Walt Mossberg Review

WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution

Wow....a very nice review from Walt of the Wall Street Journal. Not only is he an influential reviewer, but a techie at heart.

His review was mostly glowing and in this vein:

As an Internet device for the non-PC household, however, the MSN TV 2 is a good choice. It's well-designed and extremely user-friendly. If someone you know isn't ready for a computer, this is a good substitute.

But there was one semi-low-light:

What about those features for advanced users? Well, curiously, MSN TV 2 can be used as a home media-streaming device, a hot new type of gadget that lets PC owners play back on a TV all the photos, videos and music stored on a PC's hard disk in another part of the house.

Because this requires a PC, and some knowledge of networks and PC file systems, it's unlikely to appeal to the product's core audience of techno novices. And, even if a PC user bought and used MSN TV 2 expressly for this purpose, he or she would still have to pay the minimum $10-a-month service fee, which other media-streaming gadgets don't charge. So we view this aspect of the product as relatively unimportant.

Unimportant? Hardly, but he's right, $10 for those who just want the media features is steep. We're definitely working on it Walt...