(polite applause)

They should start making computers. you know, user serviceable, replaceable battery, expandable, not locked in, not beholden to movie and record mafia, function gets an edge in over form.

be less greedy apple. it will do you good. maybe take some green tea or something. your fanboys are revolting!

@ DeFex

Well you can keep your overcooked spaghetti OS and chucked together boxes, which I said good bye to in 2001 and have never, ever had a reason to look back. Well, maybe occasionally for chuckles. Giggles. Some guffaws.

Don't you think? Apple should make a rival to the Xbox. Only thing is, it'd look fantastic, but cost three times as much.

I'm less of a MS fanboy and more of an Apple detractor (for reasons along the lines mentioned by DeFex, including their horrible lock in on the iPhone) and this news just warms the cockles.

DeFex, so Apple release a single machine which is not expandable, replacable battery, etc and you label everything they've released that?

I think if you actually knew what you were talking about you'd know all other Mac laptops can replace batteries, and are a lot more expandable too. Also desktop Macs are user servicable, (dont need a battery), extremely expandable, and function pretty f'n well. Also no Macs are 'locked in' to using OSX only, and support Windows installations out of the box.

The movie/record media mafia bit only applies to iTunes, not Macs, so i don't see how its even an issue. If you want to talk a company being held to mafia, look at Microsoft and their incredibly crippled via DRM version of Windows, Vista. Mac OS X is no where near as locked down when it comes to moving/copying media, so get a grip on reality mate. You Mirosoft fan boys are so blind you wouldn't see a train coming if you were standing on its tracks.

PS. I own multiple PCs, Macs, and other platforms too. So unlike you i actually do know what im talking about.

"be less greedy apple. your fanboys are revolting!"

Not as revolting as Linux fanboys. At least Apple fanboys wash occasionally.

Now where did I put that cloakroom ticket?

The irony of DeFex's statement about fanboys is hilarious "not locked in, not beholden to movie and record mafia"

Cough ... propertary formats (WMA, WMV, etc.)

Cough ... DRM laden OS (Vista)

Cough

I've always found Apple fanboys somewhat revolting too

"Also desktop Macs are user servicable, (dont need a battery), extremely expandable, and function pretty f'n well. "

I wouldn't call the ability to upgrade the memory "extremely expandable" - 'cos that's all you can do with an iMac! No CPU upgrade, no HDD upgrade, no GFX upgrade. I guess you meant Mac Pros, but iMacs are desktops too...

Erm... right.. erm.. ok... Another useless post. Get YOUR facts straight. If you know what you are doing, and not just a 'fettler of machines' you'd know that you CAN upgrade alot more than the memory.

Cough.. Cough..

You PC user, you...

thing is, you don't need to upgrade macs, because the OS updates are never bloated shitware.

2004 Powerbook G4 still going strong. LOL @ "macs are expensive".

So i didn't implicity imply the exact models which do / don't, i should've said 'most Mac desktops', my mistake. I'm aware iMacs are limited in that sense, but the market they are designed for aren't likely to want to do much of a system overhaul,

I can't see any true power user going for anything less than a tower if they are the kind who is used to building their own PCs. But it's no difference to buying some of the mini-PC mobos out there, the expandability is quite limited, but I could only imagine people who buy it would be aware of that. As a side note though I have upgraded a HDD in an iMac before, so it can be done in some of their models.

On a side note, people seem to be overlooking that Apple announced their biggest profit to date. Their outlook was poor, but then again given the fact that stockmarkets around the world reached the lowest point they have in decades and everyones crying recession.

Maybe Apple are just playing things conservatively and it may be Microsoft eating humble pie come the end of the next quarter if these financial predictions of the market come true, even server based spending gets cut backs if businesses decide they have to cut spending (which is already happening in the finance industry here in the UK).

'Well you can keep your overcooked spaghetti OS and chucked together boxes, which I said good bye to in 2001 and have never, ever had a reason to look back'

You forgot to add

because I'm a sheep who wants to be told everything I can do with my computer, what I can put inside my computer, what I can run on it and never ever use it in a way that was never imagined by the almighty Jobs or step outside the Apple bubble.

I'm guessing you work in media which is why you are so attached to Apple. Just like the Mac, all the media can produce is shiny, sparkly flashy things with nice soundbites that make people go whoooo but have no actual practical use.

They did:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin

So that means that all those "biggest fine ever" anti-trust fines are about a week's profit. Maybe less, because I'm sure they'll deduct it as an expense.

One of those every couple of years...that must hurt badly. No really.

Yep and what a surprise it was expensive and poorly supported :-)

Paris, as she would of bought one to go alongside her 3DO

a big loss it is as well.

They are still not making a profit on each machine sold as they have to spend so much replacing a 1/3 as they are faulty ones with the ring of death.

Horay for the power of Microsoft!!!!

Apple are doing well too, let's be proud of them both... but MS more!

Now BillG has more money for his charities and Steve Jobs has more money for his face lifts and prostitutes.

I take it the endless "think" pieces people post about the imminent demise of Microsoft might end? No, didn't think so...

Someone should impose an 'Adult Only' limit on commenting here... but I must admit, watching the teenage fanboys argyuing over minor points and calling each other stupid is fun. Takes me back to the heady days of "My Amiga is better than your shit Atari ST!"

Once they discover girls (or boys depending on gender and orientation), they'll stop worrying about what OS someone else is using.

They're so JPZR!

World war 3 is going to be between Mac and Windows Fanboys, I wonder which OS can be used to design and build a mechanoid with large plasma cannons first.....

You forgot the utterly pointless and horrible M$ lock-up of MPEG2 - dvr-ms

Mini-pc mobos - limited expandibility? You haven't checked out the M-ATX market recently. The one I bought recently has two standard PCI and 1 PCIe which will take a double slot without ruling out a PCI line, multiple sata (including external), HDMI output and onboard sound and video good enough for movies. You can even run crossfire in this format these days. You'll obviously never get everything you can get on an ATX board but presumably space is a limiting factor. BYO based on a high end MATX and you'll beat any AppleMedia appliance hands down (including for style).

" I'm a sheep who wants to be told everything I can do with my computer, "

The perfect description of the Vista experience!

Last I looked my mac does not refuse to let me run "unapproved" software, nor does my Buntu box for that matter.

Why in the blue hell would you complain about iMac servicability? The whole idea and purpose of the iMac is to have a really little base and a tightly integrated unit. You can't be all things to all people.

That's why they have MAC TOWERS.

That's just fuckn stupid.

So the school bully took everybody's lunch money and now we should congratulate him for it as well? oh please.

Grow up.