As long as Steve keeps doing his thing, the bloggers will write about it. I've posted my reaction to Apple's keynote (are they really keynotes?) presentations before, and I'm sure I will do again. The last time, I moaned about how unexciting the new iPod With Video was, and how it hadn't convinced me to buy one. And then I bought one. This time things are different.

I had hoped Apple would release a new and improved Mac Mini, or perhaps an Intel equivalent to its current PowerMac G5 line, but instead they've launched the "MacBook" and the new, Intel based iMac. Um…wow? I do realise how significant the shift to Intel is for Apple, I applaud the impressively swift migration from PowerPC to Intel, and I appreciate the potential benefits of using the Intel platform. The thing is, the two products Apple have launched are, for users who've not yet "switched", quite dull. Surely only the more techy users care what's "under the hood"?

On the one hand Apple achieve mass-market appeal with the iPod, and are attempting to make web-publishing and photo sharing easier with the launch of iWeb (although many of their iPhoto "innovations" are "borrowed" from Flickr), while on the other they devote a whole presentation to the launch of two uber-powerful machines which are unlikely to convince any iPod-owning Windows users to make the jump to Apple's OS. The two new machines are far from cheap, and sport specifications which appear to more aimed more at the power user than the average home user (indeed, demonstrations of Aperture and Final Cut were displayed, which are undoubtedly "power user" apps).

I can understand why Apple have done this; their goal for this particular announcement was to demonstrate how powerful the Intel hardware is, how clever they've been in porting everything across to it, and how exciting the future will be. For the vast majority of us though, it wasn't terribly compelling.

That said, I fancy one of those FM-radio, iPod remote dongles Damn you Apple…