no truth the rumor that Mr. Softie wants to issue individual bar codes to each player and scan them before consuming any digital media.

Anthony Sarni at the XboxSpace blog noted that Microsoft "will be offering movies and television shows for download."




Microsoft has negotiated the rights to rent or sell more than 1,000 hours of material from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Turner Broadcasting, along with the martial arts show "Ultimate Fighting Championship." Some programs will be available in high-definition video but at a higher cost because of the increased file sizes.

Likely most people will look this latest X-Box development and think that it is cool that a game box was able to also handle video. In a meeting I had with some Microsofties over a year ago, it might be more accurate to think of the X-box as a stalking horse aimed as the heart of a home network; and it also does games.

Another player wanting to dominate home networking is Sony (and guess which device will eventually do that!). Apple also wants a piece of the home networking action, and we see that in their iTV initiative.