It never fails: Captain Steve announces a whole slew of crazy new products at some keynote address somewhere, the Mac-centric media goes rabid with coverage of all the spiffy new stuff, and then a week later even if there were anything to say that hasn't already been said a dozen times over, anyone who could actually say it is practically comatose with fatigue anyway. Which means, as expected, we've sailed right into the Post-Stevenote Doldrums, and you can expect some really slow news days for a while-- at least until everyone recovers from the G5 unveiling. There just really isn't anything left to say.

And that's presumably why MacCentral has resorted to posting articles about what products are listed in the Top Ten over at the Apple Store-- something that normally wouldn't qualify as "news" unless six of the top ten products sold were, say, household cleansers and pet deworming pills. But actually, even without deer and rabbit repellent taking the top spot, the list is at least marginally interesting; it's pretty encouraging to see Apple's online store selling almost as many top-of-the-line Power Mac G5s (number 3) as iPods (all models, number 2). Clearly the pent-up demand for some serious speed has plenty of people reaching for the plastic, which bodes extremely well for Apple's finances next quarter when the Power Macs actually ship. Lackluster Power Mac sales has been one of the perennial reasons why Wall Street is so down on AAPL, and that reason may have just evaporated.

But the bit that surprised us even more is that the number one product sold at the Apple Store is (drum roll, please...) the iSight. And here we were, worried that nobody would want to shell out $149 for a videoconferencing gadget; apparently there really are a lot of people out there with Jaguar and broadband looking to log a little face time with distant (and not-so-distant) acquaintances. Go figure. If we ever again doubt Apple's ability to gauge a market, throw something sharp at our heads. Well, unless the company releases the Cube 2.

By the way, this is just slightly off-topic, but it's a handy tip (and news is slower right now than a documentary on the history of paste), so we'll mention it anyway: as long as you have a compatible camera (such as an iSight, a FireWire webcam, or a MiniDV camcorder), you can initiate one-way video chats with other users of iChat AV, even if they are Without Benefit of Lens. Control-click on their name in your Buddy List and you'll see the option right there; maybe this was obvious to everyone else, but we were delighted to find it. It's a nifty way to let cameraless relatives see and hear how big your baby's getting, for example-- or to play everyone's favorite game, "Does This Mole Look Abnormal To You?"