on the color white – well no, but was anyone using white. remember those ugly gray mp3 players from rio. i have one sitting right here, and it reminds me how far we have come, and mostly because someone figured that white was cool if done right.

i agree. apple envy is good. i think it worked for mobiles which are better looking now than they were about two years ago. same is for digital devices. this is a good thing to “take” from apple. I wasn’t being critical on the “inspiration” part.

http://innerdaemon.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/sony-igear/

PS John – No, Apple does not own white, but its interesting that white was not around before theiPod, isn’t it? Business Week sums it nicely here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/specialreports/20070108theappleec.htm?chan=top+newstop+news+index_top+story

I agree with you on the BitTorrent part, and i think that is an interesting way to look at the world. I think Apple is going to be incorporating some sort of swarmcasting technology in their future OSes, as it becomes the preferred way to get video. anyway lets see how it all shakes out.

I’ve got a ($200) Netgear eva700 device, which is more or less the same as the HD device announced today, without the HDMI interface (it’s got YUV outputs and does 1080i no problem, so I don’t mind not having a DRM-crippled digital interface off the back). Under the hood, it’s a Syabas-based unit.

The thing works as advertised, playing just about any sort of video that you throw at it. I use the open-source Wizd media server, because I can customize the interface to my liking. Other people use twonkyvision, or the Media Connect features of WMP 11.

But, I spend much more time watching content on the device than I do fiddling with the interface, so the video compatibility and good quality output is much more important to me than the marginal interface.

Apple is almost certainly going to produce a unit with a better interface than this one, though it seems doubtful that Apple will support as many video codecs (MPEG 1-4, ACC, WMV, and essentially every form of DivX or XviD I’ve thrown at it). If airTunes/iPod is any indication, their video device will be connected to iTunes more tightly than it should be — and I seriously doubt it’ll support WMV.

The interesting thing about this announcement (to me, anyway) isn’t the hardware itself, it’s the arrangement with BitTorrent, Inc. Much (most?) of the content that’s played on these sorts of devices today is coming from the BitTorrent network. Tighter integration with the leading technique of video distribution is a very good thing — especially considering that BT has got all of those agreements with the movie studios, and keeps saying that they’re going to release a legitimate pay-to-download service any day now.