True, you can also go to Apple refurbished and save yourself some money, and they offer warranty protection on the product. Or, just go to any of the various online refurbished MAC sellers, they ALSO offer warranty protection.

I've gone this route, saved lots of money on capable machines, and NEVER had a problem.

Nice ignorant statement. I have this great episode from South Park, called "Smug Alert" that pretty much sums up your attitude.

http://www.hybridcars.com/files/imag...k-smug-313.gif

Apologies, relax.

Too bad you never made it out to the west coast. I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed flying with you.

Very valid points. However, I agree that some of the Apple items are overpriced, the money saved for keeping a PC clean makes up the difference in my opinion.

Let me stop you right there before you keep making smug statements.. :D

I meant that :cool:

Well, I'll end with this:

Even a anti/ambivalent-Mac person such as myself will say that even though most Mac products are overpriced for the average user (non-debatable, really), the iPod is clearly a winner.

Not so much for the hardware (also overpriced -- plenty of other MUCH cheaper, capable MP3 players out there), but for the iTunes interface that makes downloading so simple.

How about some non-DRM music protection, eh? Oh wait, then you could just download and not use an overpriced iPod player. Brilliant!

Hehehe....so you really do like Apple products. :) If you would use a MAC for awhile you would also agree it is superior to a PC just like an iPod is superior to crappy MP3 players. I bought a highly rated MP3 player for my daughter instead of an iPod to save $70. I HATE the thing. Software to load, drivers to re-install, a different plug-in to install from every site you want to download stuff, it just sucks. Plug an iPod in and it works. Same goes for the MAC. Plug your camera, video recorder, external drive, etc. in and they work. No drivers, no crappy software programs, nothing.

Oddly enough, I've never had a PC crash, or any problems with uploading pictures, or watching DVD's, etc.

Clearly, I'm not the only one -- hence the huge numbers of PC's out there.

What I find amusing is that Mac users are so utterly insufferable about a utilitarian and ubiquitous overpriced piece of hardware. It's like a religion or something. Get "born again" with the Mac, and now ya got's to convert everyone. Ah well. :)

True, but as with ANYTHING else in life, people will go with an average, mediocre, or flat out piece of garbage if it's going to save them some money. They will also gladly buy/consume something that has been marketed to be easy but in the end can be nothing but a huge inconvenience. Besides, the story of why Apple is the position they are in, as well as why PC/Windows has such a huge market share is a long and convoluted one at best.

Like I said, I've gone with refurbed products, NEVER had a problem, and was always able to get a much better equipped machine than if I went the PC route for the same amount of money. And the the refurbed MAC's I've bought were usually at least a year old and still ahead of the current PC offerings.

Different strokes for differenet folks.