It Could Never Last
Anyone (including myself) who ever thought I’d be able to stick to a daily schedule was not only sadly mistaken but also needs a reality check. History has shown that it’s never going to happen, so any attempt that I make at it is only a sad temporary outburst before sinking back into the murky depths of non-posting that consumes my soul. How’s that for dark?
Apple’s event today was pretty interesting, even if there’s nothing in there that calls out to me as a must get. I’ve all but decided that my next music/video player has to be widescreen, so it looks as if the Gigabeat V (the S is still 4:3, or rather 3:4), Vision: W (announced elsewhere in the world, but hopefully coming to the US), or the rumored widescreen iPod (6G in January, maybe?) is my list. With the vast majority of my DVDs in a widescreen aspect ratio, I don’t want to have the size of black bars that a 4:3 screen would require. The video store is a cool idea, but my “impulse buy” price for a file I can’t even burn to a DVD is probably $5-7, not $10-$13.
The iTV product is an interesting situation to me for this reason: for $300 I can get essentially the functionality of a Media Center Extender (minus the live TV capability which actually is kinda nice) and not have to have a computer running XP MCE. A middle alternative pricewise between the two would then be the new Tivo Series3 which can record in HD and still do the archiving to computer thing. If Tivo will add the ability to their software to then allow watching live TV, that would then be a possible option. However, then for the same price as that, if Apple would update the Mac Mini with an integrated HD tuner and CableCARD support (not likely at the current price point, but still) and add live TV streaming to the iTV, a Mac Mini + an iTV would allow for the ideal setup I want (device to record/playback shows that could easily archive them to infinite HD space + ability to stream live TV to my dad’s study) at a price I could convince my parents to go for ($800-1000). I guess we’ll see how well the stars align in the next few months…