>> why does Apple make non-ugly stuff?
>
> It's just a (small, but exploitable) differentiation: sure, I'm a drone,
> but ... oooh, shiny! They even self-refer in the ads: Look at me, I'm a
> Mac!
Nope, no Koolaid here. I've suffered through more Windows machines than I care to remember, then at long last switched to a low-end Mac this year.
It was like night and day. Beautiful screen, crisp interfaces, all the software I needed (and anything I didn't have was one freeware download away), excellent keypad and low-noise drive, topnotch build, featherlight case, solid media capability, an OS which doesn't constantly crash... a genuine pleasure to use.
Don't have an iPhone or iPod, so I have no idea if they're worth the money or not. But my Mac is a truly beautiful machine.
-- DRR