I also hope that the XBox One announcement is an idea airship, or an idea piñata: "The commentaries hate A and B, but they don't mind C..."

It also seems like a strange aggregate of the annoying new features from other systems. What happens when you go away for the weekend and cut the power, so it fails to connect to the Internet every 24 hours? What happens if you tape a piece of paper over the Kinect lenses -- do they call the cops? Do they really want to see that many dudes in worn-out sleepwear across the world as they hurl homophobic insults? If they want full price for used games, won't that lead Gamefly to boycott along with GameStop?

The summary question resulting from the others: who is their expected consumer? It's someone that is constantly connected but never leaves the house.

It reminds me of my recent encounter with a Windows phone. There weren't a lot of apps, but that's to be expected with a newer platform. However the smart phone basics -- camera, phone, texting -- were tricky. You can't hit a single button and get to the camera. If you confuse people on the way to "hey, everybody, quick smile!" then you have a problem.