Naturally, it’s first-generation, and may be enabled only for the Sony branded parts of your livingroom and jacket-pocket.

But free content downloads as 8Mbps MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) should yield great HD results: I have done tests at those rates and have had only positive reviews so far.

Imagineering the approach Sony may take, I can see harmonious, elegant and profitable integration amongst the Sony properties of:

• So-net
• Walkman
• Playstation Portable
• Wega and Bravia
• SonyEricsson

There’s no shortage of commentators ready and willing to pile scorn on Sony’s choices based on a creative set of interpretations of Sony’s failures and shortcomings.

For example:

Of MiniDisc, but bloggers, audio professionals and stringers alike love it. And I still use my tiny Japanese-import recorder regularly.

Of Betamax, and despite the non-related success of Betacam and DigiBeta, the same VHS war could come with HD-DVD and BluRay.

Of ATRAC/Sony DRM, the former a niche compression and encoding format with commercial viability, the latter a thorny subject from any vendor at the best of times.

Of widgets and gadgets, but my massively-multifunction remote control is fault-free, my friends’ CLIEs lustworthy, and colleagues’ mobiles connected via headphones all day.

From short discussions with Gen-X and Gen-Y clients and contemporaries: I can tell you there’s not a single Wii preorder, and only one XBOX360.

Plus, with the recent stylish, Mincho-fontesque announcement of “Other OS” unsupport, we no longer have to stealth around with the previous console’s Japan-only Linux kit. Which I loved, and used constantly, until a kind individual liberated me of it in a home burglary a few months back.

So amongst my contacts, there’s a few credit cards already authorised at Akihabara grey-exporters. And many balances being cleared for the Australian March 2007 release. Mine included.