Comments on: Someone Check Steve Job’s Pipe, I Don’t Think That’s Tobacco He’s Smoking in There

By: houston condos

houston condos — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:10:47 +0000

I disagree with this post but hey, everyones entitled to their own opinion

By: rjschwarz

rjschwarz — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:47:00 +0000

The world is ready for a proper media pc that can run the home television setup. The MacMini’s got pretty much everything you need except HiDef outputs. DVD, USB2 to allow for ElGato TiVo type television and a snazzy interface that allows them all to work.

iTV has the HiDef outputs the MacMini is missing. The streaming of crappy quality video can be ignored. A proper mix of the two would create a beast people would buy.

By: darth

darth — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:17:00 +0000

The problems with the little $300 dongle are:

1. It’s not even out yet.

Hmmm..Thomas, you didn’t seem quite so skeptical about the “Its not even out yet” approach when Microsoft used it in November 2005 when promsing HD CableCard support “in a year”:

http://thomashawk.com/2005/11/hot-donkey-premium-cablecard-hdtv-in.html

BTW, keep those “lemmings” comments coming. Its nice to know MS supporters can be just as “smug” as Apple supporters.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:03:00 +0000

Missing the long term inevitable trend here. Owned digitial content will inevitably move to the computer (not for everyone, but for the mainstream). That transition is happening with music today and will happen with video someday. Processing power, bandwidth and storage capacities aren't going to stop growing.

Not so long ago, my fantasy item to own was a huge CD jukebox. Now that looks soooo 20th century. I have TWO digital copies of all my music (computer & ipod).

Personally I don't think that bandwidth and storage capacities are quite there yet. But they WILL be and they'll just be part of the iTunes ecosystem.

None of this is new and yet, after the apple announcement, I really started thinking of all kinds of reasons I'd like my DVD library to be on my hard drive. The big barrier I see, actually, is the studios and DRM. Will we be able to bookmark and clip our favorite pieces--or will it be the DVD model that says we gotta wade through all their splash screen bullshit every time the DVD locks up and we have to restart.

The future is content delivered over the net and stored on your computer. Even if the future isn't quite here yet.

By: Kim Roberts

Kim Roberts — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 19:15:00 +0000

Boywonder -

'...steal our sales'? WTF are you on about? Are you smoking crack or what?

Ever heard of a free market economy? That's where anyone can sell anything (within the bounds of the law) to anyone at any price they like.

'...steal our sales' - idiot.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:42:00 +0000

where do you see the dual cable card HDTV in the upcoming version of Vista?

i havent seen a promise that it will be in Vista!?!??!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:12:00 +0000

Forget videos – it will be worth the $299.00 just to be able to disply iTunes on your TV monitor – a 42″ jukebox display in your livingroom

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:50:00 +0000

"When you sit down and listen to something on CD vs. mp3 at 128 there is little perceptible difference."

This is so off base I can't leave it alone. To say that a 128bit AAC or MP3 file approaches even the relatively low res red book audio is like saying:

a) Boones Farm wine tastes about the same as Opus One because the alcohol content is comparable, or

b) McDonald's tastes comparable to Chez Panisse because the calorie content of a meal are about the same, or

c) a Ford Mustang is about as good a car as, say, an M3 because they both have four wheels and their engine sizes are similar.

I'll grant you, if you use an iPod with crappy ear buds to listen to your music, then the difference is not great--like if you drive on a dirt road with your car normally, you won't notice much of a difference in car quality. But the issue is your playback device. If you are into music and willing to spend what many people are spending on plasmas and associated gear, you can create a system for audio which will clearly show the difference in encoding quality--on my home system, I can't even listen to 128 bit audio files they sound so crappy, yet some (not all by a long shot) CDs can sound incredible. Quality does still matter; the problem is, very few people/companies know how to do quality any more (Apple included...).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:50:00 +0000

You don’t have to buy any movies from Apple to justify owining an iTV. I already have quite a few movies in my iTunes that I would like to play on my TV without having to attach my computer and navigate using my keyboard. You can still record progrmming from your cable or sattelite provider or from DVDs you buy using eyeTV which is another good product. You can also bring your home movies to iTunes. Then iTV will a wounderful way to display this stuff on your tv. The other poster was right, you don’t have to buy anything from iTunes store to justify using an iPod.
I think Hawk’s wrong with his assessment of iTV. His number one reason – that iTV is not out yet – is a little silly. Of course it’s not out yet. Neither has Vista for the past three years, but that’s not reason not to buy a product when it becomes available. As for HDTV, how many channels are available anyway? And then again, why buy DVDs when Blu-ray is just around a corner? If you think iTV is meant to replace renting DVDs you are missing the point. It’s for accessing the media on your computer from your living room TV. For that it’s perfect.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 07:49:00 +0000