Lower power consumption (so it can stay always on) and more "home utility functions" like:

- alarm clock, wake to music or internet video channel

- e-mail client, take system from "standby" to "on" when message received from contacts on list

- similarly: twitter, IM, Skype

- VoIP integration, answering machine/voice mail/on-screen caller-ID notices

- security camera system, web cam server

Yeah, this is all more in home-PC territory - do it on an eeeBox running Linux tonight, but packaging this functionality so it's game-console-easy-to-use would be nice for those of us who are too busy to configure all this stuff for ourselves.

The Cell has a lame old Power PC core that the web browser is running on - might be a little better if they had more than 256Meg of RAM (seriously guys, BluRay, BlueTooth, Ethernet+802.11 and you only spend $4 on RAM?!?)

Yeah, I'd like to see the Cell step up to a core that's at least competitive with a 1.6GHz ATOM.

Amen.

Lower cost version with no internal BluRay drive - can either plug in optional BluRay drive via USB (3?) port, or just use downloaded games. Diluted market penetration numbers would probably scare the 3rd party game vendors since most download titles are from Sony in-house developers (why develop this for PS3 if there are only X million PS3s out there, and y% of them don't even have a slot on them for this disc!)

I've read that "discless Netflix" is "coming soon."

At least Pandora is finally "here now."

IR port - I definitely see a good cost/benefit trade here, though they also have an opportunity to offer software support for a USB - IR plug-in device. Either way, integration with most universal remotes would be very good.

While you're selling a $30 IR dongle, why not allow it to transmit audio to wireless headphones? I've been pretty pleased with the performance of the (cheap) IR wireless headphones I owned in years past.

I have an original (60GB) model PS3, you can toast bread on its vents...

File sharing support is already there with DLNA - yea you need to setup a DLNA server on your windows PC, but that's probably better than trying to navigate a SAMBA login on the PS3 side anyway.

So, you want a PS3 that costs $700?

Seriously, I think it's time for a market split like that, the low cost gaming rig and a premium version that walks the dog and washes the dishes. I certainly wouldn't mind having a MacMini "melded" into my PS3 box.

Keep the "Other OS" capability - seriously, how much could that have cost? Does this mean that "Other OS" will be dropped from the original PS3 console firmware updates in the near future "to save money".