[antiRepublicrat]

Apple has been an early H.264 supporter, so this isn't a surprise.

it does hardware H.264 ENCODING

Now that's impressive, saving the purchase of an expensive hardware encoder, or a lot of your time. Apple's machines are already pretty fast due to putting a lot of video filters, etc., onto the video card (saving the purchase of a real-time card), and this move will make them even faster.

And this looks like a step towards DVR. Put that on a mini and you have the potential for the best DVR on the market.

[Wyatt's Torch]

"Put that on a mini and you have the potential for the best DVR on the market."

Exactly. Couple it with the iLife/iTunes suite and extension modules like Apple TV and you have a true media center base.