The consensus seems to be that today’s announcements were a yawning success.

Some say there was no fire, the reality distortion field in Cupertino is out of alignment.

All Apple said was join us for some fun new products. They didn’t say they were going to show us anything BIG or DIFFERENT.

Hell, I forgot about the announcements until after dinner.

My favorite comment was, that to turn the new mini into a dedicated entertainment device would cost over $1000, and was not worth it that much.

Really? $1000?

A $599 Mini with 512 MB of RAM, 80GB of storage, a remote control and Front Row software, can’t adequately play movies, music and dvds on you television? Really!?

Jumping from $399 and $499, to $599 and $799 might be a bit steep. But Apple did up the ante on the components significantly.

Gigabit ethernet, 7200 RPM drives, 4 USB 2.0 + 1 Firewire port and up to 2GB of RAM, not to mention the faster CPU.

Let’s not forget Airport Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 now comes STANDARD on EVERY mini. Not as expensive add-ons.

By the start of next school year, these will be selling for $499 and $599 is my bet.