Meanwhile, surprised and stung by the boos generated by his keynote mention of the Apple Store, Uncle Steve scrambles to make Apple's online sales experience that much more lickable for the recklessly e-buying public. The result? According to faithful viewer Ryan Kuczynski, 1-Click has arrived-- thus bringing the bane of weak-willed impulse shoppers everywhere to Apple's e-commerce initiative. An Apple press release has more on this dangerous little development.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Amazon.com's patented (ahem) 1-Click technology, it's an insidious menace that essentially brings the impulse-shopping dynamic to online sales by securely storing your credit card and delivery information on the server end. That way you don't have to fill out a lengthy form to buy stuff-- one click, and your order is on its way. But this isn't like regular impulse-buying; whereas tossing a pack of Juicy Fruit and a copy of the Weekly World News on the belt at checkout in the supermarket will cost you only a couple of bucks, 1-Click ordering at Amazon has siphoned cash from the AtAT staff's bank accounts at an alarming rate. "Oh, the entire first season of The X-Files is out on DVD?" (Click.) Bye-bye $120. It's just that easy! Doesn't technology rule?

So now 1-Click has been licensed by Apple and is available right away for use at the Apple Store-- and we haven't heard of anything so dangerous since a disgruntled coworker casually asked us if there was a gun shop nearby. Set up 1-Click on Apple's servers, and you will vastly increase your susceptibility to RDF-influenced purchasing. Just watch; when the next Stevenote rolls around, frenzied fans will be 1-Clicking PowerBook G4s like it's a cure for cancer. Wall Street knows exactly what 1-Click might mean for Apple's online sales; AAPL shot up 10% yesterday. But sure, it's a revenue booster for Apple in the short term, but is it really a good long-term business strategy to bankrupt one's user base?

Apple's pushing the technology by offering iMovie 2 as a $49 1-Click download, so if you're so inclined, go for it. But we've learned our lesson from Amazon, thank you very much-- we'll leave 1-Click turned off at the Apple Store, lest we wind up ordering an iMac in each color and a six-pack of Cinema Displays in a late-night attack of rampant consumerism. "You can always cancel it later" our Aunt Fanny. What we need is technology that makes it harder to buy things online. Hasn't anyone patented 127-Click ordering yet?