It's all right there in the specs. There are two models: a $600 model and an $800 model. Literally the only difference between the two is a bump from 1GB of RAM to 2GB of RAM and from a 120GB HDD to a 320GB HDD. Same processor, same graphics, same SuperDrive.

I know that Apple uses components made from the powdered bones of unicorns, but this seems egregious even by their standards. Am I missing something here?

Maybe I should stop being surprised. After every new product unveiling or spec bump, I go from being interested in maybe buying one of these products to being offended by their pricing. Maybe if I start off offended I'll be pleasantly surprised when I'm only a little taken aback and not furious.

Update: There's also a difference in the graphics card of 128MB vs 256MB, but its the same card with different allocations from the RAM due to the higher amount in the $800 model.

Seriously, how hard can it be to make this app work? It's so ridiculously simple. It needs to download and organize text and some small photos. That's it. No video, no animations, nothing that reacts to you shaking or tilting the phone. It's clearly very doable on the iPhone, yet it freezes up and crashes almost every single time I use it.

I'll be scrolling down an article and all of the sudden the phone stops responding to either the touchscreen or the buttons. After a minute or two of tapping and hitting the home button and the sleep button with no response, the screen will turn off, the app having shut down. When I turn the app back on, I need to then find the article I was reading again.

In effect, it pushes me to just surf over to NYTimes.com in Safari, as that never crashes and, once I pull up an article, is just as easy to read. But finding articles is much nicer on the app, as it's designed for the iPhone rather than a computer.

And this version is a fix to a previous version that would hang forever when updating, making the app even less usable. And while I appreciate the fact that it updates without locking up, being able to read the articles without locking up would be a great next step.

And the fact is, this has the potential to be one of the best apps out there. Apple showed it off on stage! And since the New York Times is the biggest newspaper out there, this should be a flagship news app. If it worked properly it would certainly be the app I used the most.

I know you guys have bigger things to worry about, like not going out of business due to the impending death of the newspaper industry, but seriously, put a programmer on this for a day. That's all it will take, because in case you didn't notice, this is an insanely simple program, and it shouldn't take much to get it working right. It's been long enough.

Yeah, the headphone jack is now flush. Otherwise, here's a list of stuff that's people were expecting, or at least hoping for, but didn't get in the new model:

• A 32GB model
• A better camera
• More RAM
• MMS
• A2DP Bluetooth for stereo streaming
• A camera on the front for videoconferencing
• Video capabilities
• Turn-by-turn navigation (will come with a 3rd party app, I'm sure)
• The ability to copy and paste

None of these are really dealbreakers, except maybe the lack of space for data hoarders, but it's disappointing that some of the more basic things didn't get a bump. I mean, we are talking about the second generation of the phone here. They couldn't improve the camera at all? Or give us some of the very basic things, like MMS and copy/paste that people have been clamoring for since day one? And I personally would be happy to pay the current iPhone's price for a 32GB iPhone 3G so the transition from my 60GB iPod wouldn't be such a kick in the pants.

Overall, we got what we were expecting, 3G and GPS, and essentially nothing else. And really, at the end of the day, those are the big features that really matter. 3G (along with the price drop) will sell phones, MMS won't. I know I'm being nitpicky, and really, I'm not all that disappointed. I'll still be buying one. But it just seems strange that nothing else besides those and a minor facelift were added to Apple's flagship handheld.

What do you guys think, were you expecting more upgrades here or are you happy with 3G and GPS alone?

A couple of other users at the official PS3 forums are claiming the same thing and it appears only machines with the serial numbers CE133190xxx and CE133212xxx are affected. Anyone out there experiencing the same thing or is this a case of overly sensitive ears? – Louis Ramirez

New PS3 Owners Report Noisy, Defective Consoles [DailyTech]