Well I guess we are all slightly disappointed with the Open Computer; some of us are maybe even a little bit angry that we fooled ourselves into thinking it might be better. Many of us hoped that this was going to be a way of getting a half decent and upgradeable Mac without spending a fortune. Cleary at present as many have observed this is just a Hackintosh with some of the install cut out. In reality what else could it be?

Nonetheless it does clearly demonstrate two things. Firstly that there is a huge pent up demand for an affordable and upgradeable Mac Mini Tower and secondly that current Mac hardware is over priced. For years when it was PPC V Intel it was really hard to make a strict price comparison. Many of us using Macs knew that they were slower and more expensive and so welcomed the move to Intel so that at last we could get up to speed and that hopefully there would be some transparency in like for like computers. But by not releasing a standard desktop computer for under £1,000 Apple are still making us pay a lot more for a nice box and the OS. Nice boxes and a good OS are not to be sniffed at of course but the margin you pay is not really sustainable nor is the limited choice on offer.

The new iMacs for example have a pretty decent spec but if you don’t want a glossy screen then what? It’s either a Mac Mini or go pro. The Open Mac could be great if Apple were willing to help and release OSX for PCs but of course they won’t for as soon as the comparison between PCs and Macs become transparent then the margin become unsustainable.

Amidst all the product anticipation that always seems to attend the release of Apple hardware no one seems to have commented on what seems a real problem with the phone, its orientation, and the need to keep swivelling it round in one’s hand as one shifts from function to function, from widescreen to portrait and back again. You switch the phone on in portrait mode with the phone resting upright in your hand, want to scan through your album artwork you must rotate the handset 45 degrees to see the screen in widescreen, want to look through a list of music though and its back to portrait, want to watch a video and its another hand turn back to wide, want to answer a call it’s a twist back to portrait and so on. Indeed one can imagine that if the iPhone is a success we will soon see some variation on RSI developing as legions of iPhone users begin to experience strange wrist aches from repeatedly twisting the phone in their hands. Lets call it iPhone ache or iPA for short.

What I don't get is the widescreen thing. Yes a big 20 something inch screen is great for putting up two documents side by side or having multiple apps open etc. But when you get these really small letterbox sized screens they are not really any use for anything except watching DVD's and if you don't have an optical drive......