iPod - SOLD

I sold my iPod, its Belkin case, and a pair of half-working headphones for $200. I paid $250 for the iPod last year, and $60 for the accessories; not a bad return. It's enough to pay for a new iPhone, that's what's important!

Digital TV and Streaming Video

I just received the digital tuner I ordered from The Signal Group via FedEx yesterday; the saga of the whole out-of-stock/charged-before-shipping debacle ended with me getting a refund of my $30 and still getting the device, so I guess all's well that ends well. I assume the company still gets to keep the "coupon money" from the government, so I'm sure they hardly care about one unit getting sent to me "for free". I reported them to Consumer Reports anyway and disputed their charge through PayPal, so there's some black marks on them regardless.

So, after all that... digital signal is AWESOME. I think I may have just extended the life of my TV for a much, much longer time. The picture really looks fabulous on my eight year old Panasonic tube. I know it's not a high def screen, but the signal clarity is VASTLY, vastly better than what I get on cable. So I guess the bottom line is that I will continue to let HDTV prices fall, wait until the PS3 is even cheaper, and also wait until FiOS arrives in my area to even consider joining the high def masses. And I still have a laptop connected to my TV to watch streaming Netflix or online videos with, so I don't need a Roku or Xbox yet either. I know most laptops don't come with an S-Video out, but I have to say that that was the best damn thing about the HP/Compaq laptop I bought in 2004; I just plug that right into the TV S-Video IN, and then plug a Y shaped component audio cable in the earphone jack, and bam, I got Internetz on my teeveez. It's kind of stupid that PC/video card makers don't make it easier for people to do this.

Speaking of streaming video: it looks like forces continue to align in the wake of E3. Netflix is still basically in the same boat, but they've now made their deal with the Microsoft devil to deliver content to Xbox. It's a good deal for both of them, but they keep missing the point about actually having CONTENT. Amazon gets that content is important, and they're now streaming through an on demand service in addition to their Unbox/TiVo thing. Additionally, they've made a deal with Sony for tying in with WiFi Bravia TVs (whaa???). I'm honestly not sure how much time TiVo has left; they continue to become more and more redundant and never figured out the all-important content is king concept.

Right now Sony and Amazon are looking like big winners. Sony's deals to eliminate set top boxes through direct hardware changes in their TVs is going to be a high barrier to entry. Amazon's making a bunch of good deals and understands that content is important - the same way that Apple does - but they aren't tying everything to a whole proprietary system like iTunes. At least everyone seems to have gotten the hint about DRM being useless. Microsoft, TiVo, and Netflix are starting to look like also-rans, and Apple is still a really unknown quantity. If Apple gets going on the whole iScreen thing, they could lock everything up all at once; and with WiFi Bravias out there, they don't have a lot of time to lose.

Maybe we'll see a big shakeup by about 2010. The fallout of the DTV transition will be interesting to watch, as the consumer reactions to that will be key to the future actions of all these players. Will everyone not enabled for DTV move to cable? Or will they buy up a lot of HDTVs? Or use their coupons to buy cheap boxes for their antennas? Or are the markets already saturated to the point that no one will really care or notice and nothing will really change at all...?