The iPod shuffle is amazingly ugly. Whatever could they be thinking? As they were detailing the characteristics, I was thinking for the first time ever I’d want an iPod — never really saw the point of a full-fledged one, maybe because I’m not a commuter — and then I saw the pics and just forgot about it. Sure, it makes for an Apple-branded USB key, but I don’t really think it’s worth it.

Not much new on the Tiger side: the only thing I was interested in, Dashboard’s “widget dock”, isn’t documented on the website (and it intrigues me, because I wonder how they could cram a widget bar below the system dock); more importantly, I’m a bit disappointed by the latest variation about Aqua. It looks… uh, just bad.

I’m interested in Pages, obviously, “professionally”, but I’ll have to wait and see before I make my opinion: the site’s screenshots only show the page layout aspect, when all I want to do is typing. And an “iWork” suite doesn’t make much sense if it’s only Pages plus Keynote, so maybe it’d be best to wait until they beef it up a bit.

And, finally, there’s… mrrr… bllll. 650€ if you put in 512MB of RAM and take an Apple keyboard. 1000€ with a good flatscreen. But it’s only a G4. Rhaaa. As I said earlier, I did hop the iMac mini wouldn’t exist, because it’d spare me the additional hesitation when it comes to choosing what to buy. Well, looks like I won’t be spared after all. A G4 would be perfectly sufficient for most of what I need it for. But what about the occasional, even rare, need for more firepower?

As everybody said in rumor discussions, it’s an adder’s machine, not a switcher’s. And I never intended to throw my PC away. So?

P.S. Hmm, ok, well, maybe I still would like an iPod shuffle. But still, besides the overall looks, I can’t understand they didn’t find anything better to do than strap the lanyard to the USB cap. Particularly considering you’ll have to take it off everytime you want to recharge the player: how long will it be able to hold.

P.S. After seeing the video, it appears the “widget dock” was just a misinterpretation of the IRC transcript. It’s only the place where docklets are shown when you press the “+” button, but widgets still only appear when you press F12. (Which is actually a weird limitation — are they afraid Konfabulator would sue them if they were really too similar?)

P.S. Okay, I got to watch the keynote and it’s clear: I want an iPod shuffle, and I want to have a Mac! A real one, a complete one, a recent one, so I can make pretty DVDs and records and sort out my photos and damnit all of it is so great (know someone who still doubts the superiority of Apple? show them the keynote).

I just don’t understand why Apple wouldn’t integrate the earplugs in the included lanyard. It’s so obvious in the new TV ad: the iPod shuffle is all wire, feets and feets of wire. I know third-party accessories will tackle this, but it won’t really be good unless Apple thought of putting audio out within the USB connector.