Microsoft HomeStation?

What is this?  There is more infomation here:  http://www.msnbc.com/news/688651.asp#BODY

"Microsoft plans to transform its new Xbox game console into a general home device that handles everything from e-mail to video recording, according to analysts who follow the company.

PRUDENTIAL SECURITIES analyst Hans Mosesmann released a report Tuesday, stating that HomeStation, a multifunction consumer appliance that has been the subject of rumor and speculation for several months, is real and could dramatically change the PC market.

a version of the HomeStation will be on the market by this fall.

Mosesmann said the HomeStation will be based on the Xbox design, which is similar to a PC and uses standard PC components such as an Intel Celeron processor and USB ports. Besides playing Xbox games, the HomeStation will act as a digital video recorder, similar to devices from TiVo and Sonicblue’s ReplayTV, and will perform Internet functions such as e-mail and Web surfing. The device will also play DVD movies and digital music tracks. The HomeStation would hook into Microsoft’s .Net online strategy by serving as a conduit for services such as streaming media and online shopping, he said.

Most of those functions could be handled by the current Xbox with minimal retrofitting, Mosesmann said in an interview. "

Might as well, right?  But they\'d better not be thinking of making it like another office appliance, you know, for like the same woman who bought a fax machine for no real reason.  That would be such a misjudging of the Xbox demographic...

-Eik