lol I am an iPhone user, and this does not effect me, but screw you Apple! All they are doing is creating inconvenience for their own user base. Thank god I've never spent a penny on iTunes.

Phew, well why isn't this a surprise?

Im sorry but i can not let the undeniable rip off  slight pass. 

I find nothing in their cost being rip off with cost comparison to time down, and the added benefit of the sector i mainly work in using mostly macs (media). I have used final cut  and adobe many other apps for years and my rig now 6 years old still kicks the butt of many newer computers (6 gig ram dual 2ghz processors) and currently CS2 and CS3 run faster on this tower then on macs that came out to this day (I do not know about current mac pros as i have not tested their high end recently PPC with velocity engin/altvec kicks 86 ass). granted i have swapped over-clocked parts at my discretion like most of my pc brethren would (for fun i became a mac certified tech, its also a cheaper way to get parts and make repairs and keep stuff in warranty)   cost of my rig in 03 when purchased was just over 4k, now i probably could have bought a cheaper PC, and replaced it many times by now or i could do what i did and upgrade HD as needed, swap raids and FX cards when i want. 

though in the end it gos down to what you prefer, and I have historically have had better luck with macs and for me down time is a huge cost so macs make my life more profitable

PS.... and i spend a good deal of free time fixing my friends windows boxes or playing in variations of linux/unix (command line still rocks)  

PPS you should load the x86 version of NeXTSTeP on your computer and look at the OS bill could have bought in the 80s/early 90s and highjacked the future of apple ... though BeOS could have been the mac os too.... 

If you want to consider price it is true on the back end of the product cycle its a rip, and if you buy ram from apple and not a 3rd party you are an idiot. However when they first come out they are generally speaking fantastic cost to cost comparison with competitors (not counting corporate discounts ive got like 35% everything dell and that does make a difference ) 

There is another bonus that you just cant quantify and that has been apples ability to get access to chips that are exotic for better performance (PPC era) or the consistent ability to get chips early out of intel before they debut else where. access to these unique properties sometimes pays for its self or sometimes costs you (I adopted PCI-X and that bit me but oh well)

I can only say these things based on my experience, and prices/release dates I still have access too 

right now i will agree that macbooks and pros are a bit high for what they offer, i feel this is a down generation historically based on offerings the pros lack of good discreet FX card and the lack of matt screens is a pain (though rumor is matt screens will be fixed soon). however, I feel like apple normally does a mid year hardware bump could fix these issues, and next years hardware rollout will be more promising

Besides i need a new mac tower, and id like to see fire wire 3200, and usb 3 (both finished specs and 3200 uses 800 ports) in the new mac tower when i plan on getting it in 2 years .... i figure by then 2 octa core chips, and 64 gb of ram 10 TB hd space for say 6K

Listen guys, Palm used a vulnerability in the iTunes software to trick it into thinking it is an iPod. Holes like that can't exist in the DRM ecosystem iTunes works in. Unpatched vulnerabilities in software are a bad thing, while it is too bad it broke Pre syncing, that is far better than leaving a opening in your software for potential other attacks.

And the reason the EU, or the US has not gone after Apple is because they are not a monopoly. Like it or not, there is not market Apple works in where they have a 90% marketshare the way MS does. When they get there you will see similar treatment.

What sort of idiot would want to use itunes anyway? Horrible, horrible DRM'ed-up bloatware.