Giz makes a good point about the Mac Mini update: the 1GB and 200GB upgrade on the “base” $599 Mac Mini costs a mean $200, a bit of overkill for what amounts to a meager boost in storage and memory. Heck, 4GB of Kingston Mac Mini memory costs $44. UPDATE – This memory will. It might not work on these newer models, but who cares? Memory and hard drive space are cheap.

Obviously you’re paying the Apple premium for this memory and hard drive space but any intelligent person can open the Mini without much trouble and do the deed themselves. Sadly, Apple knows that most of the folks who are looking at the Mini aren’t also looking for a hex key set and a putty knife.

It’s pricing like this that makes Apple look more like rapacious bastards than a computer company, but the market imperative is alive and well and we’re not going to make it out of this recession by buying $100 netbooks, am I right?

As Rick says, below, you get the same processor – a small kindness – and a little more graphics memory, but it’s cold comfort, friends.