Hold on a second, Lone Ranger! The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Quad Interface FireWire 800/400 + USB2 2.0 + eSATA hard drive appears to use the same enclosure as the G Drive, has the same complement of ports, the same features... and the 500GB version costs $299 instead of $459.

Considering that these two products appear to be so similar except for price, how is it that the more expensive productthe G Drivegets a special award? As I'm sure you already know, there are no flies on OWC drives in the performance department.

I would guess that they didn't pick the MacBook Pro because it's more or less what the PowerBook used to be in the context of the Mac line. No doubt, it's far more powerful, but it's relatively similar. On the other hand, the MacBook set a new standard for consumer-level notebooks, providing excellent performance for a fairly low price. The Mac Pro, as noted, improved wildly with regards to performance and component design and placement (e.g., far more expansion room). The iMac is a very high-end machine for one billed as a consumer buy.

It's now version 5.0. I like the product. I like that I can keep messages without having an answering machine fill up. And the messages are on my computer where I can access them easily.

One thing I would like to see them add is hardware that would continue to take messages if the computer is turned off.

Best of best of best is the Mac mini...

Becasue it is EXTREMELY QUIET. A whisper. Bedroom class!

At least in the absence of a true fanless Mac!