I got to see one of the drivable movie prop Tumblers up close a couple of years ago and one of the things that really struck me was how small it was. It definitely looks much larger on screen.

Here you go. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=glossy+screen&l=1

British English and American English use the word "table" differently. In British English, it means that it's been brought to the table to be discussed & voted on.

I'd love to know what cable provider you have because I've gone through a STACK of cable company provided DVRs and they have all been JUNK. They would frequently just not record a program for no apparent reason... the drive wasn't full, there were no schedule conflicts, it just wouldn't record. Additionally, while recording a show, the menus would get so bogged down that there would be a lag of several seconds between the time you press a button on the remote and the time that the DVR until the time the DVR actually took action. And God help you if you wanted to fast-forward or rewind a program while recording another.

This was not just on one or two units. This was on at least 3 (but I think maybe 4) different units.

On top of all that, the OS on the cable company provided units had a terrible terrible interface. The only one that even comes close is the AT&T Uverse DVR that my parents have. It seems decent.

I have never ever had any of those issues with my TiVo. As the Apple guys say... it just works. Beautifully.

And in my case, the monthly TiVO subscription and monthly CableCard rental add up to the same price my cable provider was charging for their crappy DVR. So the only difference is the up-front cost. To me it is COMPLETELY worth it.

The user experience with a netbook is the same as with a notebook PC except... worse. The keyboards are small and generally terrible, the track-pads are generally small and terrible and the screens are generally small and terrible. If you don't have a table to set it on, you have to hunch way over in order to use it because it requires 2 hands to operate. The iPad takes care of all of those issues, plus it has a really great UI. No, it's not a full-blown PC. It's not supposed to be, but I think that there is definitely a market for a device like this. Go ahead and call me an Apple fanboy if you want. I am a Mac user. I already have a MacBook, though, so I don't have a need for an iPad. But if I had a desktop PC, the iPad would be a nice mobile device for me.

Yeah, as soon as I heard one of these ads for the first time, I had a feeling that there would be a lawsuit forthcoming.

I stand by my original statement. :)

This story needs the "andnothingofvaluewaslost" tag. Srsly.

Hooray for racism!