The Second Incarnation of Apple TV

Is it a must-have now? -- Picture courtesy of Apple

by blogSpotter
As a consummate Apple fan, I’d be remiss not to comment on Apple’s latest round of product announcements regarding iPod and Apple TV. As regular readers know, I’ve purchased almost (but not quite) every product Apple offers – sometimes in multiple colors and configurations. What’s that you say? Too much time and money on my hands? Maybe so. Let me clarify that I don’t buy everything Apple. Things I’ve bypassed: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, G4 Cube and the 2009 voice-over shuffle. These things are variously redundant, over-priced, gimmicky or ill-conceived. So there you have it – I draw the line at some things Apple!

Before tackling Apple TV (aka, ATV), I’d like to comment on the new iPod lineup. I knew that iPad might introduce product-line cannibalism earlier this year, and it looks like it did. It created a wave that dipped its way through the high end of the iPod lineup. iPod Touch users gravitated over to the large, splashy iPad. Nano users had already been migrating to iPod Touch – it’s slightly more expensive than Nano with way more features including wi-fi. Apple decided to address these drifts by basically eliminating the Nano as we know it. The new Nano is a small, music-only device the size of a York Peppermint patty. They’ve dumped all TV and movies as well as the video camera. I think that’s a lot of good functionality to dump in one swoop.

The new Nano is for all practical purposes a gussied-up touch screen Shuffle. The basic Shuffle has been restored to its 2008 clip-on style, with no screen. Can’t help thinking that the oblong, bright-colored 2009 video Nano has a reasonable following and market. Maybe in September 2011, they’ll replace the basic Shuffle with what is now the new 2010 Nano. Then bring back the 2009 video Nano – it really has a following believe it or not. blogSpotter hates to admit he owns four of these (in kiwi green, emerald green, blue & purple). One or two will be gifted shortly.

About the Apple TV – I’ve blogged about it a couple of times now, and I own the original 2007 version. My complaint all along has been that ATV is too limited – it mostly restricts you to iTunes offerings (e.g. a standard definition, recently released movie for $3.99 or $4.99 in HD format). I was hoping they’d throw the doors open wide to Boxee, Hulu, Netflix and other non-Apple Internet offerings. In fact, a hacker group provided that capacity in the last couple of years but it was a non-Apple-approved hack. Apple doesn’t treat hackers kindly – the penalty imposed for a hack (be it on the iPhone or ATV) is that hackers must disavow and overwrite the installed hack if they want any future upgrade to the OS.

The 2010 ATV has a few significant changes (albeit less than I expected) ...

• It now includes Netflix (with a beautiful ATV interface)… that was on my wish list above
• It’s a rent-only model – there’s no hard drive and nothing can be purchased.
• TV shows are now rentable at 99 cents per episode
• It’s small enough now to hold in one hand
• The price has been reduced to $99

These features are a mixed bag. The absence of a hard drive will allow the always-on device to stay cool. The current ATV has no on/off button – it goes into a standby mode where it remains hot enough to fry an egg. I’ll look forward to coolness. The small sizing is always good for fitting into a crowded video component shelf. The Netflix saves me from using an HDMI switch to another device like Wii or Samsung blu-ray.

I only rent nowadays, so the rent-only restriction won’t bother me – but still it’s taking away the purchase option that some people might’ve enjoyed using. I’m a little surprised that they didn’t open it up further to other entertainment venues – ATV may get cannibalized by its sibling product, the new Mac Mini which offers an HDMI connection now. With Mac Mini, you could use Front Row and Safari to see anything from iTunes and anything on the Internet (including Adobe Flash apps).

Mac nerd that I am, I might buy ATV for the Netflix convenience and because the prior ATV will no longer receive software upgrades. If you already have a good digital cable service (say, Time Warner or Comcast), you probably already have a good selection of recent-release pay-per-view movies in the $3.99 -$4.99 range. If you have that and Wii, the ATV would be kind of redundant. If you want to open up the whole world of streaming entertainment and have a mac computer too, the Mac Mini might fill the bill. Stand by for later ramblings after I obtain the touch-screen Nano (probably red this time) and yes, the new $99 Apple TV.

© 2010 blogSpotter