The Appeal of Apple TV

How do I wish to revise thee? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
There are so many technology changes in the entertainment world, it's hard to keep them all straight. We have DVR, Tivo, Satellite, Cable pay-per-view, Dolby home entertainment systems, iPod video etc etc etc. We pretty much have a way to see anything, anywhere at our convenience.

Gadget geek and Apple fan that I am, it was a matter of time until I purchased Apple TV. Apple TV is a set top box that streams all of your iTunes media to your HDTV. This includes movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, audio books and photographs. I installed mine two days ago and have been pretty impressed by it. It was easy to install and its Airport Wireless card instantly recognized my DSL network. It beautifully renders all of my iTunes media in 1080i resolution, on my 52" Panasonic TV. It shows movie trailers as well as Top 10 clips for movies and TV shows. And, with its most recent OS update, it shows YouTube videos -- hackers in the Apple TV support forum say that Apple TV is a 'dumbed down' Mac OS computer. You can sync a computer's iTune content with Apple TV so the content is viewable w/out booting your Mac or PC computer. You can also stream media directly from a computer if it's booted and iTunes is running. The streaming works very well, with few or no hiccups from interrupts.

Now, what are my kvetches? You might know that I would have a couple. It took 14 hours to sync my iTunes library (w/ @ 20 GB of material) to the Apple TV. Granted, you only really do that once, but it's an extreme length of time. The other problem I noticed today is that it doesn't have an on/off switch. It's intended to be 'always on' with just a standby mode for energy conservation. What would Al Gore say? I guess this is for on-the-ready iTunes syncing but I sync things very infrequently. This morning after 8 hours of standby, my Apple TV was hot enough to fry an egg. The online FAQ says that that's normal and the cover is just a 'heat sink'. Well, "whatever". I'd prefer that my small appliances not be running a fever when they're not directly in use.

With software, the sky is the limit as far as what Apple TV might do. The YouTube and movie trailers already demonstrate the ability to tie into web sites and stream media files from the Internet. Here are some enhancements I'd like to see, to make the device really a must-have:

• Give us a direct access to iTunes. Don't force another computer to act as 'middle man' -- let Apple TV be your total media center and repository. Make purchases directly from the Apple TV device.
• Let Apple TV play other media formats like Windows avi files.
• Give it an optional wireless keyboard and provide an email client -- maybe even fit it out with a web browser. You could entertain yourself and process emails all in the comfort of your living room lazee boy recliner. You wouldn't want it to replace a desktop computer but the email would a nifty add-on
• YouTube is just a start; there are many other entertainment web sites -- Comedy Central, Nick at Nite and Disney to name a few. Give access to a variety of network Web sites.
• If iTunes Store is made available on Apple TV, then make its USB port recognize a connected iPod and sync up with the iPod. Currently the USB port is only for diagnostics.

Of note, Microsoft made an attempt to tap this same market 10 years ago with 'Web TV'. At that point, connections were too slow, and the hardware was too bulky for the product to fare very well. DSL, Cable modem, HDMI and a few other advances have removed most of these obstacles. The long-term repercussions are interesting. Apple already changed its name from 'Apple Computer' to 'Apple Inc' when the iPhone was announced. With Apple TV, Apple Inc. is actually venturing into Time Warner, Comcast and AT&T territory. What might they conquer next? I used to think Microsoft would insidiously take over the world. I'll have to rethink that now -- Apple is showing up in the most unusual places and doing it well.

© 2007 blogSpotter