Apple TV out and shipping

John A 0 Tallied Votes 218 Views Share

Apple's digital hub, known as the Apple TV, has finally started shipping. It's aiming to bridge the link between your media and your TV, providing a wireless digital hub through which you can transfer your content to watch, namely the content purchased through the iTunes store. How much does it cost? $300, if you live in America.

Apple has of course, designed this device to be multi-platform, so it has support for both Mac and Windows. (Nothing for *nix, of course.) However, though it supports multiple operating systems fairly well, it doesn't seem to play too well with other formats and TVs. Unfortunately, it seems narrowly-targeted at iTunes customers who happen to own HDTV sets. Which is kind of limiting, although the market seems to be shifting that way, so it's not an illogical decision.

A slight problem that Apple TV will have to undergo is the competition it will be facing. Partly to blame is the fact that it doesn't have a clear purpose. It's simply a digital hub. On Apple's website, it says the following about the Apple TV: "If it's on iTunes, it's on your widescreen TV." Well, computers can do that just as well, so Apple will have a much harder time convincing consumers to buy it. For example, if you already own an iPod, to watch content, it's as simple as buying a little adapter and hooking it up to your TV. Or, if you're the kind of person that prefers a remote control, you can get a docking station.

It looks like a promising device, and if you happen to be lucky enough to fit the Apple TV's target audience, it could likely simplify your connections. The question now is: will Apple be able to convince the consumers that?

Edward Jijon 0 Newbie Poster

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John A 1,896 Vampirical Lurker Team Colleague

Hello,

Comments on blogs should be directly discussing the topic in the entry. If you have a new question, please ask it in the forums by locating the correct subforum, and then creating a new thread. Thank you.

TheNNS 112 Nearly a Posting Virtuoso

Hey joe, the Apple TV lets you watch T.V. in your living room. It's so stupid. If you can't afford it, go buy a TV card for your pc which will output to your tv, and it'll out put anything.

John A 1,896 Vampirical Lurker Team Colleague

>the Apple TV lets you watch T.V. in your living room.
Not really. It's supposed to be a wireless hub for streaming content stored on your computers. Additionally, it has a hard drive for storing the streamed content, which is to avoid the bumps and jerks that inevitably happen when trying to watch something.

>It's so stupid.
Why?

>If you can't afford it, go buy a TV card for your pc
True, but depending on your computer, not everyone wants a noisy PC in thier TV room... Also, there are many situations where someone's computer is too far away to be connected to the TV. Paying $299 for an Apple TV is a lot cheaper than buying a new PC, plus a TV card to go with it.

But no, the Apple TV isn't exactly the most groundbreaking technology out there.

TheNNS 112 Nearly a Posting Virtuoso

When I meant it lets you watch tv in your living room, I meant literally the tv, not tv programming. That's how it's been described as. If you can only watch itunes content, then it's not worth it. Most people don't buy things on itunes. They might have bought a couple movies, and few music videos and some tv shows. But that doesn't meant they want to stream it to their tv's, which is why they bought an ipod, to take it every where with the. And besides, the quality isn't perfect, so you're better off buying an HD DVD player and hd movies.

John A 1,896 Vampirical Lurker Team Colleague

Agreed, probably the biggest problem Apple will have to face is not its competitors, it's how they're going to deal with the content. Unfortunately, the Apple TV supports a minimal number of video formats, which makes it all the more difficult to play ripped DVDs on your TV...

>you're better off buying an HD DVD player and hd movies.
Except that what Apple is betting on is the fact that you're going to be lazy and not want to manually have to change discs. Let's face it: it's far easier to use an iPod to listen to music than a CD player nowadays. Apple is hoping a similar thing could happen for the Apple TV.

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