Mac Mini: The Television will not be Revolutionized.
Today everyone is abuzz about the new iPod Hi-fi. But perhaps the more interesting part of Steve Jobs' product announcement was the new Intel-powered Mac Mini, which now has the power to live up to its obvious promise as an entertainment server.
The premium Mini ($799) now comes with a dual core processor, and with DVI output, and a Superdrive, it could conceivably act as a DVR and media hub. Unfortunately, that's not what Steve Jobs has in mind.
The new Mac Mini now has a remote, and Front Row software, but no tuner card. And Front Row only works with Quicktime-compatible video files.
Steve Jobs wants you to buy all of your media from the iTunes Music Store (inevitably to soon be renamed as the iTunes Media Store). And while iTunes made its mark with "Rip. Mix. Burn." as its mantra, Apple's foray into video seems to be all about "Pay. Download. Watch."
Unlike CDs, DVDs are encrypted, so ripping them to your PC, at least in the US, is a murky legal manner. While it will be possible to do on a Mac Mini, I doubt that Apple will make it easy or intuitive, like ripping CDs in iTunes. No, the video experience will all be about pay to play. And that top->down approach to content is so 1999.
Peace.
posted by Ear This at Tuesday, February 28, 2006
2 Comments:
It seems like some forward thinking company would actually think forward and create a technology, with an interface, that people would be excited to use. From the consumer standpoint it makes a lot of sense,-- I want to be able to rip my dvds onto my computer. But it seems like it also makes sense from a business standpoint. If their product was that much more usable than their competitors, wouldn't they sell more.
But even as I type I realize that the profit is not so much about hardware. If they can control and regulate the purchase of software, they've generated another source of income from nothing.
And users like me, who just want to put a new hardrive in my computer with out having to buy an expensive external hardrive for back up would just like itunes to allow me to transfer all the files from my ipod back onto my computer.
The problem is that ripping DVDs is probably illegal in the US, due to the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). It's not that it's illegal to archive your copy, it's that you have to bypass the copy protection on the DVD in order to exercise your fair use rights. And bypassing copy protection is illegal.
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