Phew, yesterday was so chock full of news eh? Now that the excitement has died down there has been analysis of the whole event. Here are some that I found interesting.

Update: John Gruber from Daring Fireball has posted the best analysis I’ves seen so far and I just had to link to it. Check it out.

Dan Frakes from Playlist/Macworld wrote a great article in which he discusses Apple’s foray into the living room. He looks at what movies will mean for Apple and offers a good explanation on why Apple went against their traditional secrecy and announced a product that wasn’t ready yet.

That Apple talked about the iTV well before its release was unusual, given the company’s famous secrecy. But in the context of the event, it was likely a prudent move. First, it showed that Apple is taking the TV and living room seriously, rather than as an afterthought, at a time when more and more people are looking for ways to get their growing collection of digital content out of their computer and into the rest of their homes.

But just as important in the wake of Amazon’s recent foray into downloadable movie sales, the iTV—or whatever it will be called when it arrives next year—gives Apple a significant leg up on other services by offering a way to enjoy purchased digital media in locations other than sitting at your computer or staring at a tiny portable screen. And it’s likely that Apple’s sneak peek was at least in part aimed at the movie studios—to convince them that getting their movies into the iTunes Store would be desirable.

I highly recommend reading the whole article (link).

While lots of Mac fans are raving about the announcements, I found some comments that kind of put things in perspective.

Read/Write Web says that the iTunes Store + iTV combo isn’t really a winner because of a lack of movies (only Disney?) and lack of DVR capabilities. They’ve got a point… (link).

Scoble says that this time Apple is the copycat! The iTV interface is a lot like the Windows Media Centre PC interface, he says (link).

One blogger compares the quality of movies downloaded from the iTunes Store with those ripped with Handbrake. The results? Handbrake is better. That makes me feel a little better that the iTunes Store still isn’t available here, but I’m just bitter. The dude’s site got digged, so here’s a mirror.

Finally, analysts are split about Apple’s foray into the living room. PaidContent has excerpts from everyone.

In other news, TUAW welcomes iTunes’ new look. Wonders if this is what Leopard will look like finally. On the other hand, David Sandler critiques iTunes 7 UI. I thought that it looks nice, but that’s the quality of opinion from a non-designer like me haha.

For more analysis you can check out the latest episodes of the Macworld podcast which features a discussion by the Macworld editors Chris Breen, Jason Snell and Dan Frakes what the Showtime announcements mean for Apple. Also, check out the Mac Roundtable Podcast by Mac podcasters Joseph Nilo from the MacPro Podcast, Tim Verpoorten from MacReviewcast, Steve Stanger from the The Mac Attack, and Adam Christianson from the MacCast.