While kicking Sharper Image in the booty, The Customer Collective notes:

No retailer (except Apple) can resist the need to add at least one piece of garbage, especially at checkout, because of the odd chance that it might turn into a sale.

More fodder from the comments from the Things I Learned at the Apple Store when the Microtards had a meltdown:

You PC lovin weenies are acting like your best friend just went gay and is telling you how [expletive] awesome it is.

Macs win because they can run the sweet OS X AND windoze AND games for either OS, WITHOUT crap viruses or antivirus software and WITHOUT hours of (COSTLY IN TIME) weekly maintenance babysitting.

It is not your best friend going gay. It is simply better, take it or leave it.

And Steve said “No.”

Zucker not only asked to set pricing, he demanded that Apple share some of its hardware revenues. Jobs said no. Zucker’s subsequent public statements suggest the fact that this rebuff actually surprised him. Now we know why. Yesterday, Zucker told the students at Harvard that before its dismissal, NBC shows led the iTunes video market with 35 percent share. In the metaphorical physics of most businesses, that’s called leverage. In Cupertino, that’s not enough to let you touch Steve’s iPhone.

A totally cool imaginary conversation with Steve Jobs (yes I like good satire, not stupid Mac-hating rants):

My Conversation with Steve Jobs

Me: It’s great that Apple products are so easy to use, and I like the “think different” aspect of using a Mac instead of falling into the pit of Microsoft hegemony, but sometimes I wish you folks at Apple paid a little more attention to your users and less time looking at your pretty selves in the mirror.

We love to slam Bill Gates for acting like Microsoft owns the universe, but at least Windows is open enough that you can work around most of the bullshit. But Apple rules its fiefdom with a cold, iron fist. Seriously, just try to get any help from Apple when one of those magical machines go wrong. Look at the problem with iBooks losing their screen brightening controls after upgrading to OS X 10.4; a widely known problem with hundreds of people talking about it on user forums, but nobody coming up with a solution. Any word from Apple? Not a peep. Not even an acknowledgment that the problem exists. And what about the glitch with the iRadio attachment for my iPod? Same thing; everybody knows, and everybody’s talking about it, except for Apple. Not a word. Not a peep. The list goes on.

I’d love to switch to Apple, and one day I probably will. But right now I’m reluctant because you’ve burned me at least three times in the past year with this kind of stuff, so I’m not ready to just hand myself over to Apple. Because that’s kind of what it feels like; handing yourself over.

SJ: Hey, look how cool this iPod is!

Me: Oh, wow. Sweeeeeet!

How Very True:

Some CEOs really are nearly that brilliant; it’s not an exaggeration to say that without Steve Jobs, Apple would currently be a not-very-profitable division of Xerox. Some are really dreadful, driving their companies into the ground while collecting a ton of money from the shareholders.

What do you think Steve Jobs gets for his birthday?

STEVE JOBS FAMILY/FRIENDS: Happy birthday, Steve!
STEVE JOBS: Boom!
SJFF: We all chipped in and we got you something we think you are going to love.
SJ: A new black turtleneck?
SJFF: No, silly …. an iTunes gift card. You redeem it at the iTunes store for …
SJ: Yeah, I’ve got it.
SJFF: And sometimes, there’s some specials on different music and …
SJ: Right. Got that too.
SJFF: And of course … you guessed it before … a new black turtleneck!!
SJ: Yay!!! And … short sleeves. (boooooom!)

Welcome to Macintosh, the film: to be shown at the Wisconsin Film Festival in April

Macbooks4us sez:

A “simple theme”, Apple makes great products, Microsoft only thinks about it.
Steve Jobs demands great products. We would have seen a iPhone long before we did, but Steve Jobs wasn’t happy with what he saw in the early prototypes and put everyone back to work on how to improve it. The same goes for Leopard, the same goes for that SDK. If it’s not right, Steve won’t sell it.

Contrast that to Microsoft and Vista. Vista wasn’t ready for prime time the company e-mails admit. Zune One. The iPod killer with WiFi, something Apple didn’t have in their iPod. Apple comes out with WiFi in their iPod touch, runs circles around Microsoft’s best Zune. Now Microsoft brings out Zune Two, more of the same, same WiF essentially, really no new competing features to the iPod touch.

And what’s up with THIS?