NBC announced the release of their new online distribution service, NBC Direct, earlier today. NBC direct will allow users to download recent releases of the channel’s popular shows and keep them for up to a week. Unfortunately, Mac users can begin their weeping and gnashing of teeth, as NBC has seen fit to shun the entire OS X using community by making it a Windows-only feature.

Second only to talks of Leopard and the iPhone are musings regarding the next big step for the iPod; admittedly, with the most anticipated operating system and cell phone launches coming hand in hand from Apple in the very near future, it would seem that Apple could not possibly be capable of managing a powerful trifecta of technology, including an iPod update. However, there are 3 reasons a forthcoming iPod release would make more sense than buttering bread, and I will expound upon them below.

So we’re all familiar with the concept of denial to appease one’s own false self-impressions, but Microsoft’s opinion of Apple’s media player competition is downright laughable; though Zune has reached the 1 million mark in sales, Microsoft’s head of entertainment has proclaimed competition with Apple in the media player realm is “fun”!