Norse Son said:Right now I pay about $95 bucks a month for Time Warner basic cable & hi-speed internet. And it royally sucks to be paying about half that for the tv part, when most of the stuff is pure crap. The (US) FCC & Congress are going to start talking about ala carte pricing for cable & sat. tv, which is fine by me, because I avoid the "Networks" (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, WB...) with their "retard-reality" love-fest [I only tune in during the NFL season]...
However, the ala carte solution wouldn't work: it is for picking the channels you want, not just the programs you want. And in the past couple years even the basic cable channels I watch "dipped their snouts in the reality trough"... History, Discovery, Learning, Bravo, Sci-Fi, etc. - they are just reeking with that crap.
Here are my suggestions to Apple:
• Widen the choices beyond just the Networks (and BSG, Monk, etc.).
• Have a fee of, say, $15.00 per month for the present bit-rate on a subscription model (streaming video - all you can watch)... And $2.50-3.00 (more for feature-length & miniseries) per download for a higher bit-rate that you "own" (your computer and iPod/vPod, and a security-backup copy allowed on DVD-R?
• At MWSF '06 intro the following:
•• vPod - basically an "iPod with video", but featuring S-ATA 80/100/120GB drive-choices, 802.11g or (if ratified) 802.11n WiFi, and a 5.5" screen... It would be about the size of a 150-200 page paperback novel...
•• iMac DVR 20" or 23" - wishful thinking - with 2.1GHz Yonah dual-core and Front Row 2.0 (with TV/DVR functions), plus what was in the recent upgrade...
•• "BIG mini" - not a replacement, but an expansion of the mini-line (I think the present mini will get single-core Yonah in May-timeframe). It would have much the same specs as Yonah iMac, sans display & iSight...
•• iLife '06 with Front Row 2.0 (DVR functions) and Bluetooth remote...
•• .Mac makeover to include a "premium-level", where members who pay, say, $150.00 per year would have access to a "Global iTMS", wherein they can preview and pay/download music, tv shows, music videos, animated shorts, short films, etc. from ANY of the International versions of iTMS, regardless of country... Apple would handle the currency exchange for their "premium" members...
If Apple did that - especially the last part, with .Mac Premium and a Global iTMS - then I'd drop my basic cable and just keep the high speed internet. Then I could download just the shows I wanted to watch, and no more ads or shows about whiny & needy reality tv 'tards...
second that
...and come out with a 480x360 or 640x480 version of the iPod current 2006 ( larger screen ? ), so that when people want to DL decent rez movies they can watch them on the big screen...
