Apple doesn't prevent you from copying music from an iPod to another computer. Many third party applications will do this for. Apple just doesn't add an easy feature to iTunes specifically for this purpose which is a long, long way from preventing you from doing it.

In no way does this make the notebook more disposable. Apple offers a battery replacement program just like they do for the MacBook Air, iPhone, and iPods.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html

Also, more information how this MacBook Pro is not (as you said) disposable. From Apple's website:

The removable batteries in most notebooks are designed to be replaced. You use them for a year or two, then get a new one. Itâ(TM)s a process in which lots of batteries are used up and discarded. Because the battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to five years, it uses just one battery in the same time a typical notebook uses three. And to help ensure that batteries are disposed of in an environmentally responsible way, Apple offers a battery take-back program in 95 percent of the countries in which it does business.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery/

It's hard to make a user removable battery and get an 8 hour battery life out of it due to space constraints. And studies have shown that very few people use spare notebook batteries contrary to your "people want it" belief.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery/

Huh? Apple is a member of the Blu-Ray camp. Microsoft is the one that backed HD-DVD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

You're right about their pro tools, though. It is surprising that Apple hasn't either updated DVD Studio Pro to support Blu-Ray authoring or partnered with a third party to provide integration between Final Cut Studio and a Blu-Ray mastering application.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/dvdstudiopro/

Apple really needs to cozy up to Netflix. Using Netflix streaming on my Xbox is really awesome. I pay a minimal fee for Netflix and I get to watch unlimited streaming video in addition to my 1 disc that I can have out at a time.

Of course, now that Apple has gotten the music industry to drop DRM on the iTunes Store, maybe they can talk the TV & movie industries into supporting rentals with better prices and more of a library.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to Apple's sales for the past several quarters. About 50% of all Mac sales through Apple Stores are to people that have never owned a Mac before. Mac sales have been on an upward trend for several years now.

I agree with you on Engadget. It's unfortunate that MacRumorsLive was "haxx0red" because they were providing the best live coverage until then in my opinion.

I also agree with you about iLife, iWork, and of course iTunes Store being the big news of the day. It really brought Apple's last appearance at Macworld back to the Mac. The new iLife features are fantastic, I cannot wait to finally get all of my photos tagged with the people in them. This is simply too time consuming to do it manually. And being able to crowd-source tagging new Faces in iPhoto via your Facebook network is a brilliant stroke.

By the way, Numbers also has vastly increased the number of functions it supports. There are now over 250 functions available. (http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/functions.html) And in addition to being able to link charts from Numbers to either Pages or Keynote, you can also restyle them and retain the link to the data. If you can do that with MS Office, I never figured out how.

Keynote Remote for the iPhone is also a pretty cool addition, but I am disappointed that they're charging 99Â for it.

And, finally, let's hear it for Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Music" open letter finally bearing all of its fruit with the iTunes Store going totally iTunes Plus (sans DRM, 256 kbps) by the end of this quarter â" it is already most of the way there.