Dear Santa Steve: Newton, Rentals and a Consumer Tower please

If upgradability (mini towers?) means longer usage life, then I am all for it as dumping the old m/c for a new one creates unnecessary e-garbage, which according to my current understanding is a major problem without any reasonably good solution.

So she's saying she wants everything she has now, only bigger and more powerful, at the same price?

Add a PCI-Express slot to the Mini, everything else should be coming in one way or another over the next 18 months.

This is mega interesting..look it
http://www.great.fx.to/

Thanks
Sounds like my wish list minus the Apple TV...

The consumer tower is a niche market. Apple will never sell a consumer tower as long as Jobs remains in charge.

Apple's computer line-up is much simpler than that of its 2 leading competitors, Dell and HP.

["Please tell them that a mac is a mac because people don't like to work on their computers, but would rather do their jobs and hobbies on their computers."]

That's a pretty bold statement, because what if people have gaming as a hobby? Apple doesn't offer any top of the line graphics solution for gaming in the consumer market - Mac Mini is stuck with weak Intel GMA and iMacs have a crippled 2400 or 2600HD for heat reasons. The only way to beef up graphics performance is with a Mac Pro, at nearly double the cost. Why be forced into a Dual-Xeon config just to be able choose a better GPU?

["May your excellence show them that the quest for better hardware is, has been, and always will be a futile endeavor and that the true winner is software. I hope you understand that this is not a mac forum, but a PC forum for 'mac' users. Pay no attention to their demands. They don't want a mac, they want a pc with mac software."]

A Mac is still a PC...the difference is that Apple takes the time to pair up hardware that performs exceptionally well when coupled with the excellent software they develop. I don't prefer using a Mac because there's no expandability options, I prefer using a Mac because the overall ease of use and stability is unbeatable. A Mac provides users with what they want through software, but performance will still be heavily hardware dependent. I am a Mac convert, and I am typing this post on my MacBook Pro. However, I still run a custom built Windows desktop machine at home because gaming performance is just not there in the consumer market. If there was a customizable consumer-class gaming machine offered by Apple, I'd have no reason to use anything but a Mac.

I predict we will see "Triple Play" introduced at MWSF. One 720p video will play on your Mac, your Apple TV AND your latest-generation iPod. That's right folks, iPods will soon output a 720p signal. That is the real reason for the authentication chips. It was a requirement by the MPAA.

Why most people's PC innards are dusty with empty slots: because they don't know they can fill it and thereby extend the life of their PCs at a cheaper price. And vendors are happy to oblige, rather than educate users about how they can add maybe another 2 years to their investment.

Over the years I've had many friends and relatives complain about slow-running PCs or lacking a new feature they suddenly need, and they think getting a new one is the only solution. More often than not, I'd take them to buy new RAM/hard disk/graphics card/new PCI card, fix it in for them and they'd be so happy, they don't buy a new computer again for the next 3 years.

The truth is, most people don't need the latest and greatest dual-core anything. With enough RAM and a spacious hard disk, even a 1GHz processor is more than good enough.

But they do sometimes need a new technology that's just come out -- say, a DVD writer or wireless networking. With an iMac you have drastically less options. Sometimes you can add external devices, but they cost more. Sometimes it's just an impossibility: good luck trying to add Firewire 800 onto an older iMac when you want to turn it into a media server.

I upgraded my father's 1GHz Celeron-based desktop computer RAM from 128MB to 512MB and hard disk from 8GB to 40GB 5 years ago and he's still using it today. By right my 867MHz G4 tower is obsolete, but because it is upgradable it's still useful and current today.

Promoting the "disposable PC" concept of an all-in-one computer is simply irresponsible and deceptive. Imagine the plastic and toxic mountain if everyone had to replace their computers every 2 years!

I beg to differ regarding being able to "upgrade" existing macs. There definately is a market for it. I have a 24" iMac that is 18 months old. I recently upgraded the ram to 4GB and replaced the 250GB internal hard drive with a 1TB drive. I would love to replace the video card as it is definately outdated at this point. However since that is not an option I either have to live with it or go out and spend $1900.00 on a new iMac that once again, will be outdated within a year. So explain to me again why doing that is better than giving me the ability to go out and buy a better video card for $200.00 and put it into my existing machine. Sure, I could go out and buy a Mac Pro and have the ability to swap out parts, but the initial cost is definately more than I am willing to fork out.

HD

Seriously, HD. Apple keeps yapping about HD and the AppleTV uses HDMI but the TV and movie offerings on iTunes are still in SD and look like crap on an HDTV. If they're going to start video rentals they better be in HD format if they want my business.