I guess that everyone within the Mac community is quite excited with the upgraded Mac models. This is quite natural as the new models improve on already very competitive machines. It will be harder than ever to try to argue that Macs are more expensive than PCs.
However, I am still a little disappointed. I wanted Apple to release a new version of FrontRow in time for the holiday season to better compete with Windows Media Centre. I guess that will not happen this year. It is becoming clear that the September 12 event will be centered around the iPod and the launch of a new online video purchase/rental service. So, this year will not see the launch of a PVR from Apple, built around the Mac mini.
I guess that I shouldn’t be too surprised. There are still many competing standards for delivering high definition to the home. However, if I were Apple I would probably focus on delivering a great experience to cable customers, at least in the U.S. The problem is that Cablecard 2.0, is apparently not ready for prime time.
I hope that the new version of Front Row, to be included in Leopard, as Steve Jobs indicated during it’s WWDC keynote will include PVR functionality, otherwise I would be really disappointed. In the meantime I still expect that during the September 12 event there will be some kind of enhanced Airport express with video capabilities that will help bring the Mac closer to the living room television.