Digital self-serve kiosks are found all over the place for quick tasks like printing maps or pictures. You can create greeting cards and photo albums. These are well on their way to becoming the vending machines of the digital era. The next evolution of this trend is here with the vending machine dispensing data instead of physical goods like the MK3 Kiosk. Movies can be downloaded from these Redbox competitors straight to your portable hard drive. Nothing to return, nothing to rewind(how long until no one knows what that meant?). The content simply expires and won’t play in the player. This XIMD technology smacks of the original Divx expiring DVD’s that came in went in months around the dawn of DVDs.
USB 3.0 technology should be able to push a full DVD of content to your drive in under 10 seconds. Xona’s media distribution system will feed the MK3 Kiosk with current and obscure movies. Prices, peripherals and plans will have to come later as the devices roll into retail locations around the world.