I was just reading the list of enhancements coming to the iPad with iOS 4.2 and ran across this gem: See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox.

Why is this considered a feature or improvement, let alone one of the top features in a OS update? The only reason I have multiple accounts is to keep them separate. Only giving out 1 email address would be a piece of cake. I have multiple accounts so I can organize my mail. I don’t every want to search across accounts, let alone view them together. Hell, it offends me that it is even possible in Mail (on Mac OS X) to accidentally click on the wrong spot and have all my mail listed together. Does Apple want to give me an anxiety attack?

I’ve got 6 email accounts right now with unread counts of 0, 1092, 593, 113, 1850 and 801. That doesn’t include the 20,000+ unread junk messages. Seeing those all at once would scare me off of email forever.

The same thing goes for phone companies. I was signing up for local phone service and one of the top features they listed was unified billing. Really? That’s a top feature? Better than caller-id? Better than voicemail? Better than fast upload speeds? Better than no filters on my Internet content?

Getting one fucking bill instead of two? Really? Honestly? Someone gives a shit about this? Someone considers it one of the top five features for any product or service?

How, in this over-digitized age where even fast food restaurants at the mall want your email address and for you to follow them on facebook, can someone need their messages consolidated instead of separated?