So what's with the Apple Store UK? We only ask because faithful viewer David Poves pointed out a surprising pricing choice as dutifully documented by The Register, complete with screenshot: while most of the store's language skills software carries a fairly reasonable price tag ("Talk Now French" is reportedly £24.01, while "World Talk German" is £29), the software known as "World Talk English" cost a seemingly steep £117,498.83, or approximately $218,126.05. That had better be some darn good software. For that price, we'd expect the ghost of David Niven to float around everywhere we went to translate for us.

Now, normally this sort of glitch (at least, we assume it's a glitch) wouldn't warrant more than a passing mention along the lines of "tee hee, Apple's web guys messed up a price, it is to laugh, chortle chortle." But when we went looking for "World Talk English" to make sure that Apple had since corrected the error, we found no entry for "World Talk English" at all, as if Apple had pulled it completely as the safest method of ensuring that the problem got fixed. A bit overzealous in our opinion, but okay, fine. The weird bit, though, is that we noticed that a different language software title-- "Ultralingua Dictionary French/German"-- also carries a £117,498.83 price tag. Whether it did before and The Reg just didn't notice or if the Phantom Absurd Price is magically leaping from language product to language product we simply can't say, but we will say this: wow, everything really is more expensive in the UK.

Well, actually, not everything. About a week ago, after Apple pulled its "we screwed up our inventory, so you don't get to buy any iMacs" strangeness, faithful viewer Basil noted that iMacs at the Apple Store UK had a listed price of -£1.18. That's negative one pound eighteen pence, which more than makes up for the exorbitant price of a couple of the Apple Store UK's language software titles. In fact, if all these prices had been in effect at once, it would have been possible to order 99,575 iMacs and a single copy of "World Talk English" for the princely sum of exactly 33 pence.

Why do we get the feeling that, before long, there's going to be a "changing of the guard" down Apple Store UK way? Meanwhile, we feel sorry for any poor saps who actually ordered "World Talk English" from the Apple Store UK for the equivalent of $218,126.05; Best Buy had it last week for $218,117.99. It really does pay to keep those eyes peeled for bargains.