like any product made in the world there are going to be a few that are bad that simply slip on by....
-chris
Mine is 6 mths old. I get kernel panic whenever I turn it on if there is anything (external drive, usb, printer, etc) plugged into it ... and have to hard reboot.
It has happened a number of other times too.
Most recently I had it with no ability to get past grey screen with alternating black apple, no entry sign and occasional flashing folder with question mark.
Like you, my experience of buying a Mac has not been 'it just works' but rather, 'it just works for a while'.
We don't have Apple stores where I live, and the local store MacStation basically just wants you to f&# off unless you're buying a computer.
I use to have the same problem with my macbook. It was the 10.4.10 update that caused it. I think you have to delete some file in some internet log thing. Ill search for it and let you knowI don't own one, but it seems to me that you should bring it back, demonstrate the problem, let them open a fresh one up and run it through the basic hoops in front of you. Isn't that what the expert counter (or whatever they call it) is all about? Why spend the gas going back and forth... it might be some kind of user error (hey anything is possible) so let an apple geek load your pictures from the external drive and then put it through its paces.