Chris Schmidt

Also, what's the deal with the hideous squarish close-tab buttons on the OSX version?

This really looks like it was made by some third party - are we sure this was actually made by apple? (Oh wait... they forced coverflow into it, nevermind.)

I love the new features, but I HATE the interface.

Tabs on top makes sense logically, but no other app does is that way. Annoying as hell moving between apps and having tabs in different locations.

Again, the refresh button makes sense, but I do a lot of web development and I really liked having the stop/refresh button where it was.

I also don't like that the favorite button is permanently affixed to the url bar.

It seems like Safari is just trying to be like the new versions of FF and IE, rather than being the clean, quick, elegant, browser I've come to love.

At the very least, I really hope they return the ability to move things around and customize the interface. My FireFox install looks more Safari-like than Safari right now.

I've had one for about a year now. It's actually remarkably open already: shows up as a mass storage device, reads a variety of formats sans-conversion, and looks a hell of a lot nicer than the Kindle. The big news here is that it will now accept another DRM format. The Sony eBook store has always been a joke - buggy iTunes knock off with a skimpy selection and no Mac support. Maybe Borders will adopt the ePub format and we can get some competition.

There is nothing wrong with the AppleTV that a 5mb patch couldn't fix. Let me buy content with it and open it enough to add more QuickTime codecs.

My guess, however, is that they expected to roll out rentals shortly after releasing the ATV but something got held up. I fully expect to see an upgrade in the coming weeks.

iphone vs. Kindle is somewhat an Apple and oranges situation. The Kindle uses eink, which is nearly identical to reading off of a printed page (no LCD backlit eye-strain). The screen is also comparable to a paperback page in size, so reading is much more natural. Eink also allows for devices that can run for weeks without needing recharged.

I'm not a huge fan of the Kindle, it's annoying-as-hell DRM, or its 80s-style commodore casing, but mentioning video playback without comparing the benefits of the Kindle's big feature doesn't seem very informative.

It always amuses me to hear the anti-eBook people come out of the woodwork. Is a book about paper or words?

These people screamed when society decided to scribble oral tradition onto paper. They screamed when the printing press made important books available to the masses. They screamed when movable type allowed anything to be published quickly and easily. History has shown these people love tradition and their dead-tree fetish objects far more than they love literature or story telling.

Can anyone honestly imagine that we'll still be reading from stacks of flattened trees glued together in 200 years?

I see eBooks more as a replacement for cheap paperbacks anyway - people will continue to buy nice hardcover versions of the books they really love for many many years to come.

I'm buying this baby the day it comes out.

I tried the "export to AppleTV" yesterday. Doubled the size of my file and took forever. I don't want to spend weeks converting every video I've collected over the years and commit to converting 50% of the files I download before I can watch them. The moment they get it to recognize shared folders, I'm driving to the mall and buying one.

Wow. XBMC is great for the kiddies and all, but a silent running OSX/unix system with HDMI, optical audio, wifi, IR, and a usb port has a hell of a lot more potential in my book.

Your points show exactly why the Zune is a failure. If the wifi sucks why not get an iPod without it? If the Zune doesn't support more video formats, then what makes it better (other than that gorgeous battery draining screen)?. Why can't everybody just give them away for free? Really, these categories should be where the Zune blows away the iPod, not where we defend "well, the iPod doesn't do it either". There is no excuse for the Zune.

I don't understand how Starbucks thinks it can get away with charging for wifi when every other coffee shop in the US gives it away for free (and has cheaper coffee). It's almost as bad as hotels - Holiday Inn Express can afford to give it to you for free, but a room that costs 3 times as much wants to charge you $30 a day. They're 5 years behind the rest of us and digging in their heels. Don't support tmobile or the businesses they partner with, 3 months free or not.