So Apple's event today is being viewed by a lot of people as a major letdown, and the response from many is along the lines of:

"Well, it's your own fault. You shouldn't have hyped the event and posted fake mockups of products. It's not Apple's fault that they didn't release products they never said they'd release..."  Etc., etc.

But here's the problem with that argument. Most of us that are being critical of Apple today are being critical of the products themselves. We're more disappointed in an ugly "Hi-Fi" boombox that lacks many of the most basic features of a standard boombox than we are about Apple not releasing a tablet or new video iPod. We're disappointed that Apple, a company renowned for its innovative products, would release a product that's so...well...not innovative. It's an overly expensive Pod dock with speakers. It doesn't even sport the one feature that would truly make it unique--a Wi-Fi connection to make it interact with wireless streaming music.

The Intel Mac minis are a little better, but we're not happy about the price increase. Apple wants to market the mini as both an entertainment center and an entry-level Mac, but is pricing it out of the accepted range for either market. Not to mention that it's lacking crucial features required by both markets. Any decent media center will have PVR capabilities, which this does not (without attaching a product like El Gato's EyeTV 500). And the integrated graphics chip in this thing is going to make it a poor candidate for PC switchers who are expecting at least reasonable graphics performance. Real world tests will eventually prove whether the supposedly new and speedy Intel chips will be able to compensate for the lackluster video capabilities in these models, but we're not holding our breath.

And don't even get me started on the leather iPod case. One hundred dollars for a protective case for a video iPod that makes you take the iPod out of the case to watch a video or use the controls? I'm just as much as an Mac fan as the next Apple-logo-wearing guy, but this is just ridiculous.

That the products released today are underwhelming isn't the fault of our admittedly overhyped expectations, it's the fault of the underwhelming products being released. The bottom line is that Apple's not being very innovative with these products, and we should be allowed to be critical of them. Saying that it's the Mac fan sites that are at fault for instilling unreasonable expectations just isn't an argument that holds much water.