First let me say I love my ipod but the ridiculous prices for any of the accessories is out of control. For example, a simple cable to connect you ipod to any stereo that you can buy pretty much anywhere for $5-$10 suddenly costs $20-$30 once they paint it white and say "for ipod." Also, while I think the new ipod speaker systems, particularily the bose and new hi-fi syste, look and sound pretty good, they are pretty much a rip-off. For $350 you can an OK receiver, decent set of bookshelf speakers, a cd player, and be able to connect your ipod with the $5 cord. For $350 you could get at least a pretty decent home theater system that you could also connect your ipod with the $5 cord....my main point is that for the same price you could at the very least get a system that isn't limited to using only your ipod with - the current ipod systems can't even get am/fm radio!
While I have been debating getting an imac, I find Apple's pricing scheme ridiculous...the products are OK just as long as you don't need to get anything else from them. Plus for $800 (vs. $1300 for an apple) I can get a compact version of the HP that has comes with a bigger hard drive (200 vs. 160), 1 gig of DRAM (vs. apples 500MB), and more convenient USB ports.
While I have been debating getting an imac, I find Apple's pricing scheme ridiculous...the products are OK just as long as you don't need to get anything else from them. Plus for $800 (vs. $1300 for an apple) I can get a compact version of the HP that has comes with a bigger hard drive (200 vs. 160), 1 gig of DRAM (vs. apples 500MB), and more convenient USB ports.