I'd say the same thing if you are atleast somewhat good with computers. I have a hackintosh that is quite well spec'd which I built for $650 (canadian). With a hackintosh you have the option to use better components, have full use of vista/windows 7 when it comes out, is fully upgradable, and less expensive. It's a matter of determining what hardware is compatible and building a computer to suit your needs. Mine is quad core/4gb ram/decent video card, but if you want something more basic (in the vein of a mac mini/imac), you could easily do it for ~$400 and perhaps much less than that.

Yeah, a fairly good update

Killing off the Mac mini would be a bad move, it makes Apple a decent profit I'm sure, and they would be very useful for someone who wants a computer for two locations. I know a few of my lecturers permanently have a keyboard, mouse and monitor set up both in their office and at home, and they just bring their mini with them wherever they go. Cheaper and even more portable than a laptop

As for the downgrade in processor speeds - that is quite normal for Apple updates. It's not too significant really, in comparison to the upgrades

4 USB2.0 ports and a firewire800 is very good now, esp with the new keyboards having 2 USB2.0 ports

Hmmm... I hoped for a better iMac upgrade... well that means i'm getting a new macbook...

the new macbooks don't have firewire sockets do they? ... why the fu*k not?!?

Firewire 800 is way, way faster than USB. If you have a FW800 port (pc or mac, doesn't matter) and you are buying an external HDD, get one with FW800. It's still slower than esata but unless you have a mac pro/macbook pro you won't have the option.

About the updates... honestly they are meh-worthy:

a) crippled 4-core mac-pro; unlike previous iterations they are skimping hardcore on this one - the motherboard/processor combo it uses can't accomodate a second processor down the line so you are stuck quadcore, forever. Maximum amount of RAM has been crippled compared to the octocore. In a nutshell? the quad-core macpro is really cheap to make this year but zero savings have been passed down to the consumer. The nehalem inside the 4-core mac-pro is just your garden variety nehalem (ok, supports EEC ram whatever) and it's really cheap compared to the server grade "true" xeons used on the octocore.

b) imacs: no LED displays, no quadcore core 2 duo/nehalem (god forbids someone buys an imac instead of a macpro...). Basically last year machine, just a few more megahertz, ram. Ah, the vidcard is a rebadged nvidia, performance improvements compared to last gen are slim in the graphical area, unless you splurge and order one with the 4850. Which by the way, they dont let you do neither on the entry-lev el 20 incher nor the cheapest 24 incher. How sweet of you, Apple. Also, unless you bother to tick the proper checkbox, imacs come with a gimped keyboard missing the numeric keypad (and extra function keys) on the right. 

c) mac mini: stuck with a 2.0ghz core 2 duo (god forbids someone buys a mini instead of an imac...). Ah, the RAM is painful to upgrade (requires full disassembly) and they charge you an arm and a leg for the extra gb of ram on the 2gb mini. But hey, good news here: dual display support out of the box and FW800 instead of FW400.

Ah, if you live anywhere but in the USA, boo-yaa! price spikes for everyone. Enjoy.

The only good thing that came from this update is the mini and the option for sort-of-nice ATI cards if you are willing to spend the extra money.

That does not sound like a very agreeable set of "upgrades" at all!

Bah and humbug!

I don't know what any of that means :S but my video camera/hard drive wouldnt be able to plug into the new firewire thing would it?

It absolutely could. You can plug a Firewire 400 device (the old plug) into an 800 port. You just need to get an adapter or a cable with a 400 connector on one end and an 800 connector on the other.

Why they didn't go the route USB did and use the same connector design for both 400 and 800 is beyond me.

Yeah. 

Basically the only good news are better graphic cards (if you pay the extra), the power of the octo-core nehalem (if you need it) and the mini. Everything else is really, really meh. Specially the quad-core mac pro: it's gone from cpu cost + 1200$ to cpu cost + 2000$ (aprox), which means they could be selling it at 1800$ instead of 2400$ and still make a hefty profit. To give you an idea, the dell precision with a garden-variety nehalem clocked at same speed (without support for EEC memory, but that's relatively minor) retails below 1000$. 

I'm set with my late 2007 imac for a while, but if this trend continues... 

If this continues, will you be that "dude"?