[tzs]

> The great thing about a headphone port is that if you stick something in it you won't ever hear anything over the speaker.

iMac does that, and I find it very annoying. I normally use headphones, but occasionally want to use the speakers. To do that I have to reach behind the iMac and unplug the headphones. This is annoying because there are things in the way on my desk.

I cannot understand why Apple did this. They got it right on my older Mac Pro: you could select in the Sound settings between the headphone jack and line out (which was were you generally would connect your speakers).

Am I missing something here? Making an analog audio signal electronically switchable between two paths is not something that requires an EE genius to design.

If for some reason they cannot do that...how about putting the headphone jack in front instead of on the back? Put it in the middle of the black Apple symbol on the front if you are worried it will throw off the aesthetics. It would be hard to see there.