Blur-Ray and HD-DVD can use the same codecs. From Wikipedia:
Both of the new formats [Blu-Ray and HD-DVD] are backward compatible with DVDs and both employ the same video compression techniques: MPEG-2, Video Codec 1 (VC1) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
A good almanack could have provided the educational content of the $150 computer for $5 or less.
That's a good point... I'm sure all the people in the world working with poverty-stricken third-world nations have never thought about providing books!
Sarcasm aside, $5 books aren't known for being chock full of useful information, reliable information, or a wide variety of information. Also, once a book is printed, the content can't be changed, updated, or corrected.
The OLPC program is intended to provide an alternative to schoolbooks. Schoolbooks are expensive, heavy, and are quickly outdated. The OLPC program has a potentially better solution. The networking features can provide access to new information, local, regional, and world news. They also provide a means of communication between students and between students and teachers. All of these things can be very useful for an education in non-computer topics, but students who want to learn about computers will automatically have a computer in their hands to learn about programming, IT, and other computer related topics.
If you want to help solve world problems, bring good ideas to the table, not disparaging remarks.
But look at it this way, if Blu-Ray fails, your PS3 is still an incredible game machine. If HDDVD fails, your XBOX360 add-on is a useless piece of plastic.
But the question is, does the Blu-Ray make the PS3 an incredible game machine, or is it the other technologies (cell, etc.)? If the Blu-Ray isn't adding that much to the gaming experience, then it's just adding extra cost to the customer. Some people are saying that developers are already filling Blu-Ray discs for individual games, but I wonder if that's because they're just not compressing anything, or what the deal is... I haven't heard any complaints that the XB360 discs are filling too easily, though, so is the expense of Blu-Ray really worth it?
Also, I understand what you mean about the HD-DVD add-on for the XBox, but at least that $200 cost is optional. It's just for watching movies, so if you are worried about HD-DVD failing, you can not buy it at all. From a larger perspective of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, though, I feel comforted by the fact that HD-DVDs can be manufactured with a DVD side, so I could buy the HD-DVD discs now, even though I haven't moved up to a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, and whatever happens in the format war, I'd still have the DVD disc at least, so it's not a total loss. Of course, when I was browsing the HD-DVD titles at Target the other day, I didn't see any that made use of the hybrid DVD feature, so that may be a moot point anyway.
Obviously Microsoft is doing the same with HDDVD since they're one of the founders (and because Sony supports the other).
I believe Microsoft was not a founder or original member of the HD-DVD group at all, but that they aligned themselves with HD-DVD later on. I could be wrong, though.
Superior online service? Does it even have an online service?
Seriously, when you know a week before launch that you'll have to download an update for the console as soon as you buy it in order to use online features, that's not what I would call a superior online service.
I know TFA was about the percentage of broadband users, so the responses in most of the other posts are defending the US because of the population density factor. But the question I have is whether we're falling behind, not based on the percentage of broadband connections, but on the capacity of our broadband connections? Especially in regards to the price we pay for it?
I pay $40/month for my 4Mb/300Kb connection. My city owns a network that doesn't quite extend to my corner of town (I'm one block from the edge of the network). The ISPs on that network offer up to 10Mb Up/Down for slightly less, but what are prices and speeds in other countries in the world? I've heard numbers tossed around here on Slashdot that put these to shame, but I don't know how reliable those are. So what I want to know is how does the U.S. compare when it comes to our broadband speeds and prices (for residential users, particularly)?
I've got a feeling that even with a release date 2 days after, we'll still be able to walk out with Wiis while the PS3 kids are still sitting out on the sidewalk, waiting for that 2nd shipment...
Maybe the RIAA will invade guitar stores and bust 15 year-olds playing Green Day songs on guitars they can't afford. Then the store owners will get busted, too, since they make money of of an establishment where people come in and play popular music. (unlicensed!)
...you get a HUGE catalog of games, 1080p HD games (something the 360 will never have), and a DVD/blu-ray player for around $300 LESS than what's for sell in the market for stand-alone players...
Nevermind that the Toshiba HD-DVD player sells for $500... Sure the Blu-Ray players are more expensive, but it makes more sense to compare a product with a competing product than to compare it against itself. That said, the Sony BR player can be pre-ordered for $999... Why in the world would a player built into a game console cost half of a stand-alone player?? I think you have to ask yourself, what corners are they cutting on the BR in the PS3 to make it fit into a next-gen super-rad console at half the price of the stand-alone? Not to mention, they are cannibalizing their blue laser supplies for their own stand-alone player to get them into the PS3.
Also, when you say "technically a better technology", what makes it better? Higher density? Is that it? I happen to like the technology of HD-DVD that lets them put a DVD and an HD-DVD on opposite sides of the same disc. That makes me want to go out and buy HD-DVD content right now, because even if HD-DVD sinks, I can still play my discs on just about any DVD-compatible player. Also, Blu-Ray requires a lot of new equipment for the disc stampers, whereas HD-DVD discs can be mass produced with existing equipment, with a just few changes.
I don't think the issue is so much about how much support they have as it is about how much opposition they have:
HD-DVD support:
Canon Inc.
Digital Theater Systems
Hitachi Maxell, Ltd.
Kenwood Corporation
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd.
NEC Corporation
Onkyo Corporation
Paramount Home Entertainment
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
Teac Corporation
Toshiba Corporation
Universal Pictures
Warner Home Video Inc.
The Weinstein Company
Warner Bros. and the Warner Music Group are associated with both Blur-Ray (that was a typo, but I think I'll leave it) and HD-DVD, as are Paramount, New Line, HBO, Dreamworks, and several other studios. DVD didn't have opposition like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have with each other, making the future of either less certain than that of DVD. Also, as has been mentioned above, DVD was already quite successful before the PS2 came out. Another thing Blu-Ray has against it is HD-DVD's association (in the minds of potential customers) with DVD, which people already like now. People in general will have to have Blu-Ray explained to them, but HD-DVD can easily be interpreted by anyone off the street as high-definition DVD.
Excuse me, I'm off to 31 Flavors. My very life depends on it!
Actually, I remember seeing something on TV once (was it on Supersize Me?) that the founders of Baskin Robbins died young of heart disease... explain that one science!
...many in the Linux community do see Utah as the root of many problems within the technical world. Hatch's twisted understanding of technology, and the legislation it helps lead to, is one issue. Another is the whole SCO debacle.
Never mind that Utah's the state that brought us Word Perfect (I still know professors at BYU who are very anti-MS because of their own ties to WP), and Novell (and thus it now provides Suse Linux). Utah is involved with technology, and has provided some of the only serious competition in some of Microsoft's markets (obviously WP and NetWare got steamrolled, but at least they were out there). Sure there's jerks like Darl McBride at SCO, but that situation didn't happen because it was in Utah, it happened because he's a jerk, and they have those all over.
Also, Orrin Hatch may cause techno-trouble on Capitol Hill, but he's a US Senator, not a state senator, so his involvement in legislation is mostly at the nation-wide level, not specific to Utah. He gets voted in by Utah voters, but those who vote for him are most likely not aware of his stances on technology/copyright issues, and base their votes on other issues.
It will kill the advertising INDUSTRY. I say INDUSTRY in all capitols to hopefully hammer home that advertising is a HUGE piece of the economy now.
Sure television commercials are big business, but it's not the only avenue for the advertising industry. In-game ads, in-store displays, product placement in TV shows and movies, roadside billboards, newspaper and magazine ads, and... oh yeah, I heard that the Internet has some advertising in it, I think....
Advertising isn't going away any time soon. It's taking different forms. If the advertisers can find better ways (less invasive, irritating, and without pulling us out of the suspended realities of our favorite TV shows) to draw our attention to their products, then all the better. It's just like how we always bring up that the RIAA/MPAA need to adapt to newer distribution models instead of fighting them. Advertisers need to adapt, too. As it is, there will always be people without DVRs, and there will always be situations where people want to see some types of commercials (e.g., Super Bowl). I'm not worried about the advertising industry.
is Genuine Windows Advantage badge. The scounts should keep a log of updating all patches M$ issues over a period of three months (at the rate of 50/week this is no small task). Should indulge in door-to-door anti-OSS campaign, so forth.
You can earn a new patch the 2nd Tuesday of every month!
I love my Harmony, but I think people need a good introduction to it, otherwise they don't understand it, because they think it's more complicated than it is. My dad came over, picked up the remote and turned off the TV, but not using the big "Off" button at the top... he went through the device menu, selected TV, then hit the soft button for power. Then he proudly proclaimed that it was a man's remote because women wouldn't be able to use it.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that you can do just about anything you want with one button press. Maybe someday I'll tell him all about the Activities buttons...
In the meantime, my mom just looks at the remote and shakes her head.
That would be a good point, but you still need the $300 - $400 XBox 360 to be able to use it (as far as I know it won't work with a PC, but I could be wrong?), and is that drive available yet? I'd say it's at best the same cost/benefit as a PS3, except that the drive is a bulky add-on to the XBox, and it can't be used for game content.
Maybe I shouldn't be disagreeing with someone who was supporting my original point, but I'm just trying to look at things realistically here. Oh wait, this is Slashdot. Never mind.
It's supposed to downgrade to a standard-definition resolution when some part of the chain fails the HDCP handshaking operation.
Actually, it's supposed to be capable of supporting that, but supposedly none of the studios are implementing that on current discs... yet.
I'd say this is just a case of the media PC being a pile of crap. "Watch our awesome Blue-Rayz movies on this awesome computer... " *hiccup* *crash* *smoke*
The only difference at the moment is that HD-DVD has a slight edge in media cost. An edge which could disappear as production ramps up.
Actually, you're forgetting that the players are much less expensive for HD-DVD (Toshiba HD-DVD: under $500, Samsung Blu-Ray: $720, Sony Blu-Ray: $999)... that doesn't take into account the PS3 yet, but at best it will be the same price as the Toshiba HD-DVD player, and will have limited availability for a while. Also, production costs for pressing the discs are much cheaper for HD-DVD, because Blu-Ray involves replacing a lot more equipment than HD-DVD.
Oh, and the name helps HD-DVD, too... people think of it as THE HD version of the DVD, but they don't really know what Blu-Ray is.
Someone please tell me why they don't just put the damn movie on some sort of USB storage to begin with, and avoid borking up our perfectly good normal DVD drives?
Because that wouldn't be any fun.
Actually, I think it's becase a whole bunch of companies want to invent the "holy grail" of copy protection schemes (the connotation of the word scheme makes it fit well here, I think), so they run around making up wildly rediculous stuff that either doesn't work, noone wants it, or is easily bypassed (using magic markers, the shift key, etc.). In the end it just annoys people, but these companies must be getting paid by the so-called content providers, because they never stop trying to think of silly new ways to do things, not realizing that their complicated schemes just annoy legitimate consumers and barely begin to challenge the "pirates".
As much trouble as it would be to have to plug your CD into USB before putting it in the drive, if you can even fit it into your USB port with all the other stuff that's probably plugged in around it, having one end that pokes out in an odd shape, and no real reason to have it to begin with other than to "prevent piracy"... I'm pretty sure this will never make it to the hands of any real end-users.
UMD was actually sold in stores, you really could go by UMD movies. This stuff? No way.
If you don't have a floppy, you can probably boot to a USB flash drive. Or, you certainly have a CD drive, you can boot to an Ubuntu LiveCD (or any other Distro's LiveCD that has grub on it) and do exactly what the GP suggested (I have, and it's a fairly painless way to do things).
I think Steve Job has intentionally missed the point. Yes, the whole sharing thing is pointless and won't be used. But Wi-Fi will be the future (hopefully for iPods too) for uploading music to the device and playing back to speakers.
Since the Zune doesn't allow you to use the wireless to upload music to the device and play back to speakers, doesn't that mean that MS missed it? Jobs never said wireless is useless, he said wireless sharing wasn't useful... or at least that it's not implemented well. Notice his comments about how long it takes, etc. He knows that for wireless functionality to be worth the cost, it has to be useful, and useable.
I'm sure Apple is putting WiFi in some future version of the iPod, but they're waiting until it's cost-effective/useable/useful.
Microsoft's DRM is fascist. If they could force you to pay a separate license for each ear for listening to music in stero rather than mono, they would.
Microsoft wants the killer feature of the Zune to be the sharing, but that sharing is severely limiting. The best thing to do would be to extend the convenient and useful type of sharing that Apple has in iTunes to the portable players. If they did that before Apple did, it might be useful.
What I'm thinking is this: Sharing is not limited as to the amount of time or the number of times a song is played, but by proximity. Songs aren't necessarily stored on the 2nd player's disk, but really just streamed and thrown away after listening once. The technical logistics of battery life, etc. might make it difficult to implement, but I think it would be more useful than MS's strategy.
Of course, the iTunes-style of sharing is convenient for fixed computers, like in an office, or in a dorm setting, but I think that would apply well to portable players, for places where people congregate, like libraries, lines for movies/concerts, buses, waiting rooms, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Blur-Ray and HD-DVD can use the same codecs. From Wikipedia:
Both of the new formats [Blu-Ray and HD-DVD] are backward compatible with DVDs and both employ the same video compression techniques: MPEG-2, Video Codec 1 (VC1) and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
A good almanack could have provided the educational content of the $150 computer for $5 or less.
That's a good point... I'm sure all the people in the world working with poverty-stricken third-world nations have never thought about providing books!
Sarcasm aside, $5 books aren't known for being chock full of useful information, reliable information, or a wide variety of information. Also, once a book is printed, the content can't be changed, updated, or corrected.
The OLPC program is intended to provide an alternative to schoolbooks. Schoolbooks are expensive, heavy, and are quickly outdated. The OLPC program has a potentially better solution. The networking features can provide access to new information, local, regional, and world news. They also provide a means of communication between students and between students and teachers. All of these things can be very useful for an education in non-computer topics, but students who want to learn about computers will automatically have a computer in their hands to learn about programming, IT, and other computer related topics.
If you want to help solve world problems, bring good ideas to the table, not disparaging remarks.
But look at it this way, if Blu-Ray fails, your PS3 is still an incredible game machine. If HDDVD fails, your XBOX360 add-on is a useless piece of plastic.
But the question is, does the Blu-Ray make the PS3 an incredible game machine, or is it the other technologies (cell, etc.)? If the Blu-Ray isn't adding that much to the gaming experience, then it's just adding extra cost to the customer. Some people are saying that developers are already filling Blu-Ray discs for individual games, but I wonder if that's because they're just not compressing anything, or what the deal is... I haven't heard any complaints that the XB360 discs are filling too easily, though, so is the expense of Blu-Ray really worth it?
Also, I understand what you mean about the HD-DVD add-on for the XBox, but at least that $200 cost is optional. It's just for watching movies, so if you are worried about HD-DVD failing, you can not buy it at all. From a larger perspective of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, though, I feel comforted by the fact that HD-DVDs can be manufactured with a DVD side, so I could buy the HD-DVD discs now, even though I haven't moved up to a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, and whatever happens in the format war, I'd still have the DVD disc at least, so it's not a total loss. Of course, when I was browsing the HD-DVD titles at Target the other day, I didn't see any that made use of the hybrid DVD feature, so that may be a moot point anyway.
Obviously Microsoft is doing the same with HDDVD since they're one of the founders (and because Sony supports the other).
I believe Microsoft was not a founder or original member of the HD-DVD group at all, but that they aligned themselves with HD-DVD later on. I could be wrong, though.
Superior online service? Does it even have an online service?
Seriously, when you know a week before launch that you'll have to download an update for the console as soon as you buy it in order to use online features, that's not what I would call a superior online service.
I know TFA was about the percentage of broadband users, so the responses in most of the other posts are defending the US because of the population density factor. But the question I have is whether we're falling behind, not based on the percentage of broadband connections, but on the capacity of our broadband connections? Especially in regards to the price we pay for it?
I pay $40/month for my 4Mb/300Kb connection. My city owns a network that doesn't quite extend to my corner of town (I'm one block from the edge of the network). The ISPs on that network offer up to 10Mb Up/Down for slightly less, but what are prices and speeds in other countries in the world? I've heard numbers tossed around here on Slashdot that put these to shame, but I don't know how reliable those are. So what I want to know is how does the U.S. compare when it comes to our broadband speeds and prices (for residential users, particularly)?
I've got a feeling that even with a release date 2 days after, we'll still be able to walk out with Wiis while the PS3 kids are still sitting out on the sidewalk, waiting for that 2nd shipment...
He should see this page
Maybe the RIAA will invade guitar stores and bust 15 year-olds playing Green Day songs on guitars they can't afford. Then the store owners will get busted, too, since they make money of of an establishment where people come in and play popular music. (unlicensed!)
...you get a HUGE catalog of games, 1080p HD games (something the 360 will never have), and a DVD/blu-ray player for around $300 LESS than what's for sell in the market for stand-alone players...
Nevermind that the Toshiba HD-DVD player sells for $500... Sure the Blu-Ray players are more expensive, but it makes more sense to compare a product with a competing product than to compare it against itself. That said, the Sony BR player can be pre-ordered for $999... Why in the world would a player built into a game console cost half of a stand-alone player?? I think you have to ask yourself, what corners are they cutting on the BR in the PS3 to make it fit into a next-gen super-rad console at half the price of the stand-alone? Not to mention, they are cannibalizing their blue laser supplies for their own stand-alone player to get them into the PS3.
Also, when you say "technically a better technology", what makes it better? Higher density? Is that it? I happen to like the technology of HD-DVD that lets them put a DVD and an HD-DVD on opposite sides of the same disc. That makes me want to go out and buy HD-DVD content right now, because even if HD-DVD sinks, I can still play my discs on just about any DVD-compatible player. Also, Blu-Ray requires a lot of new equipment for the disc stampers, whereas HD-DVD discs can be mass produced with existing equipment, with a just few changes.
I don't think the issue is so much about how much support they have as it is about how much opposition they have:
HD-DVD support:
Canon Inc.
Digital Theater Systems
Hitachi Maxell, Ltd.
Kenwood Corporation
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd.
NEC Corporation
Onkyo Corporation
Paramount Home Entertainment
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
Teac Corporation
Toshiba Corporation
Universal Pictures
Warner Home Video Inc.
The Weinstein Company
Warner Bros. and the Warner Music Group are associated with both Blur-Ray (that was a typo, but I think I'll leave it) and HD-DVD, as are Paramount, New Line, HBO, Dreamworks, and several other studios. DVD didn't have opposition like Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have with each other, making the future of either less certain than that of DVD. Also, as has been mentioned above, DVD was already quite successful before the PS2 came out. Another thing Blu-Ray has against it is HD-DVD's association (in the minds of potential customers) with DVD, which people already like now. People in general will have to have Blu-Ray explained to them, but HD-DVD can easily be interpreted by anyone off the street as high-definition DVD.
Actually, I remember seeing something on TV once (was it on Supersize Me?) that the founders of Baskin Robbins died young of heart disease... explain that one science!
...many in the Linux community do see Utah as the root of many problems within the technical world. Hatch's twisted understanding of technology, and the legislation it helps lead to, is one issue. Another is the whole SCO debacle.
Never mind that Utah's the state that brought us Word Perfect (I still know professors at BYU who are very anti-MS because of their own ties to WP), and Novell (and thus it now provides Suse Linux). Utah is involved with technology, and has provided some of the only serious competition in some of Microsoft's markets (obviously WP and NetWare got steamrolled, but at least they were out there). Sure there's jerks like Darl McBride at SCO, but that situation didn't happen because it was in Utah, it happened because he's a jerk, and they have those all over.
Also, Orrin Hatch may cause techno-trouble on Capitol Hill, but he's a US Senator, not a state senator, so his involvement in legislation is mostly at the nation-wide level, not specific to Utah. He gets voted in by Utah voters, but those who vote for him are most likely not aware of his stances on technology/copyright issues, and base their votes on other issues.
It will kill the advertising INDUSTRY. I say INDUSTRY in all capitols to hopefully hammer home that advertising is a HUGE piece of the economy now.
Sure television commercials are big business, but it's not the only avenue for the advertising industry. In-game ads, in-store displays, product placement in TV shows and movies, roadside billboards, newspaper and magazine ads, and... oh yeah, I heard that the Internet has some advertising in it, I think....
Advertising isn't going away any time soon. It's taking different forms. If the advertisers can find better ways (less invasive, irritating, and without pulling us out of the suspended realities of our favorite TV shows) to draw our attention to their products, then all the better. It's just like how we always bring up that the RIAA/MPAA need to adapt to newer distribution models instead of fighting them. Advertisers need to adapt, too. As it is, there will always be people without DVRs, and there will always be situations where people want to see some types of commercials (e.g., Super Bowl). I'm not worried about the advertising industry.
is Genuine Windows Advantage badge. The scounts should keep a log of updating all patches M$ issues over a period of three months (at the rate of 50/week this is no small task). Should indulge in door-to-door anti-OSS campaign, so forth.
You can earn a new patch the 2nd Tuesday of every month!
I love my Harmony, but I think people need a good introduction to it, otherwise they don't understand it, because they think it's more complicated than it is. My dad came over, picked up the remote and turned off the TV, but not using the big "Off" button at the top... he went through the device menu, selected TV, then hit the soft button for power. Then he proudly proclaimed that it was a man's remote because women wouldn't be able to use it.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that you can do just about anything you want with one button press. Maybe someday I'll tell him all about the Activities buttons...
In the meantime, my mom just looks at the remote and shakes her head.
M$ Xbox HD-DVD - IIRC - $200. Enjoy.
That would be a good point, but you still need the $300 - $400 XBox 360 to be able to use it (as far as I know it won't work with a PC, but I could be wrong?), and is that drive available yet? I'd say it's at best the same cost/benefit as a PS3, except that the drive is a bulky add-on to the XBox, and it can't be used for game content.
Maybe I shouldn't be disagreeing with someone who was supporting my original point, but I'm just trying to look at things realistically here. Oh wait, this is Slashdot. Never mind.
It's supposed to downgrade to a standard-definition resolution when some part of the chain fails the HDCP handshaking operation.
Actually, it's supposed to be capable of supporting that, but supposedly none of the studios are implementing that on current discs... yet.
I'd say this is just a case of the media PC being a pile of crap. "Watch our awesome Blue-Rayz movies on this awesome computer... " *hiccup* *crash* *smoke*
The only difference at the moment is that HD-DVD has a slight edge in media cost. An edge which could disappear as production ramps up.
Actually, you're forgetting that the players are much less expensive for HD-DVD (Toshiba HD-DVD: under $500, Samsung Blu-Ray: $720, Sony Blu-Ray: $999)... that doesn't take into account the PS3 yet, but at best it will be the same price as the Toshiba HD-DVD player, and will have limited availability for a while. Also, production costs for pressing the discs are much cheaper for HD-DVD, because Blu-Ray involves replacing a lot more equipment than HD-DVD.
Oh, and the name helps HD-DVD, too... people think of it as THE HD version of the DVD, but they don't really know what Blu-Ray is.
Actually, I think it's becase a whole bunch of companies want to invent the "holy grail" of copy protection schemes (the connotation of the word scheme makes it fit well here, I think), so they run around making up wildly rediculous stuff that either doesn't work, noone wants it, or is easily bypassed (using magic markers, the shift key, etc.). In the end it just annoys people, but these companies must be getting paid by the so-called content providers, because they never stop trying to think of silly new ways to do things, not realizing that their complicated schemes just annoy legitimate consumers and barely begin to challenge the "pirates".
As much trouble as it would be to have to plug your CD into USB before putting it in the drive, if you can even fit it into your USB port with all the other stuff that's probably plugged in around it, having one end that pokes out in an odd shape, and no real reason to have it to begin with other than to "prevent piracy"... I'm pretty sure this will never make it to the hands of any real end-users.
UMD was actually sold in stores, you really could go by UMD movies. This stuff? No way.
If you don't have a floppy, you can probably boot to a USB flash drive. Or, you certainly have a CD drive, you can boot to an Ubuntu LiveCD (or any other Distro's LiveCD that has grub on it) and do exactly what the GP suggested (I have, and it's a fairly painless way to do things).
He said "better", not more lossy.
This one goes to 11.
I think Steve Job has intentionally missed the point. Yes, the whole sharing thing is pointless and won't be used. But Wi-Fi will be the future (hopefully for iPods too) for uploading music to the device and playing back to speakers.
Since the Zune doesn't allow you to use the wireless to upload music to the device and play back to speakers, doesn't that mean that MS missed it? Jobs never said wireless is useless, he said wireless sharing wasn't useful... or at least that it's not implemented well. Notice his comments about how long it takes, etc. He knows that for wireless functionality to be worth the cost, it has to be useful, and useable.
I'm sure Apple is putting WiFi in some future version of the iPod, but they're waiting until it's cost-effective/useable/useful.
Microsoft's DRM is fascist. If they could force you to pay a separate license for each ear for listening to music in stero rather than mono, they would.
Microsoft wants the killer feature of the Zune to be the sharing, but that sharing is severely limiting. The best thing to do would be to extend the convenient and useful type of sharing that Apple has in iTunes to the portable players. If they did that before Apple did, it might be useful.
What I'm thinking is this: Sharing is not limited as to the amount of time or the number of times a song is played, but by proximity. Songs aren't necessarily stored on the 2nd player's disk, but really just streamed and thrown away after listening once. The technical logistics of battery life, etc. might make it difficult to implement, but I think it would be more useful than MS's strategy.
Of course, the iTunes-style of sharing is convenient for fixed computers, like in an office, or in a dorm setting, but I think that would apply well to portable players, for places where people congregate, like libraries, lines for movies/concerts, buses, waiting rooms, etc.