I've been a good journo all year -- honest. Alex Kidman lays out his Apple wish-list for the festive season.

I've been a good boy all year. Well, OK, there was that business at the Macworld Expo with the flying Macbook Air, but really, that's just product testing. And I might have sworn at the iPhone 3G's frankly useless GPS a couple of times over the year, but I only shouted because I love it so. Honest.

Sure, I might have dipped into some of the seven deadly sins every once in a while. Lust, for the new premium Macbook Pro, for example. Envy, of anyone with enough dollars still in the bank account (or stuffed under their pillow -- the security seems to be about the same, and the interest is definitely comparable) to actually afford a new Macbook Pro.

Pride, in being able to open up my Macbook at press conferences and have it resume from hibernation while the Vista-clad types around me swore at blank screens under their breath. Some wrath, usually when things didn't "just work" and I was left staring at that spinning beachball for a while. But very, very little sloth or gluttony. That's got to count in the plus column, right?

In any case, it's been a good year at Apple, financially speaking -- your current market capitalisation suggests that the company is worth four times that of Dell, you've got gobs of money from flogging about every third person an iPhone (that's an observational statistic, not a real one, but when has truth ever mattered in marketing?) and you're in something of an industry driving position right at the moment.

And that's the spirit I'm presenting my Christmas Wish List in. After all, isn't it the season for giving? So in that Spirit, could you please send me...

1) Something snappy and consumer-centric as a feature for Snow Leopard

If only because I can't quite see the Justin Long "Mac Guy" coming onto my screen and talking up "how allowing developers to code applications to use the GPU for non-graphics purposes is a core part of OS X 10.6". Because, y'know, it'll make that PC guy look interesting.

2) Peripheral hardware that works as well as looks lovely

I know, I've harped on this one before, but it seemingly never sinks in. iMac keyboards and the Mighty Mouse look mighty fine, but I'm writing this on a Microsoft Keyboard and with a Logitech Mouse. Why? Because they're good to use. And relying on an external company would seem to run contrary to the Apple ecosystem.

3) iPhone 3G tethering

It seems like a win-win-win proposition. You sell more iPhones to the people who need a tethered solution every once in a while, and the Telcos get to gobble up extra dollars from those who go over their caps. Consumers win, because they can then use their iPhones as wireless modems.

4) Time Machine compatibility for all NAS units

It's storage, it's pretty simple, and you do it already with Time Capsule. And that way, when USB connected drives die (and they all do, eventually), your customers will keep their data safe.

5) A Macbook Pro with all the trimmings

But no cranberry sauce. Hey, if it's the season for giving, someone's got to do some of the getting, right?

I should note that I don't have a chimney to speak of (and I wouldn't want some of this stuff to drop into a burning log in any case) -- I think hand-delivered would be best, don't you? See you on the 25th; I'll have the bag of hay ready for iRudolph.

Other Blog Entries written by Alex Kidman:

• Where does all the space on the iPhone go?
• The next iPhone will be...
• App-itis: how many apps is your iPhone running?
• Mac Authority: Microsoft's Ads are clever, but why are they bothering?
• Macs: are you just buying the logo?

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