It's a shame that they only make this for Mini DisplayPort... I have a Mac Mini (now two generations old) that only has DVI out, and something like this adapter for DVI would make it simple to set the machine up as a media Mac. Fortunately, they do have DVI to HDMI cables, and my home theater receiver can combine an HDMI and optical audio input into a single HDMI output, but still, it would be nice to not have to run more than one cable to my receiver.

Simply put, I will go a whole day without having to take a recharge break before I leave work. For once.

Jordan, PC salespeople still have to memorize specs exactly because the specs of the machines vary so wildly. Certainly, it's easy for the salesperson to tell you how much RAM is in a given machine. But can they tell you the maximum amount of memory the machine can support? The salespeople in the Apple store can, and it's because they only have a few models that they have to know.

Can a salesperson in a PC store tell you right away which PCs support gigabit ethernet? Or have built-in Bluetooth? Or support 802.11n? Salespeople in the Apple store can, because these are standard on every Mac (well, 802.11n isn't standard on the Mac Pro, but it's still an option).

The problem with selling PCs is that every manufacturer is trying to undercut every other manufacturer, so they get their hardware from all over the place. This one has ATI graphics, this one has Nvidia graphics, this one has an Intel CPU, this one has an AMD CPU, etc. Every PC manufacturer is making sacrifices in quality, reliability, or price, because they're all competing with each other within the same store. So there's an HP laptop that you like, but you want a faster processor. So there's a Sony with a faster processor for a couple hundred more, but it's got a crappy display. Or there's yet another brand with a faster processor and a good display, but it has no room for you to add more RAM. It's always a tradeoff.

At least in the Apple store you know exactly what you're getting. You like the base model iMac, but you want a faster processor? You can pay for the upgrade, and you're getting the exact machine you were just looking at, but with a faster processor.

Being completely sincere here: as a guy who used only PCs from 1984 to 2008, and who built at least one homebrew PC per year during that time, the simplicity and consistency of Apple's product line is a welcome change.

I'm not sure that MS realizes what a can of worms they're opening here. As stated by at least one other commenter previously, Apple has a fairly unified product line to support, with basically 6 computer lines and 5 portable lines to sell and support.

Having worked at the Best Buy tech bench (well before it was taken over by the Geek Squad), I am quite familiar with the nightmare that comes with selling and supporting Windows PCs. To be perfectly honest, this might be the worst thing that MS could ever do. As it is, if someone buys a HP laptop at Best Buy and is mislead about its capabilities (not intentionally, mind you, but because the sales staff has to learn the specs of a dozen new PCs every few weeks), that's not Microsoft's fault, they get to blame it on Best Buy. Likewise, if there is a problem with the hardware or the software, and they bring it in to Best Buy, and the experience is less than stellar -- they have to pay to have it fixed, or the fix requires reinstalling Windows, for example -- that's not Microsoft's fault in their eyes, that's Best Buy screwing them over.

With the Microsoft store, MS is guaranteed that every bit of buyer's remorse and consumer frustration that happens under their roof will be associated with the Microsoft name, and every bit of the resultant anger will be leveled at Microsoft directly. It will no longer be "Best Buy sucks, I'm buying my next PC straight from Dell", it'll be "Microsoft sucks, I'm switching to Apple."

It's reasonable for Apple to presume that you'd be okay with having anything in your library added to your Genius Mixes. You should probably create a separate iTunes library for your sister so that you can remove all of that crap from your library.

The Hummer of cellphones? No.

The iPhone isn't the physical manifestation of everything that is wrong with America.

The iPhone isn't the very worst features of other cellphones combined into one supremely horrible cellphone.

Owning an iPhone doesn't automatically qualify you as a giant douchebag (granted, some giant douchebags do own iPhones. That's unavoidable).

I get what the article is saying, calling the iPhone a "data guzzler", but there's one major difference: gasoline is a finite natural resource. Bandwidth is really only limited by how you build your network. AT&T could spend more money on their network and make more bandwidth available. No matter what we spend, we cannot change the amount of available crude oil.

Or, here's a thought: AT&T could give up their iPhone exclusivity agreement and allow other carriers to take some of the load.

Sure, the iPhone is the Hummer of cellphones... if gasoline was an infinitely renewable resource, and if Hummer had a contract with the oil industry which prevented Hummer from making vehicles that would run on other fuel sources.

"good for the gord"?

I think you need to play more Tetris. It's "gourd".

The problem there is not the mouse itself, but the Logitech Control Center software. I also have found that I can no longer control Spaces or Exposé with the mouse buttons that I had programmed to do so. This is likely due to the fact that Exposé at the very least was changed with 10.6. Odd that Logitech hasn't bothered to release a version of the LCC software that actually works properly with Snow Leopard. The latest version on the Logitech website won't even install on Snow Leopard!

I'm in!

I'd use this as a dedicated display for iTunes. How easy would it be to just tap the song name or playlist to start listening?