Yahoo Music chief Dave Goldberg said in February 2006 (at the Music 2.0 conference) that the music companies should sell DRM-free music: "Rights management restrictions have created a barrier for consumers, he said, making it a hurdle to transfer music to portable devices, and creating incompatibility between music services and MP3 players."

Bill Gates also expressed his problems with the state of music DRM in December 2006 in an informal Q&A discussing the Mix Conference: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then."

"Technically," eMusic and Amie Street offered DRM-free music way before Apple, but I understand why we aren't counting them in this thread.

However, Yahoo Music acted ("experimented," actually) by offering Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" as a DRM-free MP3 file in July 2006, offred an entire Jesse McCartney album in September 2006, and a Norah Jones single in December 2006.

All this before Steve Jobs made his "bold" statement in Febraury 2007.

Interestigly, Amazon was rumored to be considering an MP3-only music download store in January 2007 (at the latest), before Steve Jobs made his statement.

Another option you might want to look at is Patriot's $99 Box Office Media Player. I don't have one, but I just read about it in Anandtech's new Apple TV review as an alternative that "will play virtually everything you have, regardless of container or format."

The specs page lists support for UPnP streaming and "[MPEG-2] MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/TS/TP/M2TS", but this avsforum post indicates it might meet your needs. From the post:

• "Will not see any of my .iso or .mkv when using the UPnP feature, but sees all when using the "NET" feature (SMB share)."
• "Handles DVD .iso very well, menu functionality is retained for those that have it."

Here's a link to T-Mobile's "Individual Plans" showing the no-contract, no-subsidy discounts: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?catgroup=Individual&WT.z_shop_plansLP=individual

Yes, that's a $20 discount per month for a talk/text/data plan. However, T-Mobile's cheapest talk/text/data plan seems $10 more expensive ($80 with contract, $60 without contract) compared to other carriers (e.g. Sprint's $70/mo with contract).

What I like about an unsubsidized Nexus One is the option to only buy a calling plan and just use Wi-fi for the other functions (like an iPod Touch). Subsidized smartphones require you to have a $30 per month data plan, but the Nexus One would allow me to buy data only when I need it, right?

You don't know just HOW weird it was until you've seen/heard the video/song that Apple played at the press conference as Steve took the stage:

• The iPhone Antenna Song

If you don't want to click a YouTube link, it's a cringe-worthy song by a self-described "huge, huge Apple fan". The Engadget live blog commented on how weird that moment was ("Oh my." "Wow."), but you really need to see and hear it to get the full brain-shrinking experience.

• "Apple engineers were aware of the risks associated with the new antenna design as early as a year ago, but Chief Executive Steve Jobs liked the design so much that Apple went ahead with its development, said another person familiar with the matter."

So I guess both Bloomberg and the WSJ have anonymous sources who are full of shit.

TFA linked to in the summary (I know, nobody reads it) explains it better than that snarky blog post:

• "The iPhone scored high, in part because it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we've seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller. But Apple needs to come up with a permanent--and free--fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4." (emphasis added)

ATi's numbering has been pretty easy to follow lately.

I agree, but the key word is lately. I despised product names like Radeon X600 (based on Radeon 9600) and Radeon 9200 (based on Radeon 8500).

The first number is the series, this tells you the basics in terms of features, process, and so on. 5 series are DX11 40nm parts, 4 series are DX 10.1 40nm parts, etc.

Still mostly true. My heart broke a little when I read about Mobility Radeon HD 5165/5145, which are DX 10.1 parts.

Nvidia GPU, Flash 10.1. That's why it didn't suck.

ATI GPUs are unsupported right now, Intel GPUs never will be, for Flash 10.1 acceleration.

I think your info might be outdated. In early betas, recent NVIDIA GPUs had the best support, but support for ATI and Intel GPUs were added and improved with every beta and release candidate.

The final version of Flash 10.1 (for Windows) supports hardware acceleration for ATI Radeon HD 3000, 4000, and 5000 series.. It also supports Intel GMA 4000 series (e.g. G45 chipset), HD Graphics, and GMA 500.

Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/systemreqs/#video

This claim is more than a year and a half out-of-date. Before September 2008, cheaper "netbook pricing" for Windows XP Home limited the screen size to 10.2", hard drive to 80GB, RAM to 1GB, and CPU to single-core. In September 2008, MS updated the screen limit ot 14.1" and hard drive to 160GB.

• Microsoft eases restrictions on the use of Windows XP Home for netbooks

Besides, Windows 7 Starter has gradually replaced Windows XP Home as the most popular pre-loaded netbook OS. Also, as another replier mentioned, Intel sets hardware limits for Atom netbooks, probably because they don't want to cannibalize sales of higher margin Core-based processors.

If you include Sprint in "the market," then the price of text messages (when you have a data plan) is not "fixed." Sprint's $30 data plan (which does seem to be price-fixed) includes unlimited text messages. Too bad they don't have the "coolest" phones right now.

I can't wait to see this shit posted again (and modded up) in a few months!

If you plan to see the 3D IMAX version (seems worth it for this movie), make sure you know whether or not you're getting the huge 72-foot version or the "just a slightly bigger than normal" version (called "IMAX Digital"). Both versions cost extra, but many unwitting customers have been feeling ripped off by the smaller "IMAX Digital" version.

A local (to me) example: the Metreon in San Francisco is showing Avatar: An IMAX 3D Experience on its huge "real" IMAX screen. Just across the Bay Bridge, AMC Bay Street is showing Alice in Wonderland: An IMAX 3D Experience on its smaller "fake" IMAX screen. Note that AMC will sell you tickets online, but they don't clearly indicate which IMAX version is being used.

Actually, the poorly-written ESPN article says 1 of 7 "A" samples tested positive using a different testing method from the "B" samples:

• July 20: Stage 17, a mountain stage finishing in Morzine: This was Landis' comeback stage in which he left the peloton behind with a solo breakaway. He made up 8 minutes and scrambled back into second place overall, 30 seconds behind Pereiro.
  USADA: Landis' "A" and "B" samples exceeded the allowable 4-to-1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio and showed the presence of synthetic testosterone.

Also, as this article explains, different tests are used for the "A" and "B" samples. The "A" tests are just a "rough" test that measures the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio) to see if it's abnormal enough to trigger the more stringent "B" test (which actually measures for synthetic testosterone). A "normal" T/E ratio is 1-to-1, but anything below 4-to-1 is declared "negative," so a steroid user can pass the "A" test as long as they don't overdo it.

During the initial Tour de France testing, only 1 "B" sample was tested at all because only 1 "A" sample tested positive (triggering the "B" test). All of the "B" samples were tested later because the USADA requested it for the trial.

Since no one who "knows" these products is giving good answers...

By "free" do you mean free drivers as well as OS? If you're okay with proprietary drivers, then Phoronix's articles on ION/Atom seem to show that they work well (by Linux standards) with Ubuntu and NVIDIA's proprietary drivers. 3D acceleration and video acceleration (VDPAU) both seem to work.

• NVIDIA ION Linux Performance (June 09, 2009)
• Using NVIDIA's VDPAU On Mobile Platforms (January 06, 2010)