Apple TV

I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here, but overall, the announcements are a bit ho-hum for me.

Super thin laptop, ok, but I would have preferred a mini laptop, something smaller like the size of a portable DVD player.

Movie downloads, ok Netflix was already doing that.

Time Capsule, ok the Mac Mini re-branded as something else

Am I missing something here. Haven't seen the entire keynote yet, but nothing really jumps out and says "Dang! I have to have that!"

Walter Biscardi, Jr. www.biscardicreative.com

Watch a review of Apple TV

I came across a very interesting article posted to Techmeme this morning. In essence the article is a summation of a report done by Forrester Research regarding the fate of paid videeo downloads. Although from the perspective of content creators the conclusions of the study have modest impact this study does draw interesting conclusions as to what ultimately could be the fate of for-pay movie download sites, and by extension, the looming battle between DVR, streaming content and proprietary download sites.

As Chi-Ho Lee noted on the Final Cut Pro forum today, Quicktime 7.1.6 has been released in anticipation of Final Cut Studio 2 and you can now read timecode in the Quicktime Player. Wow! Finally! Not sure why it took so long, but here's the proof.

If you click on the running time you now get a drop down box which gives you three choices of the Standard Running Time, Timecode and Frame Number.

Hacking was a term originally coined at MIT to descrive such classic pranks as emptying the deans office and reassembling it -- complete with rug -- in the middle of the frozen Charles River. (That illegal software thing is more properly called "cracking.") Hacking Apple TV is an entirely legal activity that makes it truly useful, starting with a bigger hard drive -- child's play for anyone reading this.

When I first saw the iPhone previewed by Steve Jobs during his keynote at last January's Macworld Expo, I had a sneaking suspicion that I had seen that interface before. In fact, I told Tim Wilson, "Man, that interface looks just like the one that is over at the TED conferences..." that I had sent Tim a link to the summer before.

CNN reports that Apple has started charging credit cards for the shipment of Apple TVs. They continue, "Analysts say it's likely to sell well initially." Wow. You think so? The same analysts believe that Apple has taken pre-orders for more than 100,000 units, and, well, since I read it on the internet, it must be true.

One of the favorite games of Mac Kremlinologists is looking under the hood of new releases to find "hidden" text strings for hints of what's coming. Monday's release of QuickTime 7.1 hints at a whopper: Apple TV could be doubling as a game hub.