The rumours were all true

Feverish speculation coupled with traditional Mac fanaticism reached a crescendo in San Francisco tonight as Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled a slew of new products - but the surprise was a tad spoiled by the fact rumour sites had nailed them all almost spot-on.

The new and logically named Mac Mini tackles the notion that Macintoshes are too expensive by offering a stripped-down and low-cost machine ($500 in the US, an amazingly commensurate €520 here). Crucially, there's no monitor, keyboard and mouse, so the Mac Mini is clearly aimed at PC owners who previously couldn't justify buying a whole new machine but would like to dip their toes in Apple waters. It's just two inches tall, six inches square - incredibly - as cheap as many PCs.

Extending the phenomenally successful MP3 player family, the iPod Shuffle sets about conquering that tiny part of the market not already dominated by Apple's unassailable gem. No bigger than a few sticks of chewing gum and gossamer-light, the Shuffle is packing either 512MB or 1GB of storage for a fantastic €100/150. With no display, the best way to play the Shuffle is on random - hence the name.

The rollcall didn't stop there, Jobs pulled a few more rabbits out the hat, including an update to the iLife suite and iWork, the successor to the venerable AppleWorks but which includes just a word processor and presentation software. Microsoft Office need not fret.