By now I'm sure you've heard about and seen the latest from our friends in Cupertino. I'm speaking, of course, of the new U2 iPod and the new iPodphoto. That's all fine and well and sure they're cool and sure Apple stock closed at a four year high of $50+ a share yesterday. But, what not been said yet follows.

During the "special press event" on Tuesday, Steve Jobs began with extolling the state of all things Apple. Before getting to all things iPod, Jobs touched on the iMac G5 and then moved on to the state of Apple retail noting that there are 90-some Apple stores currently open and ringing up $1.3 Billion dollars a year in sales. I know, great, but excuse me while I yawn. What caught my ear was when he announced the opening of Apple mini-retail stores. Sure, every time I hear the word "mini" my ears perk up, but stick with me here. Jobs then proceeds to say that since the full size Apple stores have been so successful they were looking for ideas on how to expand on that. He went on to say how a couple of years ago the MINI Cooper came on the scene and everyone fell in love with the car and how it wasn't just because the car was small but because it was engineered and designed so well. He said, specifically, that Apple used the MINI Cooper as inspiration to design a mini-Apple store and opened six of the mini-stores last week.

Once again, two great things come together like peanut butter and chocolate, like Pizza and Beer, like Homer and doughnuts - mmmm... doughnuts, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, MINIs and all things Apple go together quite nicely - as if I didn't already know that...