Might be hard to use a 17" monster, or even maybe a 15" laptop, but my little 12.1" Sentia m3200 works just fine. Of course, there are some bus routes I would never use it on for fear of mugging, but that's a different matter . . .

Love the hitchhikers guide reference - maybe we need to construct a small planet to determine the meaning of the number 43?

@S2Hedgehog:
I'll grant you there are some decent pro-mac arguments, but you take a few things a bit too far. As an example, the old price argument is mostly dead - for initial purchases. Cost of ownership for a PC, though, is going to be somewhat less. You have to shell out for Parallels or (gulp!) a full copy of XP on top of paying for any games you might want to run (trying to keep this relevant). Also, keeping a PC up to date in terms of hardware is considerably less expensive - in 2 years I'll be able to add a BluRay drive to my PC for probably $150. You'd need to buy a new Mac. Ouch.

You're right, tho, there are no low-cost options available for Macs. Which is a total shame, as most of the people buying the $399 or $499 Dells really could do with something as virus resistant and simple to learn as a Mac. Some people should NOT be allowed near something as . . . 'touchy' as Windows. And Apple would be able to rapidly grow their install base, too.

Also, the neat red underlining feature is available to PC's, too - you just need to use firefox, instead of (shudder) IE.

@TM: "Just look at the new 8 core Mac Pro! What other consumer PC has that right now? NONE!"

errr . . . Mac Pro's aren't consumer products - hence the 'Pro' in their name. The hardware platform is the same as PC, you can run windows on 8 cores, too, if you want to get a dual socket mobo - it's just not a common option. Check out the Alienware MJ-12® 8550i as an example of this. Same market, equivalent hardware (except the 8800GTX option!). No more a consumer PC then the Mac Pro, but no less 'consumer', either.

There is a break - kinda. They seem to refer to the point where they cut off the article for display on the main engadget page. If you get your gadget fix via RSS (probably pretty common with this crowd), then it makes no sense what-so-ever. And, for the most part, by the time you read 'after the break', you've read everything that's actually important anyways, IMHO.

Well, someone has to say it . . .

I, for one, welcome our adjustably aggressive, spidery robotic overlords.

Sorry, it just had to be done.

Wow, I bought what seems to be a functionally identical device about 2 years ago, for CDN$60, and it happens to look better, too. And it has a pair of status lights and an attachment loop for a lanyard that have proven quite useful.

As a side note, anyone know how Canadian law views accessing unprotected hotspots?

Ummm . . . anyone else realize that there's no way to get 6W out of a USB port? 5V * 500mA (or0.5A) = 2.5W . . . . I wish their marketing department luck.

One last item there Zeus - I'd have covered you're other arguments, but I feel chad left little room for improvement and I'm not going to try and glory hog by copying his arguments.

I've got to say, you lost to chad, big time. Although that's to be expected from anyone with the ego issues to need "Zeus the God" as an alias.

Just to pick out a few points that it doesn't look like chad hit:
1. Way, WAY back, you referred to the 360's superior download times. Even across a 802.11b network, you'd need one hell of a connection to max out your bandwidth - something on the order of 10Mbps. Odds are, if you're buying a 'next gen' console, you'd have an 802.11g network, bumping it to more like 50Mbps.
[side note about presence of wireless: Lot's of the high end market, which is what these consoles currently target, own laptops. Most laptop owners will already have the wireless network, it just makes sense with a portable device]

2. Yeah, we're not quite at the point of really even using the full capacity of DVD for games. Of course, when the PS2 came out, were we still looking at games around 500-600MB. Having that extra headroom is nice - who knows what else game developers can come up with to fill that space? Imagine if you could, say, buy The Matrix (or Reloaded) and Enter the Matrix on the same disk? Maybe make it so your game progress would choose a default ending (ie, theatrical or directors cut)?

On a more 'personal' level - grow up. You might hate it, but at 16, you know shit compared to people twice your age (no idea how old you are, chad, just guessing). IF you can't seem to shut up, or learn respect, do yourself a favor and take a class in debate or logical analysis. You might have decent ideas, but you come across as an idiotic jackass.

*Hands victory to 'chad'*

This is starting (well, we may be past starting) to become ridiculous. Yes, maybe people can hear CRTs (someone once explained it was something to due with the kHz range scan rate, which does seem to fit). Maybe that can drive you nuts. But hearing an EM signal at 2.4Ghz? Not a chance. This is a drop in the bucket compared to even the energy you absorb from the sun shining in your office window, or from a walkie talkie. If you want to live in a lead box you're whole life, fine, but there's no reason to.

Sorry, make that ancient lead, fresh stuff is still somewhat radioactive :P