Of course, what Apple has given us in the recent past is more interesting than the products any five other companies are doing combined, so Apple deserves some slack. Still, even today's OS preview--easily the best announcement so far this year--is more interesting than it is exciting.

Was there anything included that users did not already know they needed? Only if you count the fact that those of us still using the original iPhone did not know we needed our phones made obsolete by new OS features the original iPhone hardware will not support. That was bound to happen someday, but Apple was so dishonest in how it pitched the 3G iPhone that some of us have avoided it as a matter of principle.

iPhone 3.0 mostly fills obvious holes in the iPhone's development platform. That means more interesting applications, but is not earthshaking. In addition, there is a downside: The new OS makes it possible for app developers to sell stuff from within their applications, which is probably a mixed blessing.

Based on the pre-announcement coverage, I must be the only iPhone user who has never felt the need to cut, copy, and paste while using my phone. I guess I will learn, on my new iPhone 3G, once the new OS is released this summer.

As for the other 2009 products: The new iMacs, , Time Machine and AirPort Extreme, even the new iPod Shuffle are all very nice. But, they are also incremental improvements to products we already know and mostly love. Not one of them made me want to run out and replace what I already own just to get the newest model.