Umm, wait. (Score 5, Interesting)

One of Mac's biggest goals and strengths since 1984 is a clean, consistent interface between applications.

You mean applications like iChat, Calculator, Address Book, and some others?

Apparently, it's okay for Apple to break any consistency in their UI based on some ridiculous rule such as this (paraphrased):

If the application is used to interact with a digital device, or if it replaces some other familiar real world device, then the brushed metal theme is appropriate.

Now, it may just be me, but how does this help the user in any way? From my experience, the brushed metal apps have slightly different conventions. Lists of items have striping (see iTunes), buttons that modify those lists are at the bottom of the window (iTunes, Address Book), etc. Essentially, there is a whole separate set of conventions that the user has to learn in order to deal with these programs.

How's that for consistency?

Ben