Can you control Apple? I’ll bet you can. Just buy an Apple product — a Mac or iPod — and within three weeks they’ll come out with a new one. It’s like controlling the stock market: buying stock and then seeing its price go down. But stock prices may come back up. With Apple, your old junk is just junk … unless you know where to look.

My son’s iPod nano died. Sad news, yes, but it was his second iPod to travel through the washing machine. Seems the boy doesn’t empty his pockets when he tosses his trousers into the hamper. Sometimes I check the pockets, but not this past week. So his second iPod died in the name of cleaner clothes. Lesson learned. Hopefully.

The boy loves his iPod, so a replacement is in order. Then again, I remembered that the iPod nano has been out a while. A long while for Apple. So I visited the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide web site.

The MacRumors Buyer’s Guide web site lists a life cycle guide for the various Apple products, including the iPod. According to the site, they recommend not buying a new iPod because whiffs in the air tell that new iPods are coming. So the lad will have to wait.

I find the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide web site a blessed relief. As a Mac addict, I’m loathe to fall into the pit of despair when buying a new Apple-this-or-that and finding a new one introduced just weeks later. Hopefully the web site will help you, too, make prudent buying decisions for your Apple stuff.