I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the declining standards of journalism on engadget. First, there were biased reviews of anything iPhone. Next, more biased reviews of anything Microsoft. Finally, an unbiased review of Bill Gates leaving Microsoft (ok, so that one wasn't bad journalism, I just didn't agree with the "lay off the guy, he's old and philanthropic" approach to dealing with a megalomaniac who ignores competition law across the world).

ANYWAY, despite all this I never expected to see such an awful pun as that. Dead-ringer.... what, did your dad give you that one?

Eugh. You can kiss goodbye to my readership, for all the difference it'll make. Oh well, I like going out with a bang and I'm sure this'll create some petty flame-ridden responses for a few weeks until people realise I'm not actually reading their comments...

I agree. I think I used RealPlayer once before deciding that I'd rather ingest my own spleen than use any product created by those hellions again.

Am I the only one who thinks this looks cheap and nasty? The case looks like it's from a child's poundland toy!

Also, I'd prefer it if it came with a bespoke OS or a choice of OS rather than just Vista or nothing. Some of us are sticking to our guns that Vista was a mistake from the word "concept".

"I have to agree with you. Anything that represents less than double digits percent it's not big deal. What's Apple OS world market share these days? Last time I heard it was 3.2% or something."

You haven't looked at any OS share stats since the 90s?

It's split like this last I saw:

Microsoft: 80-90% (depending who you ask, of course)
Apple: 5-10% (again, depending who you ask)
Linux/Unix/BSD/etc.: 1-5% (once more, depending who you ask)

Stastics are usually fairly flaky, but I know for certain that whatever the stastics are, Microsoft are losing ground at the moment anyway. Losing Bill Gates, releasing Windows Vista and ceasing to support Windows XP are three major recent events that have catalysed a turnaround in consumer OS choice.

Kind of a moot point, I guess, but I thought I'd clarify.

Anyway - whoever said iTunes is a better market platform because it reaches a wider audience doesn't have a business degree... There's always more to take into account than market size. Also, compared to Netflix's current market size, the Xbox does have a huge market they can easily tap into.

Anyway, if you're going to use stastics, try comparing the number of people who watch iTunes TV to the number of people who rent films or download videos from XBLM. That comparison should give you a more accurate representation of the specific market we're looking at here - which is consumers who use an electronic product designed for a different purpose to also watch films / TV. I don't really care what the outcome of that study would be, because it's a moot point - and I'm sure the execs at MS and Netflix have done this kind of research anyway. They know what they're doing, and it's stupid to speculate unless you're a shareholder, in which case do your speculating at shareholders meetings where you can get your facts straight anyway.

First, that's not a very ergonomic keyboard - the keys are in parallel columns...

Second, if it's a QWERTY keyboard, the S should be where the P is and the P should be where my comment is.

Third, I bet they're hardly functional - and any true geeks here will know function should always be prioritised over form.

Yeah? Well the encryption code to the HDMI's servers is missing a vital piece of Apple-made (and therefore by nature obscure) software! Mind you, it could be because the vRAM is EPIC FAILing.

Ok, first off - depending on the sensitivity of the data, it most likely WAS encrypted and if it WASN'T then there's nothing to worry about because the data isn't sensitive.

Secondly, cracking a 128-bit encryption algorithm (which is the smallest bit size in use today), depending on the strength of the algorithm of course, varies from being accomplishable by only a handful of the very best minds in the world to damn near impossible. Anything higher than 128-bit (which of course is likely with sensitive information like this) and you have no hope whatsoever.

Luckily for you laymen, your banks use 256-bit (at least) encryption on their secure connections. In other words, if you think you could crack a 256-bit Public Key encryption algorithm then you'd already have done so and earned yourself millions through credit card fraud.

A year of work... please! In computer security, things are either now or never, you would not spend a year trying to break into something worth, I don't know, a few thousand on the black market to some over-keen amateur strategist; where you could earn millions breaking into a bank's unsecured wireless network with the root password on their server set to "s3cur3p4ssw0rd".

My point is that, as in physical burglary, computer crackers will always go for EASY targets that earn them the most per hour's work.

Oh, and to address the real concern - if another country got hold of this information, EVEN if they could break the encryption, it would be of little use to them. The US Army have probably already adjusted their deployment strategy in the situations that are outlined on the maps. Well, one'd hope they have anyway.

Don't you mean a wannabiimote?

@phanbouy:

Now, let's see some good clean military drilling!

People still remember that song?