All I know is that the story was first floated on CNet, which in the past has been a traditional Mac hater. They love spreading stories like this one, as it really gets the mac zealots fired up :-)
And as for Intel making PPC chips, I think they would have to swallow a lot of pride to do that (or be thrown oodles of cash).
My money is on a new digital hub hardware device, much like the EyeHome device from El Gato. iTunes has slowly evolved from a music app to the centre of entertainment on the Mac. First it was Soundjam, that just played and encoded MP3s. Then came the iPod, which required iTunes to pass music to it. Apple strikes a deal with the music companies and incorporates a music store within iTunes. With the latest iteration of iTunes, you can watch Quicktime movies from the net (movies trailers and music videos), plus quicktime content on your hard drive. And it allows you to play full screen, which in the past required a Quicktime Pro purchase (which most people complain about if all that want to do is watch their movies in full screen).
I see iTunes being the centre of the software digital hub (either Mac or PC). The next step will be video purchases from iTunes, and eventually the name changed to something else. This will either download to your computer, or streamed to your computer or tv (via the digital hub hardware device). With broadband2 rolling out, the speeds are getting to the point where streaming is possible.
I think Apple have realised that the next battleground is not in front of the computer screen, but in front of the tv.
Seeya Rod!
