AppleInsider caused a few ripples in the Mac blogosphere when they recently claimed that Cupertino will soon discontinue the Mac mini (Apple’s sub-$800 entry level Macintosh.). The reasoning is that Apple was never 100% behind the device, which, AppleInsider suggests, was only released to appease shareholder wishes.

Since then, the Mac mini has been treated to a rather mundane life-cycle. It has seen just four updates since inception, one of which was so insignificant in Apple’s own eyes that the company didn’t even bother to draft a press release.

However, one of those updates was a switch to an Intel processor, and perhaps more importantly, the addition of Apple’s Front Row software. For many Mac fans (including myself), this confirmed the device’s potential as a media center. When I bought my Intel-based Mac mini, I plugged it straight into my television, where it’s remained ever since.

Then along came the AppleTV…

Sony’s PS3 has joined the ranks of the AppleTV, XBox 360, and numerous media extenders from companies such as Linksys and Netgear, in trying to solve the “last 100 feet” problem. A new firmware update to Sony’s next generation game console adds media extender capabilities, so that content stored on a Vista compatible PC (or any DLNA-supported device, including Macs) can be streamed to the PS3.

According to the release, the update also enables:

• Upscaling of PlayStation / PlayStation 2 games and DVD movies up to a full 1080p when viewed on a compatible HDTV set.
• Access to PS3 stored media from a PSP via the Internet (not just a local WiFi network).
• Printing of digital photos stored on a PS3s hard drive or inserted storage media. Currently, select Epson printers connected via USB are compatible. In addition, users will find a new type of slideshow for displaying photos, zoom functionality and the option to crop images.

Pretty impressive stuff, especially accessing PS3 content from a PSP connected to the net. Welcome to the last100 Sony!

Just weeks before Apple launched it’s AppleTV (then known as the iTV), I wrote a post for ZDNet titled: Could YouTube be the killer-app for Apple’s iTV?. My proposition was that if Apple were to open up its set-top-box it wouldn’t be long before the device became capable of much more than streaming content from a Mac or PC.

The video blog, Wallstrip, which describes itself as “stock culture meets pop culture”, has been acquired by CBS. The price is unknown, but CBS has denied it’s 5 million dollars as was first reported by the gossip blog, Jossip. At the time is was suggested that the main attraction for CBS was securing the services of the shows dynamic host, Lindsay Campbell, who was to become the new face for the studios online video initiatives.

That’s not the case says NewTeeVee. The deal is just as much about the talent behind the camera:

Wallstrip creator Howard Lindzon said CBS bought the show in part because of its “web 2.0” attitude towards widely syndicating and distributing its video… “Quincy wants to be everywhere,” he said, meaning Quincy Smith, CBS’ dealmaker and the initiator of the Wallstrip purchase. The team will be part of CBSNews.com, helping out with its video projects.

In other words, the deal should be viewed as an acquisition of a production company, rather than a single show. CBS clearly hopes to leverage what the Wallstrip team have learnt from their online video experiments, as well as harness the team’s ability to put out very cost effective content, with a distribution model that embraces the distributed nature of the net.

On a personal note, I count myself as a fan of the show. I’m not really all that interested in the stock market, but Wallstrip does a good job of explaining the cultural phenomena behind market success stories (and in an entertaining way), such as how Apple positions itself as a lifestyle company, and why people go crazy over Nike.

Congrats Wallstrip!

(If you’re new to the show, check out the announcement episode.)

The Pirate Bay, best known for illegal music, video, and software downloads via BiTtorrent, is set to launch its own video streaming site.

A cryptic message posted on the Bay’s official blog states:

…it’s in the works being done right now and as usual we put a bit of Pirate Bay mentality behind every project we do.

Torrent Freak interprets this as meaning that the site will be similar to YouTube but without compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

…it’s exactly that “Pirate Bay mentality” that, in our opinion, is going to make this site a winner. Think YouTube without Google constantly pulling down copyrighted videos.

It’s hard to imagine how a lawless ‘YouTube’ could survive in a world where IP laws are increasingly harmonized across borders, and countries have an incentive to comply with the World Trade Organization. But then again, The Pirate Bay has a pretty good track record of evading US lawyers.