As far as I can tell, the ASRock doesn't come with an operating system. That's what makes this a compelling package, it comes with Windows 7 home premium. So, it's an ATOM/ION nettop with a $110 OS for $329 so it's a media center right out of the box. With the upcoming flash update to allow acceleration on ION chipsets, this becomes a perfect media center.

Hell, you could add a USB TV tuner and get an instant DVR without subscription fees. Once someone releases an updated USB cablecard tuner, this becomes a very compelling alternative to Tivo.

Whenever I decide to use a cloud service, I ask the following questions before I begin:

1) Can I access the data offline
2) Can I archive that online data so it can be used if the could goes poof
3) Can that data archive be used by another piece of software not made by the cloud service in question.

If I don't get all yeses, I don't use that service for anything I would be upset about losing.

"Of course price and HDMI auto capabilities"

I think you mean audio unless there's some new car extension of HDMI that I'm not aware of.

I think the the fact that there isn't that much 3rd party hardware out there also makes such a thing not so compelling to people.

I really want a Tivo, I do, but they really need to update their hardware.

$299 for a 160gb DVR or $599 for a 1tb DVR? Give me a break, most people don't even spend $500 on a TV nowadays.

160gb is a joke now. I have a 133 HD stations. 20hours of HD capacity just isn't enough anymore. Sure you can install your own drive (and void the warranty on your brand new device) or pay yet another $140 to expand the storage externally but the base storage is 2 years out of date. Why would I care at all about the more advanced program management features of Tivo if all I can do is record 5 movies and 10 tv episodes?

Then there's the Tivo XL where they somehow think a THX label and a 1tb hard drive is worth a $300 premium over the base model (despite the fact that the price difference between a 160gb drive and a 1tb drive is under $100 now).

And this is the LEADER in the marketplace who just happens to be sue happy to anyone else who even thinks about making a DVR. Is it any wonder why cablecard hasn't caught on? The hardware market is stagnant and it's not going to get any better.

Zune 80 under Vista and zero issues. Firmware update went without a hitch and the Zune 4.0 software sycs perfectly with it. In fact I've been syncing more often than I used to since the smartdj makes it easier to find new music. This is using wireless syncing, I rarely attach the Zune to my PC.

Unfortunately for Sony, they lost me. Too late.

I wanted a blu-ray player badly last year. I was prepared to pay a premium over a standard blu-ray player for a PS3, but I wasn't prepared to spend $400 on something that would mostly be playing movies and a few scattered game titles thrown in. Basically, I placed the value of playing PS3 games at $100 on top of the price for playing movies.

Then fall of 2008 rolled around and you could get several good blu-ray standalone players for under $200 while the PS3 continued to sit at $400. I didn't want to wait any longer so I got a profile 2.0 player for under $200. So, my valuation of the PS3 has dropped considerably since I don't feel compelled to pick up one just for games.

So, that's where I feel Sony really fumbled on this one. It was imperative that they dropped the price to $300 before the sub $200 blu-ray player became a reality if they wanted blu-ray capability to count for anything in their marketing. Now, everyone who was willing to pay >$100 to play blu-ray pretty much has a player so the PS3 becomes just another game console. It's just fine in that role, but I feel Sony left a lot of money on the table by pricing the PS3 too high for casual gamers who mostly wanted to play movies.

Hardware wise, it's a great value at $300. However, I don't think there are many people left that don't have one or more roles that the PS3 fills (media streamer, blu-ray player, game platform) filled in one way or another.

So, like I said, $300 a year ago and I would have been all over it. $300 now is going to require some sort of bundle to get me interested. Perhaps around Christmas.

It's a nice idea, but pointless in practice. I'm sure 311's task list already stretches into the next decade (if they even had the money to address the items on it.) Having an easier way to report these things isn't going to help those problems.

Obviously, that's common sense to do on even the Upgrade install. The point is, the article flat out states that you have to wipe the drive clean and that's simply false. You do not have to reformat when you do a custom install and the installer WILL save your "Documents and Settings" or "User's" folder in windows.old (depending on if you are coming from Vista or XP).

You do know you can do a custom install without reformatting the hard drive right? It copies the contents of your profile and old windows installation to a windows.old folder. You don't lose a thing. You'll just have to reinstall applications and then copy all your documents and pictures out of the windows.old folder to your new profile. OH THE HORROR.

I suppose it makes better headlines to tell everyone that they have to backup everything or lose it completely when doing a custom install though.

Exactly. If I'm buying a blu-ray disc, it's because I want the best possible presentation of a movie available. Extra features are one thing because I can access them, but I really don't want to have space stolen (and price inflated) for a game that goes with a system that I may never own.

Not to mention that 95% of licensed movie games are pure shovelware.