Well, I would contend (to #5) that the Internet Channel is much more useful than the News Channel -- people can program Wii-tailored Flash games that are worth playing, at least in theory; I also like having an extra place to check my mail if my wife is using the computer. The News Channel is more like the Weather Channel, though IMHO even less useful -- at least the Weather Channel can give you reasonably recent temperature right from your main Channels interface; News is pure gimmick, giving me a neat toy (the globe) on top of something I could have already gotten by launching the Internet Channel and pointing it to CNN...

Mike: so I can record, say, 3-4 HD channels on my Sage/Myth/whatever homebrew DVR, out of the 30-80 my cable provider will be carrying by the end of the year? Wow, thanks. That totally negates MI's comment about the anti-competitive nature of the operating system. As the kids say: not!


Ben: we, the ~10% of the population who actually know what DRM is and care about it, end up getting stiffed by the "wisdom of crowds" because the other 90% of the populace will remain blissfully ignorant of that ICT label. People will have fewer choices, but not even be aware of it. People will just bitch that their movies don't look good and not know why, or buy e.g. a SACD, try to play it on their (SPDIF-connected) home theater, and have it magically not work.


And the worst part is, like *every DRM scheme ever concoted*, this only affects legitimate consumers -- the existence of DRM so clever that nobody can find a hacker who is cleverer would practically be a violation of a laws of the physical universe. No matter what the protection industry does, somebody will break it, and once the cracked content is loose, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle. So once again, people who buy and pay for the content are restricted in how they use it (perhaps without even knowing how or why), while pirates don't even feel the speed bump as they go cruising along.