There has been a lot of buzz about the future of Front Row, Apple's new media center software. Built into the new iMac G5s, it is highly unlikely that the iMac will be the last computer to come preinstalled with Front Row. One can already install Front Row on any Mac, using these instructions. This does not really involve piracy at all, as Apple provides the download/installation, and one simply enables it.

So where is the future of this app? Right now, it is a pretty nice front end to iTunes and iPhoto, for example. However, these apps still need to run in the background for Front Row to function. It's almost as if Front Row was AppleScript based (and I'm sure it is). I'm not a fan of sketchy front ends. The future...

I would like to see Front Row become and independent application which reads your iTunes/iPhoto database but doesn't touch either app. Then we could see things like audio visualizers built into the application, or more independent slideshows. DVD playing wouldn't be as sketchy either. Infact, the only thing built in right now seems to be the Trailers feature, which loads the latest movie trailers from Apple's Movie Trailer page. This is by far the coolest feature in Front Row, and additional similar features are needed.

The latest rumors seem to point to the Mac mini turning into a media center, come MacWorld. I can definitely see this happening. Small and powerful, the Mac mini belongs next to a large screen. Plus, it would be the perfect Mac to be first to include an Intel processor, unlike the previously rumored iBooks. It seems that Apple is gearing towards a more media-based future, with the upcoming announcements and rumors. Perhaps if people will not switch to Macs directly, they will buy a Mac as a media center and realize its capabilities. This is already happening with the iPod. Whatever the future is, you can surely bet that Microsoft won't be happy about it.