CHRISTMAS IN JANUARY

Is it just me, or did Apple just reintroduce the G4 Cube with $1,300 slashed off the price? Brilliant.

And yesterday I was wondering what the hell anybody would want with an iPod Shuffle. I kept thinking, "it's an iPod... but you can't pick the songs." But today I realized I was looking at it all wrong. Have you noticed that those JumpDrive thing-a-ma-deals are getting popular? I know a few people that use them all the time. They are little USB-based storage devices for moving large files around. PC Connection is selling one from Iomega for $104. Now, imagine for five dollars less you could have one that syncs with iTunes and has a headphone jack. Bingo. Brilliant.

But for the first time in a while, I'm most excited about the software announcements. Ken Burns effect in iPhoto? Rock on. Auto-fit slideshows to songs? Excellent. Export Keynote presentations to Flash? Brilliant.