"I'm Shrinking!"

By ChrisTaylor

Until last week, Steve Jobs was not known for going after budget-conscious shoppers. Instead, $3,000 CPUs and $600 iPods were more the Apple CEO's speed. But after his company's strong holiday sales and the quadrupling of its first-quarter profits from the year before, Jobs can afford to be generous. As of next week you will be able to buy an entry-level Mac for $500 and a scaled-down iPod for $99. The new iPod is no heftier than a pack of gum, while the Mini Mac is smaller than your average Harry Potter hardcover.

Of course, you're making some sacrifices for those prices. The Mini Mac is what Jobs calls BYODKM--bring your own display, keyboard and mouse. That makes it ideal if you're a Windows user who wants to switch teams and already has those peripherals (the Mini Mac will work with just about any recent brand). But BYODKM is not such a bargain if you're starting from scratch--especially if you want extras like a wireless Internet card, which will set you back another $79.

The Mini Mac is a surprisingly powerful beast for its size. It has roughly the same memory and hard-drive size as a low-end G4 Power Mac and comes with the latest version of Mac OS X. Plug in the peripherals, and you will rarely notice the difference. The $99 iPod Shuffle, however, could never be mistaken for its larger cousin. There's no screen on which to view the song currently playing, and it holds only 126 tracks. (A $150 model doubles that capacity.) It's called the Shuffle because that's the best thing you can do with it: stick it into the USB port of your computer, and it will quickly download a new random selection (or a particular playlist) from the iTunes jukebox. This is great if you're a passive music listener but infuriating if you like to find particular songs.

Ultimately, there's a reason these products are called entry level: they exist largely to tempt you to upgrade to pricier Apple wares. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing--especially if your name is Steve Jobs.