This picture will be in a museum some day and we'll all laugh at how clunky it is. And for how big it is, why only 60 gigs? Why even include the fricking DVD player at all given how much bulk it adds? Presumably I've got enough digital stuff to watch on the hard drive that I don't need to cart around a whole DVD player (oh wait, it's only 60 gigs...maybe not). It would make a lot more sense to USB-enable a normal DVR with more storage, then sell 8/16 gig USB keys that integrate with a much more streamlined device.

Good article. Would like to Digg it but am having a hard time finding the button.

This stupid format war wouldn't be a war if MSFT had put the HD-DVD in the Xbox in the first place. Late '08? We'll all be in hovercars by then.

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_070919.html

the survey was conducted in June. 3 months is a long time in this format battle. Not least because HD-DVD standalone players were $299 at the time of the survey whereas they are now $234, or $199 if you're willing to buy an open-box special.

http://www.pricescan.com/electronics/items/item528098.asp

Anyone who has studied price elasticity on consumer products would acknowledge that the results of this survey are out of date. Once Christmas season comes and $199 is the regular price tag on HD-DVD's, we'll see a lot of momentum there.

Exciting times ahead for Akamai. I don't see how HD VoD is going to work without leveraging some level of peer-to-peer bandwidth sharing in regional sub-nets.

Monster Cable has found a lucrative niche in depriving nouveau riche technophobes of their money.

Historically Blu-ray has WAY outrented HD-DVD. But that shouldn't be surprising since every PS3 is also a Blu-Ray player. Now that HD-DVD players are $239 vs. $350 for Blu-Ray players, it's anyone's guess who will emerge as the winner.

Funny, another analyst just came out and said the opposite.
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10813.cfm

While I don't completely agree with his assumptions, the Blu-Ray format still has representation in nearly 80% of the movie studio market share. So from a supply side there are still elements favoring Blu-Ray. On the demand side, I think cheap HD-DVD players ($100+ cheaper than Blu-Ray) are nothing to sneeze at. I broke down the market share and wrote some add'l commentary here: http://mediatrending.com/2007/08/28/blu-ray-still-the-predicted-winner/

Great! But why only Gmail? Most of the address book import solutions (Octazen, TrueSwitch, Improsys) let you bring in AOL, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail contacts, which constitute the majority of the market.

gossip and rumors!