Sooped up mini (mac video player) (Score 2, Interesting)

This has really got to be it. vPod is of limited use and probably doesn't warrant an unveiling at it's own event. The Airport Express is a great little unit and I have two, one for travel and one for home wifi hooked up to the stereo. But it is a clunky solution: I have to run upstairs to change my music, or buy one of those remote controls to plug into it.

What i have really been hankering for is a mac mini that is more suited to DVR and music playback (without having to buy all the usb hubs and elgato and digital audio out pieces). Honestly, I'd settle for just the music playback piece right now and hook it up to my plasma as the display. I've been looking at those Sonos devices which seem pretty sweet, but I figured their price is high enough that I'd give apple to the end of the year to get their product finished up. Video is the next logical leap, but I fear that will be a long road to reach the idealistic visions of all movies and shows immediately available, both for technical reason and because the movie studios are probably even more paranoid now that they've seen the music businesses travails.

TIVO's stock price has continued to slide, maybe it's time for apple to make a purchase! Or strategic investment...

On a side note, it's funny to see how this year's box office receipts in the US are down from last year and there's all this handwringing about how the movies pretty much just sucked, not because of pirating/downloaders. Seems like both the movie and music industries are going through a bit of a creative slump and their revenues are seeing a hit because of it. The RIAA targets illegal downloads (which is probably a small but actual part of the decline) while not addressing the more structural problems in the industry. The MPAA on the other hand is just at the beginning of getting their arms around digital distribution and all the issues of DRM that inevitably follow. Hopefully they'll be a bit more proactive on providing customers with an alternative!