I just bought a Gateway EC1803u from Tiger Direct for $300, after $50 in Bing cashback. This laptop has an Intel Core 2 Solo processor, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics (including H.264 decoding), 2 GB of RAM (expandable to 8 GB), SDHC card slot, and an HDMI port.

Let’s compare this to a MacBook Air. The Air is a definitely thinner, and certainly 20 to 25 percent more powerful. But, it lacks a user-replacable battery, SDHC card slot, two less USB ports, and HDMI output.

The price difference? $1,199. That’s right, you save over a grand by choosing the Gateway over the Mac. Alternatively, you could own five Gateway EC1803u’s for the cost of one MacBook Air. The EC1803u not only makes you think purchasing a MacBook Air is relatively insane, but also gives iPad a run for its money.

Yes, you can make the case that iPad, in all its multi-touch glory, is better. Note, the EC1803u is also multi-touch via its trackpad. But I digress, Mac is clearly where Apple cannot compete in the same playing field as Gateway. It’s in Apple’s DNA to be the best. They can’t be the best and be affordable. So, they’ve moved on to iOS. There, they can be the best, and command the price to match it.

And yes, I’m sure you can challenge me by saying the EC1803u is a clearance, bargain basement price. Fair enough, but Acer has similar models with dual cores for a couple hundred more. That’s still a one thousand dollar price gap with MacBook Air.

Bottom line, Apple sees the writing on the wall with Mac. It’s a commodity market that cannot handle Apple’s demanding price-points.

I suspect Apple is contemplating a bit of a dilemma on their hands. Do they license Mac OS X, and use the iOS Halo Effect to challenge Windows. Or, do they concede that Windows and Linux have won, and use Mac OS X as an innovation platform; a test field of sorts for future iOS innovations It wouldn’t be the first time. Apple uses WebObjects to power iTunes and the Apple Store, despite deprecating the technology to the public.

Who knows? Maybe Apple will offer Mac OS X for free, like they’ve done with other technologies that are no longer the means that justify their ends. But, if you wonder why Apple isn’t driven by Mac anymore, now you know.

I have suspected from day one (literally), that GM plans to offer the Caprice within a couple of model years after its police-trim launch. This would allow GM to continue to have a RWD, non-luxury sedan, and give Holden a major shot in the arm with production until the Alpha platform is ready.

And, with that, I’ll show you the first appearance of the Chevy Caprice PPV… “detective unit” trim. This was originally meant to be an “undercover” trim, until GM realized that anyone looking for undercover cops need only look for the one car on the road that civilians cannot buy… the new Caprice. Realizing that mistake, GM now markets it as a car for detectives, instead of billing it for undercover use (used G8s work great for undercover work in that case).

Click to enlarge…

If only they’d market it as what it should be; a long-wheelbase Pontiac G8. Hey, Holden sure does over in Australia.

Holden Commodore Sportwagon SS V Series Special Edition… if only American GM would match Australian GM.

That said, I do have a suggestion for a third track. For those of you that didn’t make it to WordCamp SF this year, there are two tracks; one for Users, and one for Developers. There’s obviously some cross-over in both tracks.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really fit into either one for honing my WP-Skills. As Matt said during his address, 22% of people attending WordCamp rely on WordPress for their day job; they’re professional journalists/bloggers/WordPressers.

Those people I think would benefit the most from a third track. They don’t really learn anything from basic SEO talks, and they don’t benefit from how to code security-hardened plugins. Plus, they’re also willing to pay more.

So, for this magical “ProPress Track” (yeah, I just made that up), I would suggest something say, $50 more, but giving you more direct talks. Say, a town hall meeting with the Automattic team to ask tough/complicated questions about the future of WordPress.

Or, in terms of ProPressers (yeah, I’m starting to like the term I just made) get tips on how to leverage WordPress 3.0 for 15 sites, while still maintaining different IP addresses for SEO? Effectively, training for what’s ahead in the WordPress pipeline, for people that need to be ahead of the curve for their day job.

Just tonight, I watched a Wells Fargo ad that featured a MacBook Pro, running Safari no less. The problem? The ad agency spent at least a grand or so to remove the Mac OS X menu bar and MacBook branding from the laptop.

The result was something clearly a Mac, but made exponentially more expensive to remove a few pixels worth of product identification.

This doesn’t help the consumer attach to your product. Sure, not all consumers are as meticulous as I am, but it doesn’t matter. There’s no legal product-endorsement concerns that fly here, and there’s no brand identity that’s watered down by leaving reality intact.

Reality is supposed to be real. The more advertisers keep trying to alter reality in plain folks ads, the more consumers are going to feel like they’re inside The Matrix… a watered down, distorted reality that just doesn’t feel right.

So please, stop turning Pontiac Solstices into single-nostril variants. Stop taking Macs and creating infinite unMac variants. Stop taking Coca-cola and making it Red Generic Soda Can. It just tells me your product is as fake as the ads your company is shoveling towards me.

It’s free and open to the public. I know it’s short notice, but click over to the MechaWorks blog post to see the details.

I’ll be sure to post notated slides afterwords at least, and possibly video if we can pull that off too.

We’ve met with countless developers, engineers, and company partners (both announced and waiting-in-the-wings). It’s been an amazing nine months, juggling everything from corporate filings, to actually writing the code to piece iConsole together. Today is a great day, because it’s the first time we’re able to turn to actual users, and ask for their feedback.

And, that’s all the time I’m going to take up with this post. Go, download it! Let me know what you think!

iConsole

Worst of all, I can’t gripe or point blame at the reason for the delay… two things I’m commonly known for being very good at. So, I’ll blame the lawyers for not letting me say why. As soon as I can though, I’ll give you all the details that I can on what went down.

The good news is that iConsole Alpha 1 is in the can so to speak. I can now get back to my usual awkward 24/7 schedule. No more of that 36/7 schedule… that hurt.

I wanted to take a moment to explain why we did this, and why it’s good for Newsroom Network and for you.

First, competition is an important factor. Often, we go a different direction than a lot of our competition. But, here, we didn’t have much of a choice. Other competitors were leveraging ad anonymity by blocking their public access to score ad deals that we feel we were less competitive with by showcasing our viewership. In short, we think we have more readers than other sites blocking their stats. This makes the playing field more level… prospective advertisers can now ask for data from both, and get each site’s manifest.

This allows us to compile data from multiple sources to show advertisers. We can, for example, compile data from beyond Quantcast, where an advertiser might make a snap judgement about us by “quantcasting us”. If other sites get to tout third-party specs in their pitches, we feel we deserve that same flexibility.

Another factor is the Google sandbox. Two of our sites, DealNewsroom.com and TechNews.biz have new domain names. Google doesn’t like new domain names, unless you have a multi-million dollar ad campaign running. So, while those sites sit through 90 days of mediocrity, we felt it would be best to duck the pot shots.

Finally, the start of March is going to kick off some changes for Newsroom Network. We’ll have our first-ever quarterly hiring sweep, where we hope to secure many positions with real, live, human beings working on them all at once. That includes new director-level positions in affiliate and advertising management. So, we’re going to be consolidating this data and making it more presentable for advertisers as we progress this year. We’re making 2010 a real drivers-seat year for the ad market, we feel the time is right for that.

So, to bottom line it, Newsroom Network profits will grow, which means more content for you. That’s why we made this change, and we appreciate the understanding as we navigate this 21st century balancing act.

I will be generally unavailable as I spend every waking moment preparing to ship iConsole Alpha 1.

What I’ll be doing is adding the final bits of code to the release, beginning the testing, and making final server arrangements with the web team to ensure everything goes smoothly when we throw all the switches. It’s the longest project I’ve ever worked on, and I know testers are ready, and waiting for the first Home Theater OS.

Hopefully I’ll be back within a week… you’ll be able to tell how far we are behind (or ahead) by that benchmark.

As I usually do with trade shows (when I’m not already hopelessly over-booked), I like to be open and offer to meet with just about anyone… fans… people that want to write for the sites, all the way to companies exhibiting.

Just hit the contact me link to let me know.