Interesting article for its limitations but it misses what I think is the real trend - multi purpose devices.

On Black Friday I was all set to purchase some sort of consumer streaming machine when I stumbled across a Sony display at Walmart featuring a Blu-Ray player that also connected to the web via LAN and streamed video content for what I thought was a reasonable 99 dollars. After a little research back home I found a really good deal: a Sony 3D Blu-Ray player (BDP-S580) from Best Buy that also streams dozens of additional internet channels, some free (the 3 Stooges!) via both LAN and inboard Wi-Fi, with resolution up to 1080p, and plays 3D Blu-rays as well. The 109 dollar unit also included 2 USB ports for outboard content and a browser although it doesn't yet support flash. Hook up was a cinch even if Wi-Fi synching did take some time. It's stable however and I haven't had to redo anything in three months of operation including the occasional power outage.

I watch NetFlix and downloaded movie files on my living room TV almost every evening and it's just a much better experience over staring at a desktop PC or laptop which I'd done for years (cord cutter here). NetFlix looks beautiful by the way.

The easy to use device is a game changer for me (no doubt it passes the baby sitter test). I only wish I had it ten years ago.

- js.

...once it's rooted and open. Even then, these consume-er devices hold little interest (so far anyway - I used my iTouch for about a month). But if it's walled? Forget it.

- js.

I have 2TBs. I'm twice as arty.

Google is the modern equivalent of a huge, integrated television network, perhaps what in the past might have been a combined NBC/CBS.

It's pricey output, the things it spends its money on, from Google Maps to search to Google + to bandwidth are today's equivalent of tentpole programming like Ed Sullivan, Bonanza, The Tonight Show, Roots etc,. Its product of course, is viewers, us in other words, who are bundled and sold to advertisers in essentially the same fashion the TV networks did in the sixties.

Surely at this point in time this can't be up for debate or even news.

We "watch" Google all day long. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for moments. The fact that we interact a bit more with it doesn't alter the business equation or the reality of our relationship with the company.

- js.

He damn well better demand an investigation of News Corp. too. Only fair, O'Reilly.

i've noticed it depends on the definition of "features" and the newness of the movie. back catalog dvds have everything, but i'm not that into most of it like director's commentary and endless, behind the scenes self congratulatory fluff about how brilliant they all were to have been able to pull off this impossibly difficult film. i really do like the alternate language tracks, subtitles, audio options and chapters and these are almost always on the discs, even the new ones, while none of it is available in the stream, with the possible exception of english for the hearing impaired on a minority of content, which itself is a minority of catalog dvd titles. so it's discs for me from now on. then there's amazon prime, so much more than movies but $17/year cheaper than netfix's streaming only option.

It'll be full DVDs for me. Menus, x-tra features (RIPPABLE! - ahem) various languages & subs for the hearing impaired etc. Never streamed that much anyway. I'll stick to discs-by-mail, thanks.

Yes, and it's called WASTE. Came out in '03 and I've been "running" a decentralized mesh non-stop ever since.

lol. right.

me too! that and the oxygen-free sata cables i got from sandia labs keeps the bits pristine, the music minty fresh.