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coredalae
Yeah, I'm talking about regular users, most of whom don't have a wired network in the house, let alone gig-E, and need to rely on wireless for connectivity. Hence, adequate local storage is more important than if one has a high-speed LAN.
A smallish drive is fine for a nettop, i.e. for Internet browsing & related tasks. But the Ion is a waste of money for a nettop, since Flash doesn't yet use GPU accel, and a single-core Atom is too weak to handle multiple gfx-heavy tabs. 1080p movies are 6-8GB on avg (if we're talking about ripped vids), and a 250GB cap isn't adequate. It also begs the question of how regular users will have access to 1080p movies, since most online hi-def movies you can buy are 720p, and this doesn't have a built-in BD drive.
The $300+ price point is too expensive for a nettop. A netbooks is only a little more with the same power (other than the Ion), plus LCD/keyboard/battery and the portability. On the desktop side, that amount will get you a good C2D setup in a low-profile uATX box. I think this category won't fly until products hit the $200 point for a full config. Also, the connectivity problem will need to be addressed. You're right, wifi is too slow and unreliable, but gig-E isn't the answer either for most people.
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HexusOdy
XBMC already runs 1080p w/ a 3GHz CPU. Again, speaking for regular users, it's easier (and about the same price) to get a 3GHz low-profile box running on Windows/Mac, than to have to install Linux on an Atom/Ion to get GPU accel. People have a hard enough time with Linux when it was pre-installed on netbooks.
nowadays hdmi carries both fullhd hd video and hd sound. That latter something optical or even coax out cannot
