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If you ask any of the Apple “fanboys” why they are so devoted to Apple, at least one of the reasons you will hear is that Apple “sweats the small stuff,” which really proves its dedication to user experience and attention to detail.

Here’s a few of my favorites that demonstrate Apple’s attention, not just to its hardware and software, but to even the product packaging. See how many you may have noticed before, and feel free to add any that I might have missed in the comments below.

Serial Numbers

In the world of computers, serial numbers are important for a variety of reasons, including verifying warranty status and determining the correct specifications, to name a few. Many Apple products feature, in addition to their standard serial number, a barcode that makes reading this serial number much easier for Geniuses or other technicians.

Though some newer models have forgone barcodes, such as the 2009 model MacBook Pros and MacBook Air, barcodes can still be found on many other Apple products. In addition to serial numbers represented as barcodes, some Macs, like the Mac Pro, also include a barcode for the system’s MAC address. Though it changes from model to model, Apple has often put these barcodes and serial numbers in easily accessible places.

On the Power Mac G5, the serial number was located on the inside of the tower, behind the aluminum side panel. On iMac G4s and eMacs, the serial number was located on the inside of the optical drive cover. This really made it easy to quickly locate a serial number if you couldn’t access it through the OS.

Fiat Lux a la Mac

As many people leave their Macs running non-stop throughout the day, they have likely stumbled upon the infamous sleep light. Much like a heartbeat (or “snoring”), the little light pulses while your Mac sleeps. When the iMac G5 originally shipped, its sleep light indicator was bright! It didn’t bother people during the day, but for those who kept their iMac in an office or bedroom, it could light up the whole room at night. Apple issued a firmware update that reduced the sleep light’s brightness during evening hours, giving a much more relaxing pulse than before.

Beyond sleep lights, other indicators on newer Macs are typically hidden until needed. Take for instance the iSight indicator light, built into displays, which is seemingly non-existent until the camera is activated. Similar to the sleep light on the unibody MacBook Pros, the power light on the new aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard blends in seamlessly until its activated. The thin aluminum that has been perforated with tiny holes for the light to shine through, but when there is no light, the keyboard looks seamless.

Indicator lights on power adapters are also worthy of mention. With once quick glance, you can easily see what is going on. If the light is amber, the battery is charging. If the light is green, the battery is fully charged and ready to go.

Another interesting use of light is the Apple logo on the rear of the portables. The light that illuminates this logo is simply excess ambient light from your display. Go ahead and take a look. Lower the brightness on your display and watch the apple dim.

Product Shots

The next time you see a promotional shot for an Apple product, take notice of the time. For many years, whenever a Mac has been shown displaying the OS X desktop, the clock indicates the system version that the Mac ships pre-installed. This trend even carries forth to Apple’s retail stores, where display signage and wall banners that showcase Leopard prominently feature the system clock at 10:50. Due to only having 60 minutes in an hour, showing a clock at 10:60 for Snow Leopard would not make much sense. Pre-release screenshots from Apple still display 10:50, so this trend will likely end soon.

In the iPhone arena, all of the promotional images of the iPhone and iPod touch all display 9:42 (except one preliminary image,which displayed 9:41). What’s the significance of this? Some think it may relate to the time the iPhone was originally introduced; others see it as a somewhat disjointed homage to Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.” Most of my research seems to confirm that 9:42 was the actual time of the iPhone announcement during Steve’s keynote in 2007.

Hidden OS X Easter Eggs

Apple’s attention to detail moves beyond the hardware and into its software as well. Take for example the Clock widget in the Dashboard. Look closely at the second hand and notice how it vibrates much like a real clock does.

For those that use Mail, as you drag the divider between the date column to expand or make the column smaller, the formatting of the date dynamically adjusts to fit. If there’s room to display the time, it shows up. As you make the column smaller, the formatting reduces to fit. Most email applications would just truncate whatever did not fit in the column.

This is just a small list of a huge number of little details found on a lot of Apple products that really make them a joy to use. The tipping point, so to speak, is that Apple doesn’t market any of these as “features,” it’s just the fact that they took the time to integrate them subtly into the Apple experience that makes it all worthwhile.

If you’ve found other examples of Apple’s attention to detail, let us know in the comments!

Aliases in Mac OS X are essentially equivalent to shortcuts in the Windows world. They work by creating a link to an original file located somewhere on your Mac or network and maintain the link even if the original is moved or renamed.

How to Create Aliases

Creating aliases is pretty easy. You can right-click on a file and select “Make Alias” or choose “Make Alias” from the File menu. Viola! You have created an alias, indicated by the shortcut arrow on the icon and the word “alias” appended to the end of the file name.

If you want to create an alias and not have it include “alias” at the end, you can do so by holding down the command and option keys while dragging the desired file to a new location other than the original.

How to Ditch the Arrow

You can easily tell your aliases apart from your original files by the fact that aliases include a little arrow in their icon. For some, this may be a great reminder, but for others who may be creating collections of aliases for custom stacks in the Dock, or other reasons, the arrows may be annoying. Fortunately, with a little trip to the Terminal, we can solve this dilemma.

Essentially what we are going to do is take the graphic files that apply the arrow “badge” onto the icons and rename them so Mac OS X cannot find them. If your system cannot find the arrows, it cannot apply them to your aliases. This modification will affect all aliases on your Mac.

The first step is to fire up Terminal (located in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder). At the command prompt, copy and paste the following line of code.

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources

This navigates to the location where the alias badge icons are stored. Then copy and paste this next line of code. It will require your administrator password after you execute the command.

sudo mv AliasBadgeIcon.icns AliasBadgeIcon_OFF.icns

For Terminal newbies, this command invokes “sudo,” which allows you to run powerful commands as another user, in this case, the “root” user. The “mv” command is Unix-talk for “move files.” In the example above, it simply causes the file to be renamed.

To see the changes, you can either restart your computer, or type in the following line of code. (In my tests using the latest builds of Snow Leopard, I actually had to restart the system to see the results).

killall Finder

To put them back, simply follow the steps again, but when you reach the sudo command, use this line of code.

sudo mv AliasBadgeIcon_OFF.icns AliasBadgeIcon.icns

Available today, the iPhone 3G can be purchased on the cheap for just $99. The new iPhone 3G S is available for pre-order via the online Apple Store in four varieties: 16GB in black or white for $199 and 32GB in black or white for $299. Apple has promised that if you pre-order today, it will be shipped directly to you and you will receive it on June 19.

This is the first iPhone model to be available via the online Apple Store web site for pre-order. If you choose to pre-order your iPhone, you can select your rate plan options via Apple’s web site, or log in and see your existing rate plan if you are a current iPhone user. Existing iPhone customers should expect an $18 activation fee and $18 upgrade fee. Then, users can choose to have their iPhone available for pickup at a local Apple Store or shipped directly to their door.

Though I purchased my iPhone 3G on launch day last year, according to AT&T’s records, I will have to wait until early December before I can qualify to upgrade to this iPhone at the advertised rate of $299 for the 32GB. This is different from last year, when Apple and AT&T allowed original iPhone owners to upgrade immediately without requiring owners to pay the higher price. Even though AT&T calls this an “early upgrade,” if you fall within this category, expect the 16GB iPhone to cost $399 and the 32GB iPhone to cost $499.

Starting off the WWDC announcements of the day was the immediate availability and updating of the 15″ MacBook Pro. With a faster processor, new connectivity, and greater storage, this update will be minor for most people.

Something Lost, Something Gained

In an interesting move, Apple is dropping support for the ExpressCard on this model and instead, replacing it with a built-in SD card slot. ExpressCard was very popular for many travelers, giving flexibility for 3G adapters, additional FireWire ports and other connectivity options. While seeing it leave the 15″ model may be a bummer for some, the inclusion of an SD slot could open up new opportunities for better third-party add-ons. It remains to be seen what the real reason for this move is. (Why SD versus CompactFlash or another competing format?) I have yet to be able to find out if this SD slot supports newer SDHC cards.

More Storage & Battery Life

The new 15″ MacBook Pro supports larger hard drives, including up to 500GB 7200RPM drives. Additionally, the newer models come standard with 4GB of RAM with support for 8GB (like the 17″ model). Also, a new built-in battery similar to the 17″ MacBook Pro, offers seven hours of battery life. This trend may eventually make its way to the new 13″ MacBook Pro at some point as well, considering Apple generally likes to reduce the burden of consumers changing batteries (from a simplicity standpoint).

Processors & Displays

The new models come with processor speeds ranging from 2.53GHz (and 3MB L2 cache) up to 3.06Ghz (and 6MB L2 cache). The new LED-backlit displays offer a 60 percent greater color gamut than the previous models for a richer color experience.

More Attractive Pricing

Perhaps the biggest attractive feature of these new MacBook Pros is more economical pricing. The new MacBook Pro is available today and starts at $1,699, $300 less than before.