I'll offer my thoughts:
There should only be 4 sections to this site, as I see it. The redesign should be made to make the site as simple to navigate as possible. This will make it flow and work whether on a Mac, an iPad or an iPhone.
News & Info -
Buyers Guide -
Forums -
User CP
News & Info- Combine Front Page, Mac Blog, iOS blog and Page 2 and keep them all on one page, much the same way the mobile site currently works. Color code each category so the readers know which section their article belongs to. The articles appear in the order they're posted, but exceptional "Top Stories" could be pinned indefinitely. The recent forum material would not be on this page. Articles only!
Buyer's Guide- Functionally, this page works great right now. I would just lose the Front Page stories as the appropriate articles are already displayed next to the product. And maybe, just maybe, it's time to add the AppleTV...
Forums- I know a lot of this is tied to vBulletin, but it might be time to move to something more mobile friendly. But assuming you stick with vBulletin, I would only keep 3 of the subheadings: FAQ/Rules, Forum Spy and New Posts. User CP should be its own category, and the Community links would go there, too. A Search bar is already included on every page and Quick Links Are mostly redundant info anyway.
User CP- This is a very useful space now. I think it could be much more useful though if it was treated as more of a social space, kinda like you attempted to do with the last update here. Posting on others pages, adding photo galleries, listing friends and the like should encourage a more personal space, but it's really not a "beautiful" space that people want to "hang out" in. If you can let people customize their MR "home" people would socialize a lot more. Chatting is frowned upon in the forums, but it could be welcomed here. You could also add links to your favorite searches, forums or other MR spots.
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So that's briefly the direction I would head. As much as I enjoy this site, I think it can be better. Again, the goal would be consistency across platform, ease of navigation and a decidedly social element. I don't think MR should go with a standard or follow established trends, I think they should innovate, try some new ideas. Your users are some of the most tech savvy and creative folks out there and this has got to be one of the most popular communities on the web. Lead the way in this space and don't settle for what's easy. The company that brought us here didn't do it and we're only here because that's what we respect and admire.