's play at damage control," writes Jade, "it's a tough sell."

"Like the nano," writes Jade, "people familiar with the matter maintain that initial plans for the new iPod touch called for a camera akin to the iPhone's. Manufacturing tooling was prepped and specifications issued some time ago."

Jade notes that an extensive analysis of the cost of adding a camera to the touch would have been done months — if not years — in advance and submitted for approval to roughly two dozen members of Apple's top brass.

"According to those familiar with situation," Jade reports, "management gave the green light to equip the latest-gen touches with cams last year. But problems, as AppleInsider reported earlier in the week, began to crop up with the third party camera sensors Apple took receipt of earlier this year.

"After several passes through quality assurance were met with less than stellar results in the time leading up to Wednesday's event, an executive decision was made a month ago to pull the cameras from the touches altogether, others familiar with the situation say." (link)

In other words, it was a bad part, not cost or marketing considerations, that kept the camera off the iPod touches introduced this week.

According to Jade, Apple is still committed to equipping the funnest iPod with a camera, and new devices with the added capability could arrive unexpectedly at any time.

David Pogue, New York Times tech columnist, creator of the Missing Manual series, and frustrated Broadway producer, led his Macworld Live! feature presentation in San Francisco Wednesday with a musical riff on Steve Jobs' non-attendance.

Playing the electric piano and accompanied by former Cirque de Soleil bassist J.F. Brisette, he sang, to the tune of Oliver's "Where is Love?"

"Where is Steve? Give us something to believe! Should we trust Apple's press release — or are we all naive?"

The performance drew knowing laughter and applause from an audience of several thousand in the basement of Moscone Center's North Hall. But the hit of 90-minute presentation were his three guests:

• Matt Harding, whose YouTube videos dancing at exotic locations around the world have been downloaded 17 million times. See, for example, Where the Hell is Matt?
• Matt Bledsoe and Tyler Hitch, creators of the You Suck at Photoshop series, downloaded 20 million times.
• Ge Wang, the creator of Ocarina, our favorite iPhone app, which not only turns the device into a 4-key musical instrument (downloaded nearly 500,000 times at 99-cents each) but lets you hear — in near real time — the music other Ocarina players are making all over the world.

Pogue, joined by Brissette on bass and Wang on iPhone Ocarina, closed the show with two more musical parodies:

• A song about iTunes to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" ("We might prefer more compatibility but Steve likes to run the whole show!")
• And a "Switcher's Anthem" to the tune of Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone." ("Ditch your Windows, get a clue, a new cult waits for you.")

Interviewed after the performance, Pogue said that he did not intend to make light of Jobs' health problems. He believes that the real reason Apple's CEO skipped the keynote was that Jobs reviewed Apple's (AAPL) product line-up for Macworld — upgrades of iWork and iLife and a 17" laptop — and decided it wasn't worth his time. That, says Pogue, not failing health, is why Jobs had senior vice president Phil Schiller give the keynote in his stead.

The spoonerism of Phil Schiller, Pogue points out, is shill filler.