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January 13, 2007
Apple tv
Completely overshadowed by the iPhone's announcement, Apple tv is Apple's foray into your living room. Think of it as a media extender, wirelessly connecting to you Mac and/or PC to stream your music, pictures and videos straight to your TV. HDMI, DVI, and component connections mean crystal clear reproductions on your tele and that built-in wireless-n protocol means more than enough bandwidth to speedily stream your HD content.
I love it and hate for a few reasons. First off, I'm loving the incredibly small footprint; sleek enough to blend into your living room. I've always believed the TV should be the focus. Everything else needs to blend away. The interface looks like front-row on steroids which is fine for me since front-row is super easy to use. On the downside, the unit is limited to 720p. That's not really a bad thing since 1080p content is gigs bigger and still far and few in between. The built in 40 gig hard drive seems a bit anemic and overall, disappointing. This is not a DVR. It simply stores content you stream so it can be shared with other computers and watched again without having to re-stream. The other downside are its client limitations. Although up to 5 computers can be directly linked to one Apple tv unit, it has no ability to stream that content to mobile devices say, the new iPhone.
On the bright side, Apple is king at selling hardware filled to the brim with standards and open enough for them to update via software. That's what I'm hoping for. It would be great if the device is capable of 1080p streams and expanded syncing with Apple's future mobile devices via a simple software update. For now, the device is perfect for someone who has tons of movies and pictures on their computer and would love to watch them on their tele all wirelessly. I also see it doing well in the education market since it's much easier to stream shared content to classrooms instead of wheeling around a TV and DVD player on a cart.
Just $299 for pre-order.
Posted by tranism at 8:48 PM | Permalink
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Comments
> Apple is king at selling hardware filled to the brim with standards and open enough for them to update via software.
Whoa... you mean like the iPod or the iPhone? :-)
Posted by: Gabriel Radic at January 15, 2007 7:52 AM