About four years ago they tried their hand at a pair of alien-looking in-ear buds that never really took off, but this time they’re back with a dual-driver design at an intriguingly low price-point. The brief run-down on these new $80 phones:

• Well, for starters, they’re the first pair of Apple headphones that have ever fit and stayed in my ears. So that’s a great start.
• Besides fitting well, I found them to be surprisingly comfortable; Apple headphones do not like my ears
• Despite not officially supporting the iPhone, the inline remote supports all functions (mic, call end, track play/pause/skip, etc.), except volume.
• My hearing is fairly degraded, but in my testing, they sounded really good — way out of their price range. Having two drivers makes a big difference.
• The two piece plastic case they come in is pretty bad and not very user friendly. I can’t imagine many people will make use of it.

Comparison and FAQ after the break. (A few pictures also posted to my Flickr stream.)

Okay, let’s get to the comparison. Dual driver headphones make a big difference, and that’s what I tested Apple’s in-ear phones against. Some brief notes:

• Stock iPhone / iPod headphones: muddled, low definition, felt like a lot of detail missing.
• Ultimate Ears super.fi 3 Studio: decent bass, seems to weight towards mid-to-high range; but not super impressive. Kind of uncomfortable.
• Shure E4c: well-balanced and very crisp. Great reproduction. Best sound isolation of the group.
• Apple in-ear headphones: punchy bass, warm mids, also all around well-balanced.

The silicone caps Apple’s new phones are better than most, but they lack the serious sound isolation that comes with foam caps, like you can get with the Shures. In fact, the new Apples gave the Shures such a run for their money, it was difficult to tell whether they might have pulled ahead with better sound isolation.

Now, a few questions, some pulled off of Twitter:

Are they annoyingly rubbery/springy like stock iPhone ones? [adamschwabe]
Yeah, they have the same texture as Apple’s other headphoens now; a little bit of rubber seems to make them harder to tangle and a little softer to touch. I kind of like it, but it isn’t any deciding factor.

Is there much audio bleed? What are the noise canceling capabilities relative to other buds? [Solacetech, 007bond4321]
There’s a fair bit of noise isolation, as they are in-ear headphones; noise-cancelation is only something you get with larger, cup-type devices that actively filter — not just block — noise. I tested these headphones in a loud cafe with music playing on the PA, and was able to cancel out most of it. I still think they’re in desperate need of some proper foam sound isolation tips, though.

Will a firmware update will fix the lack of volume control support for the iPhone? [JohnCullen]
It seems feasible, but Apple did not get back to me on this matter.

How well do they fit (stay in ears) compared to bundled Apple buds? [rickhuizinga]
Everyone’s ears are different, but unlike every other pair of Apple headphones I’ve ever played with, these ones comfortably stay in. I have pretty small ear canals, if that’s of any help.

Do they come with different sized silicon buds? [lgladdy]
Yes, three sets: small, medium, and large.

Is the microphone is better than the stock ones? [GermanThoughts]
Not that I could tell, but it’s not like you want to record your demo tape with it anyway. The mic aperture is about an inch higher up on the wire, though.

Does the remote work with Apple laptops?
Yep. I tested on a new MacBook Pro, and the mic works, as well as the remote for volume, play/pause/skip, etc.

How long is the cable?
About three inches shorter than the iPhone cable, roughly 42-inches.

I think Apple’s got something good on their hands here. These headphones sound out of their league for headphones under $100, especially considering most dual-driver headphones start at a couple hundred dollars and go up from there. They fit well, are reasonably comfortable, and the inline remote functions on more devices than they let on. It’s been about seven years since Apple got in this game, but this is the first time I think I’ll be using some of their headphones.

Apple touted some pretty decent battery life numbers at the new MacBook / MacBook Pro press event this week: up to five hours on the Pro with discrete graphics off, and four hours with it on (both surely assuming ideal low-power conditions). One of the things that didn’t come up at the presser, however, was that new MacBook Pro batteries actually have just under 20% less energy than their predecessors. While both kinds of MBP batteries are 10.8v, the old ones are rated at 5600mAh / 60Wh, while the new ones are rated at 4700mAh / 50Wh. (MacBook numbers updated below.)

I’d estimate that the integrated NVIDIA chipset and ever more behind-the-scenes power-saving techniques are why Apple is claiming such solid life despite killing a fifth of the machine’s energy supply — but a 20% reduction is still no small number. It also means that as your new MBP’s battery degrades, you’ll have a smaller pool of potential energy to rely on, meaning you could wind up having to replace your battery more often (although that’s a little conjectural, at this point).

But as some are now postulating, one technique Apple may now be employing to save power is making use of the machine’s GPU(s) to accelerate video playback. We already know that the new MacBooks have a different build of OS X than older gen machines (9F2114), but one thing I also noticed is that Quicktime, the engine behind Apple’s video encodes and decodes, was also revved in the new machines, now clocked in at 7.5.5 995.23.3 up from the last machines’ 990.7. With a little luck, perhaps video encodes will finally be hardware accelerated, too. (Will have to test that one later!)

Update: Matt at Gizmodo mentions that the numbers add up, when comparing the extra 20% battery life you get in new models using the integrated GPU vs. that same five hours claimed in old models using discrete graphics. Also, new MacBooks have also decreased battery capacity (as expected), from 55Wh in last-gen models to 45Wh.

Now look, laptops are a big deal. For most users, laptops more often than not represent one of the most expensive devices they own, TV aside — but unlike a TV, most people are apt to replacing their laptop every couple of years. And when it comes to product cycles for laptops, a couple of years is sometimes how long it can take to get one out the door: next week’s new machines probably got started shortly after the Air, likely in 2006 or even 2005. In other words, these machines got started well before we knew things would be headed as far south as they’ve gone.

So now that we’re neck deep in the worst financial crisis in decades, now that consumer spending is nosediving, now that hoarding is displacing buying, now that even high-flying VCs are getting nervous and battening down the hatches, I have to wonder: is this really the right moment for Apple to launch new laptops?

Probably not. Granted, there’s no turning back on a launch planned years ago, and people will always need computers (as long as the lights don’t go out, anyway). But the interesting thing is that Apple has an important new shot to make here: this is the most opportune possible moment for them to take on the booming netbook / lower-cost laptop market, a segment that will only balloon in size in the years to come as consumer spending continues to hemorrhage. The $2,000 pro market won’t go away entirely — but it certainly won’t be a growth area as larger numbers of buyers are starting to worry more about foreclosure and eviction than whether or not they can upsell for the ExpressCard slot and extra three inches of screen. Guess we’ll see next though; and hey, if nothing else, at least we can set all the doom and gloom aside for a few minutes while we geek out on Steve’s dog and pony show.

Over the past few months there have been a number of protesters spotted at various local Apple store locations, but I have to give it up to these guys (MTD Drywall, from Gilroy, I believe). Not only did they go to the effort of building out a full-on disgruntled union-protest iPhone costume (with near-accurately placed “proximity sensor” eye-hole), they also came up with the snappy phrase, “No service… for workers!” Clever. Full size version over at my Flickr stream.

First, Dan sets up Vudu as an example of the little company trampled underfoot by Apple. “Vudu was winning rave reviews… now Apple is selling or renting more than 50,000 movies a day, and Vudu is laying off staff.”
Rave reviews? Hardly. I thought the content selection on the Vudu was disappointing, the walled-garden approach (i.e. you can’t do much with it once you’ve bought the content) was off-putting, and it suffered from most of the same plagues that put pretty much EVERY other startup set-top box manufacturer — from Akimbo to Moviebeam  — out of business. Oh, and not Laptop, CNET, nor MacWorld gave the Vudu anything higher than a 3.5 out of 5.

“[Apple] operates the only store that can sell music, movies and software programs for [the iPod and iPhone].”
Movies perhaps; music, definitely not. There’s plenty of free video and paid video content online, but no certainly no shortage of DRM-free MP3 music stores (like competitors Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and even Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace) that sell content that works on the iPod and iPhone.

“Apple sets prices and takes 30 percent of the money.”
On applications. If they’re not distributed for free (which Apple does for no cost). And on music and movies, Apple’s margin is far, far less. It’s been said that Apple gets less than 10% of music, for example — that kind of content is generally a break-even or, at best, mildly profitable effort to sell iPods. In fact, that’s the record labels’ biggest contention with iTunes: Steve won’t let them turn up the price because he wants music to be affordable so iPods seem like a better ecosystem value.

“One iPod accessory maker… gripes that Apple takes up to 75 percent of the sales price, leaving him with zero profit on some of his products when he sells them in Apple stores.”
I used to do technology retail. In fact, my first job was as upgrade / accessories manager at a CompUSA. If Apple gets 75% of the sale price of an accessory at retail markup, the anonymous company in question is probably getting a pretty good deal. Most accessories are marked up more than just 400% — multiply that by four or five, and you’ll enter a reasonable ballpark. Even for stuff like speakers, whose margins are far lower than cases or cables, those numbers don’t sound completely off to me.

“The problem is that if Apple squeezes too hard, some partners may go out of business, harming the ecosystem.”
My editor instincts tell me: this is a great place to give an example. But he doesn’t. Probably because he can’t. I’m racking my brain and even did a little googling to give Dan the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve got nothin’.

“… a woman has filed a class-action lawsuit because her new 3G iPhone won’t always attach to a 3G network, which provides faster wireless Web downloads.”
What Dan doesn’t mention is that Apple gets two, sometimes three class-action lawsuits filed against it every week. I wish I was kidding. Unfortunately for Apple (and the woman who stands to lose a lot of money on lawyers’ fees), for the most part, the issue in question has a lot more to do with AT&T’s early, raw 3G rollout, which tends to lack network capacity. Remember, a class-action lawsuit is no different than any other kind of lawsuit: it’s just one person (or group of people) who think they have a case and decide to sue.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think Dan did a much better job at cutting to the heart of what makes Cupertino tick when he was doing so with subversive parody. Trust me, there are many, MANY things to groan about Apple over — its obsessive control in all aspects of business, its reluctance to try genuinely new markets and products, the way it handles media — but these complaints are not those things.

Update: Dan (kind of?) responded to some feedback, but didn’t really back up anything I mentioned. Although I will grant him, it does get a lot harder when you have to say real things about the companies you cover.

If you’re planning to upgrade (or even just changing your AT&T plan), I’d suggest watching out for these and possibly other charges:

• $18 “Upgrade fee” – Hmm, I don’t remember anyone telling me about this when I was checking out. Nor do I see it itemized on my Apple receipt, just an iPhone, a dock, and some California sales tax. I guess I can’t complain too much though, as we did mention it on Engadget.
• $12.64 in various new taxes – The new phone also came along with another $12.64 in taxes, more than doubling my previous months’ totals to an even $25. Included in these numbers is a new ~$11 in California state and city taxes which (surprise!) come on top of the $25 in CA taxes I already paid at the time of purchase.
• $56 in SMS charges – This easily hurt the most. My rate before was $0.05 per SMS, so I knew if I went over my original iPhone’s 200 SMS allotment, I wouldn’t be pinched that hard. I also knew the base 200 SMSs were going away with the iPhone 3G plan, but it wasn’t ever mentioned that I’d have to take a new SMS rate, too — let alone one that amounts to a 4x increase. (FYI: even 5c per SMS is a HUGE margin for AT&T.)

Of course, some of this could be mitigated. For instance, if I’d have been informed that there was a $5 / 200 SMS plan at the time of purchase I could have saved a good chunk of change on those two-dime messages. But I was only told of a $20 unlimited plan (which I declined, proving to be a dumb move on my part). The surprise would also have been dulled if customers were properly notified in-store, or simply presented itemized plan and rate changes (like the 4x hike on SMS), as well as other various service charges on its receipts.

Of course, at a certain level it also comes down to doing plenty of pre-purchase consumer diligence and not leaving anything to chance, right? Still, overall experience: poor.

This is Engadget when Apple launches a new iPhone. Any questions?

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by today to read our coverage of the iPhone 3G launch — it’s always an extraordinary amount of fun and a real honor to be the go-to place for big news in the gadget world.

And yes, I was fortunate enough to play with it and definitely can’t wait to really put the spurs to one.

It’s really easy to identify folders for exclusion from Time Machine, which will save time and space during backups. It’s worth noting, though, that if your machine’s drive does fail, you won’t be able to execute a full restore without having some of these locations backed up. Then again, if you’re anything like me, you’re far more likely to just do a full reinstall and just restore your lost user data. (Doing a full restore from backup just doesn’t have many advantages compared to a full system reinstall, anyway.)

These are just a few suggestions — you should NEVER exclude anything from backup if you’re unsure you have another copy, aren’t able to get it again, or are unaware of the possible ramifications. Let me just say that again: if you aren’t completely sure about an exclusion, trust Time Machine to do its job.

Of course, you’ve got any good folders you think should be added to the list, feel free to drop ‘em in comments.

Obvious
The duh stuff.

• /Applications – This will likely save you more space than any other single folder, especially if you have lots of apps. Just make sure you know what programs you’d want to get back if your machine were to die.

Caches and downloads
Big directories of files that should probably be excluded automatically, but aren’t. Unless you’re a crazy developer debugging code, you’ll probably never need a backup of your caches.

• /Users/[user]/Library/Caches and /Library/Caches – Between the two you can knock off a few hundred megs of constantly changing, essentially useless data (for example: all the page caches from Firefox).
• /Users/[user]/Downloads – Where all your internet downloads wind up. Frequently changes, and if you’re anything like me, it’s filled with gigs of garbage.
• /Users/[user]/.Trash and /.Trashes – Some people might see value in backing up their trashed files. Not I.

More after the break.

Audio and media
Some more obvious picks. You probably don’t need to back this stuff up.

• /Library/Audio – You can save from the hundreds of megs to gigs here. Keep an eye out for the GarageBand samples, they weigh a ton.
• /Users/[user]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Podcasts – I don’t really re-listen to podcasts, but even if I did, they can be re-downloaded easily. So the 3GB+ I save here is a no brainer.

Time Machine un-friendly apps
The data produced by some of these apps can easily be the worst offenders when it comes to backups. Until they get their act together, they should likely be excluded categorically.

• Parallels (/Users/[user]/Library/Parallels) and VMware (/Users/[user]/Documents/Virtual Machines)- You’ll definitely want to keep a copy of your virtual machines, but if left included in Time Machine backups, your system will continuously save the virtual disks each time you use Parallels or VMware. (VMware has become a little more TM-aware though, which is good.) That means potentially hundreds of wasted GB — not to mention tons of lost time during backup.
• Entourage (/Users/[user]/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities) – Same deal here, Entourage uses one giant, constantly changing file to store all your mail. It sucks not to have your email backed up though, so be sure to use something other than Time Machine for keeping a copy handy in case of emergency.
• /Users/[user]/Library/Mail Downloads – Whenever you open an attachment in Mail, it stores a copy of the file in your Mail.app attachments folder. If you’re a heavy Mail user, excluding this will save you some real space.

System
Beware! You likely won’t screw up anything by excluding this stuff, but if you run into trouble these are some pretty important folders. Note: you’ll need to hit “show invisible items” to exclude some of these.

• /usr, /sbin, /private, /bin – Collectively contain about a billion essential system files that can ultimately just be reinstalled in case of disaster.
• /system – Root system folder. Contains lots of stuff essential to OS X — gigs of it, in fact. Good place to save some space.

First, with the drive plugged in an Finder crashing, go to System Preferences > Sharing and change your computer name. Then, if Finder doesn’t come up and stay up, go to your Time Machine prefs and turn it off. That did the trick for me. When you’re done, change it back, it should stick and not crash.

I have to say, this is definitely one of the more ridiculous bugs I’ve seen in Leopard.

I’ll leave you with this pull: “If I see the world as all black and you see the world as all white and some person comes along and says it’s partially black and partially white, we both are going to be unhappy. You think there are more facts and better facts on your side than on the other side. The very act of giving them equal weight seems like bias. Like inappropriate evenhandedness.”

But even knowing the answer would be a resounding no, asking whether SIM unlock software would be allowed can be construed as a statement — as well as and an opportunity for Apple to address the millions of potential customers who’d like to be able to use an iPhone on a non-prescribed carrier. Is Apple going to facilitate the process of breaking its carrier exclusivity agreements by helping distribute that software? Of course not. But it’s important to recognize that these also constitute decisions Apple has made which ultimately limit consumer choice — so why shouldn’t they have an opportunity to account for those decisions?

Not that I would ever compare this kind of trivial stuff to the gravitas of political journalists covering the goings-on of the government, but should White House reporters stop asking Bush when we’ll withdraw from Iraq just because they know the answer will be the same every time they ask? No — and they keep on asking, year after year.

Obvious question with an obvious answer? Totally. Fruitless to ask? I don’t think so.

Anyone who knows me and my email-addicted ways knows how desperately I loathe the iPhone’s mail client, and, given its frequency of use, how much I wish they’d improve it. Apple: three simple steps to make email nerds like me happy.

1. Add delete for multiple / all messages.
2. Fix the annoying bug that just lets the iPhone idle while some HTML messages are not downloaded / parsed.
3. Give us (back) the two-pane view mode!

That’s not so hard, now is it? One more minor email client diff after the break.

Oh yeah, and they nixed the “x of y” messages indicator in the email selector.

Be sure to check us all in action tomorrow with our live coverage tomorrow from the Stevenote — not to be missed!

1. iPhone SDK / firmware update – duh.
2. Ultraportable MacBook Pro – These kinds of rumors don’t stay alive for so many years when they’re untrue.
3. Movie rentals (with direct download / rental on Apple TV) – Pretty much already confirmed.
4. iPhone 2.0 / 3G – We know it’s coming, and Steve will want to stand on stage triumphantly one year later and introduce the next version.
5. 16GB iPhone 1.0 – Has to happen eventually. The Osborne effect sure is a bitch, so the 8GB 1.0 will get even cheaper (maybe by $50 or $75).
6. Nothing much about 10.6 (that’ll be at WWDC), but there will be mention of the next updates to 10.5.
7. LED-backlit 17-inch MBP – Also an eventuality.
8. Mac mini gets left alone. Probably no mention at all. Same with the iMacs and MacBooks.
9. New monitors with webcams – These things need a refresh like crazy. If Apple’s smart, they’ll put DisplayPort in ‘em.
10. All laptops move from DVI to DisplayPort to match those new monitors. And why not? DisplayPort to DVI adapters should be easy enough for legacy gear.

Also, big ups to Conrad for sharing Stamatiou’s really useful OS X hack for turning off safe-sleep mode.

Well, for those already starting a pool and placing bets on the Engadget Awards, it might interest you to know that the iPhone has already been nominated for Gadget of the Year about 60 70 80+ times. Not that I’m shocked! (Thus far the second best is the Asus Eee PC, with under 10.) And no, this isn’t an invitation to renominate your fave gadget — we’re deleting all these extra iPhone noms as they come through.

Robert, as someone in the media who works with Apple (just as I work with dozens, if not hundreds of other companies), here’s some of what you’ve got wrong (and right):

[At dinner with a bunch of "smart" entrepreneurs] “I tried to turn on my video camera. They all instantly shut up and said ‘no video.’” – You’re damn right they did! They’re smart, and they’re entrepreneurs. What person with a startup would want to go on a tear against a major company they might one day partner with, be acquired by, lose employees to, etc.? No smart businessperson — especially someone out on their own — would go on camera trashing Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc., unless they wanted to make headlines that might reflect poorly on them later. I doubt it’s as much to do with the cachet as you think.

If you want to hear people (trash) talk, talk to tech journos, whose jobs it is to be honest and on the record about tech companies. Let me put this another way: don’t be surprised all the time when people don’t want to go on camera for the ScobleShow, not everyone wants their every conversation and criticism preserved as public record.

“Apple has an ARMY of people who are anonymous who will come and call you every name in the book. I know.” – Oh yes, they definitely do, and they say the same to me. Although there are also tons of people on the other side of the camp who call me an Apple fanboy, so it’s good times. It’s the whole Mac vs. PC thing, and it’s so tiring. Besides, exactly what did you think was going to happen when you ranted about Apple? Bill Gates would send you flowers?

“The common thing about most of these comments is that it’s MY FAULT that my Apple machine is having trouble. See, on my Windows machine I’m willing to accept this.” – Wait, huh? You’re willing to lower your standards of what’s an acceptable user experience just because it’s Microsoft? No, no, man. You’ve got it the wrong way. Every company and product should be held to the same standards of quality. I don’t really care what they chose their hardware ecosystem to be like, crashy is crashy, good is good, smart is smart. But that’s besides the point. The point is all computers have failures, and you shouldn’t be angrier or more disappointed when it’s either your Mac or your PC.

“See, I know Apple sends free hardware to certain journalists. But only those it deems ‘important.’ Steven Levy. Walt Mossberg. Those types.” – Yes and no. Yes, for a journalist, Apple has the highest barrier of entry of any company out there — that’s no secret. I actually don’t think that’s always bad thing, there’s nothing worse than fighting for a seat at a keynote with the dude whose friend started ultragadgets.blogspot.com last week and needed a correspondent to fill in, you know? Go on…

“…they know they got picked because they generally write pro-Apple stuff.” – While it’s also true Apple hand-selects the publications it chooses to interface with, I don’t think that’s wholly true. Two reasons. First: Apple interfaces with a lot of press that are by no means going to give them an easy go of things. Ars Technica, for example, is invited to all their events, and Ars is an upstanding and skeptical publication. Another example: right before my Leopard briefing out walks my pal Harry McCracken. Do you think friggin PC World is generally expected to write a gushing review of Apple hardware or software? (Yes, I know they did — and we were all pleasantly surprised, so what does that tell you?)

Second: Look at who gets the iPhone in advance. Mossberg, Pogue, Baig, Levy — the Wall St. Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and Newsweek. Now, it’s not like anyone can pretend that Pogue, for example, doesn’t make money from writing books about Apple products. And there’s no question that the core iPhone audience is at sites like Engadget — but it’s also not like these publications aren’t paragons of print journalism! I’m obviously all for new media being placed on level ground, there’s nothing I’d like more than to get early review units from Apple just like I get them from every other company. But let’s not forget the net those four publications cast, which I’d estimate covers something like 60-75% of all consumed daily / weekly US print news media. Getting your product out in front of people is what will sell units, period.

“It’s a reason why I don’t want free stuff and why I waited in line to be among the first in the Valley to have my own iPhone.” – Well, that and the fact that you’re not a professional consumer electronics reviewer.

“Only those who will give Apple a fair shake will get the goods.” – I think you’re trying to say only those who will favor Apple will get the goods. I can’t say conclusively there, but I do know that I’ve written very critical reviews of Apple hardware before, and yet their team still works with us. So I don’t think it’s as bad as they get a wrap for. Again, I just think the selectivity level is far higher.

“You will have to BUY your Apple after those ‘famous journalists’ get to use one for free for two weeks and you vil like it.” – Um, oook. I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to be on Steve’s shortlist of early-seeds for gadgets, but let’s be fair here, every consumer electronics company in the business seeds review units to high profile publications. That’s their job. It sounds like you’re bitter that Apple isn’t seeding MORE early-release hardware like most other CE companies. I hear that, everyone in the biz does. But everyone has their way. TiVo, for example, wouldn’t work with Engadget at all until only recently. Crazy, I know, but companies just do their thing.

“Any idiot can use an Apple machine (that’s what they tell you before you buy one) but if your machine crashes then you must be a ‘genius’ to fix it” – Ha! That’s an amazing turn of phrase. Well played.

“my son twice has been turned away from genius bars because they were too busy and was told to ‘come back tomorrow at 10 a.m.’” – As a former tech at a walk-in repair facility (CompUSA) I’m not sure where I see the problem. If you don’t schedule an appointment in advance and aren’t happy to wait in line behind the other people being serviced (many of whom DID make an appointment), then your best bet is to come back later. This is the same as any other tech services company or chain.

“If you dare complain about the brand promise you’ll get pounced on by hoardes of annonymous astroturfing Apple FanBois.” [sic] – Sounds about right.

“If you don’t get the brand promise of Apple don’t attempt to point out that the ads are ridiculous.” – While I love Hodgman and find the ads amusing, if not sometimes hilarious, they are indeed also ridiculous. They perpetuate the same tired PC / Mac negativity that fanboys and pundits have been feeding off of for literally decades. It’s a tired argument. Both platforms do amazing things, both take different approaches. Both are good for whom they’re good for, and when I look for new writers, I look for cross-platformers — especially those who run the wildcard third option: Linux.

“If you use an Apple machine you will be as cool as Kevin Rose.” – Wait, are you harshing on Apple or Kevin, now?

“I’m back on my Sony Vaio, which has never crashed the way my Mac did the other night.” – Really? I’ve owned two Sony Vaios and they’re the most near-impeccably designed, absolutely dreadful machines. See also Jeremy Toeman, who at first LOVED his Vaio (like we all do at first), then grew to hate it something fierce. Not that Apples are necessarily better, that’s not the moral of the story. The moral is lots of computers have issues, not just Macs. And I do still miss my Vaios. (I gave my last one to my mom, so at least it’s still in the family.)

Ok, everybody feel better now?