My understanding is that Apple and Sony are going Blu-ray, so the format wars have just begun. $200 for the HD drive sounds reasonable if Netflix gets more selection (it seems to be all older, big name films at the moment) and even if Blu-ray eventually wins.

However, I refuse to purchase any HD / Blu-ray DVDs until the format war is decided. My family got burned by Beta, and while it was reasonably cheap to replace the machine, the video library was not.

The nice thing about Netflix is if you tell them you have an HD-DVD drive they will ship you the HD version of any title in your queue if it is available - DVD if it is not.

Other than playing HD-DVDs, what will this drive do? Will there be super high-def games?

My understanding is no.
All games will continue to be developed on the existing standard - DVD media. Actually this makes sense. They went with what was readily available at the time - DVD. This add on approach to HD movies, while ugly and clunky, is low risk and only incremental cost for consumers. And if Blueray wins the format war, oh well, they will just release a Blueray add on drive.

I really think that any "timebomb" based rental model is doomed to failure, thanks to Netflix. I think that people have been trained to think of files on a disk as more or less permanent, and Amazon's model is going to leave people confused as to whether they bought it or rented it... "Hey! where did that movie go?"

I like the set top box idea, and I'll probably get it if it can stream other media files too, and not just iTunes movies. I think that many people really don't want to buy a computer that sits by the TV, it would seem like a waste. But a set top is a very clear thing that people understand. Tivo, for example, is a powerpc linux box and effectively a computer but its users don't care. It's a thing to record and play video.

I have a problem purchasing digital content that has DRM on it, simply because the vendor may change the rules on you. Apple has already done this with iTunes... they have, at least once, unilaterally changed how many computers you can activate and how many times you can burn a song to disk.

Now imagine that you've bought thousands of dollars of eContent, and some buggy code in iTunes or Windows Genuine Advantage or Unbox decides you aren't authorized to play it. Or they changed the EULA after you've paid (which you agreed they could do when you clicked through the first EULA)? Now what?

I've bought some music and TV shows from iTunes, but I've treated it as a throw away purchase, like buying Battlestar Galactica episodes to watch until the DVDs come out. I can do this because the cost is cheap ($1 per song, $10 per album, $2 per show), but the movie model is different: $10 per movie. That's more than half of a month of Netflix, but with less resolution and more restrictions than a regular DVD. I'll probably stick to buying regular physical media, with a DRM purchase only when I can't get it anywhere else.

Wow it seems to me that Apple's informal coporate motto is "Always be a little bit evil". Check out AppleInsider's unboxing of a new nano. Here is a quote of what got my attention:

"Apple has conveniently (for its margins) offset the dock connector by about a millimeter, making the new nano completely incompatible with the first-generation iPod nano dock.

Similarly, users will also have to plunk down extra change for a new pair of iPod nano lanyard head phones -- the new nano's headphone jack is spaced further away from the dock connector."

I think the thing that bothers me the most isn't that Apple purposely rendered the new device incompatible with the old peripherals in order to sell more stuff, it's that Apple fans won't be upset by this.

Sometime websites are uniformed. Apple has consistantly messed with the form factor, more to come up with cool designs rather than just charge a little more for a new dock. Why would they drop the price of the premium iPod by $50 if this was the case? Likely, there were design reasons given how small those things are, and the amount of stuff that goes in them.

Also, to address the complaint of having to buy new docks with each new generation of iPod, they've built dock adapters ($9 for a 3-pack) and a universal dock.

Some more on Apple's designers.

hi i got a ipod apple for my birthday which was on the 6.6.06 and it was ok up to last week when i had it on the night before listening to it. but the day after i went to put it on and it just wen off completely ow wud i get it fix could i send it to you so you could fix it .

iTV to have a hard drive. That would certainly justify the $299 price.

Well it would make more sense if it did, as that would allow to download shows directly to it. But I'm skeptical. Iger's comments seemed to ramble a bit to me. He mentioned a small HD and allowing you to pull the content from the iTV back to your computer. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Are consumers ready to download content to their tv?

Not everyone thinks Apple TV will be successful.

Some AppleTV questions answered. What no true 5.1 audio?

I'm totally unimpressed with this offering. Without being able to play my existing media library, it's just not useful enough. The iPod could at least play mp3s in addition to the files bought through the iTunes store. I'm looking for a general TV media front end, not something that locks me into a proprietary walled network (I've got my cell phone for that already).

I assume you are referring to Divx / Xvid files? Yeah it is pretty lame that it doesn't support them. Microsoft did the same thing with the 360. It is a shame to have to jump through hoops to make this work. I guess that is just corporate greed at work. I was really hoping AppleTV would support Divx to put pressure on Microsoft. I hear AppleTV will play standard unencrypted mp4 files though. So maybe this is just an attempt to push things toward that standard container.

Itunes fans are going to buy these up though. The current limitations are 1. Crappy resolution videos on ITunes. 2. Crappy audio (apparently). -Although I'm sure this is not the hardware, but again the source material, and 3. Not being able to buy stuff directly from the device. 4. Lock in to ITunes.

All of those limitations are solvable. Jobs is no dummy, the first three will be fixed as time goes by. The forth? Yeah, right.

I'm not getting one unless it includes DVR. I just don't need a dedicated set top box for playing iTunes movies, since I already have such a device: an iMac.