but first, economics

A relationship post is coming. But first, economics: Apple is of course very slow to pass on the benefits of US dollar weakness to Australian consumers. And the current RAM prices are an utter ripoff. Currently at the Australian Apple store to get 4GB of RAM in a Macbook Pro costs $A1030 more than 2GB -- equivalent US store price is $US700. Whereas one 2GB RAM stick costs $A94 today so buying 4GB RAM costs $A188 -- and then you can SELL the two 1GB sticks you have left over on ebay... The other thing is Apple just changed the Macbook Pro on the US store so that a 2.6GHz upgrade costs $US250 and a 250GB HD costs $US150. I'll wait to see how and when this is passed on to Australian customers. (Current exchange rate: $A1 = $US0.93).