Who knew that the new movies in the iTMS would *really* be yesterday%26#039 big news?

Yesterday morning, I posted aprediction that proved incorrect. A le didn't a ounce movies in the iTMS to be the big a ouncement of the day.Neverthele , I feel that the Academy Award Nominated Short Films a earing in the iTMS yesterday actually ended upbeing the biggest news of the day. As I noted yesterday, it's the first a earance of non-Pixar/Di ey shorts in themusic store, so it paves the way for more great content (although all of the films are presented by the SundanceCha el, so it is kind of like another TV network releasing shows on the iTMS).

As for all the othera ouncements from yesterday, I can sum them all u mdash;explain why they are all dud a ouncement mdash;in onesimple word: overpriced. $1.99 for the new short films in the iTMS is a bargain. Everything else was overpriced.Overpriced like the $99 leather iPod cases that don't actually provide the user with any acce to the controls of theiPod. Overpriced like the $349 boombox that still needs the addition of a $300 iPod to make it as cool as it can be(and even then it is not that cool; I mean "Hi-Fi" is a 70s term, and the boombox is an 80s device; how is thisexpe ive iPod peripheral indicative of A le's i ovation?). Overpriced like the $599 and $799 Mac minis. One of thegreat things about A le's Mac mini line should be its affordability, and yesterday, we saw little value added to theMac mini line and yet the most expe ive one of them ru just fourfive hundred le than the fasteriMac line that lacks the need to provide your own screen, keyboard, and mouse. I mean, what was added? The expectedshift from PowerPC to Intel proce ors? The fastest they offer in the mini is still only 1.67Ghz. The A le Remote? Ifit's so much simpler than all the other remotes I own, then how come it alone is priced at more than any of thosefull-featured remotes? The new Bonjour-savvy Front Row? Well, that is cool, but all Macs with Front Row will be gettingthis feature, so I don't think it warrants the attention, e ecially when nothing really i ovative has been done withthe new mini to make it an effective media center. Sure it can work with an HDTV, but where's thebuilt-in PVR? I mean, if you want to pipe your HDTV digital cable co ection into the mini you are still going to needto end a couple of hundred dollars on something like an EyeTV. I don't see any HDMI / DVI in on that new expe ivemini.

I, like Jan, am under-whelmed by yesterday'sa ouncements, and I agree with Damien that A le clearly dro ed the ball andour disa ointment is not the creation of our fanaticism, but rather A le's failure to live up to the i ovation we'vecome to expect from them.