“With more fanfare and consumer enthusiasm than most companies could ever hope to muster, in late 2006 Apple announced the Apple TV. The Apple TV is Apple’s opening foray into the near-trillion-dollar industry of television and movie entertainment and is billed as a product that’ll revolutionize the home media experience,” Jason Tomczak writes for Digital trends.
Tomczak writes, “The Apple TV, like the iPhone, represents a bold and risky move away from the controlled and perfected realm of computing and into the generic and saturated media streamer markets. Will this new $299 Apple TV be the quintessential blockbuster hit, or will it quietly struggle for survival amongst consumers with ever-soaring expectations?”
“If you’re really not sure if the Apple TV is right for you, get yourself to an Apple store or some other retailer where the Apple TV is available for handling and testing. You may find yourself passing on the $299 expense. You may also find yourself in love and going home with an exciting new source of entertainment,” Tomczak writes. “Whether you jump on the Apple TV bandwagon or sit this one out, there’s no escaping the fact that the Apple TV is a huge phenomenon that will challenge conventional thinking and may even spur video content providers to think a little more about catering to the individual consumer’s habits and desires.”
Full, extensive review here.
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“…or sit this one out, there’s no escaping the fact that the Apple TV is a huge phenomenon that will challenge conventional thinking…”
I think there is plenty of “escaping” that fact. It isn’t a fact at all.
When are these reviewers going to stop inhaling ether and taking massive dosages of acid? When will they actually THINK?
Television is only as interesting as it is varied. If one has to buy and download everything one thinks one MIGHT want to watch, then one will lose interest very fast.
Goddamn these reviewers are stupid. This isn’t hard to understand! A simple examination of “typical” television viewing will throw some light on this nonsense.
Mac4life, I am stating obvious reasons anyone thinking of purchasing an Apple TV should be weary of doing so. Resorting to childish name calling does nothing more than show your ignorance and inability to hold an intelligent conversation.
I find this recent tactic by Apple no better than the PC box assemblers who refuse to provide system software with newly purchased hardware. Who instead resort to putting “images” of the software on the harddrive that can easily be erased or corrupted, and leave people with unusable hardware that they end up having to call “support” to get resolved. I think this is a flat out despicable action by Apple, and I hope they address it in a future revision.
I can cook eggs with my AppleTV. This thing is REALLY hot!
Not a whole lot of interest in Apple Stores over the AppleTV.
It’s a helpful product, like the iPod Boombox, not a essential like a TV or a iPod is.
I got to review the quality of the iTMS content showing on a Sony HDTV in the Apple Store, not very good.
South Park especially looks bit-mapped, the rest look very grainy.
🙁
Apple TV is not meant to replace other video content sources overnight. Some of these comments dismiss Apple TV because it doesn’t do EVERYTHING. But remember that Apple succeeds BECAUSE it creates products that are elegant, focused, and simple to use. I don’t see iPod sales being hurt because it doesn’t have a built-in radio or a voice recorder.
When DVD players hit the market, did everyone who bought one throw away their VHS tape players overnight? No. Because DVD players play content only; they cannot record. However, over time, the combination of DVD player and DVR has made VHS players obsolete for many people. Since getting TiVo and NetFlix, I don’t think I’ve touched my VHS player more than a few times (to access old tapes).
For most people, Apple TV will supplement their existing TV setup by easily making their iTunes content available on the TV. It makes the TV into an iPod for the livingroom. It will be successful for that reason alone.
More people are getting iPods. More people are getting HD TVs. Internet bandwidth is getting “broader” all the time. Therefore, over time, the ultimate success of Apple TV will depend on how well Apple capitalizes on those three trends by offering new features that will replace current video content sources.
“…and may even spur video content providers to think a little more about catering to the individual consumer’s habits and desires.”
While that would be nice, content providers have rarely tried to cater to consumers. They seem to live in fear of not getting paid by every consumer and trying to stop technology, rather than embracing it.
“Streaming ripped content from a computer to the TV?!?!? OMFG?!?! What if it was ripped from a DVD?!?!? It can stream off of any computer?!!?! OMFG?!?!”
These are the folks that wanted to provide compressed WMV files with CDs with ripping being prohibited.
this article is laying it ona little thick, dontcha think? I man apple lovers already own a mac, so getting A Apple TV is a no brainer for a lot of people, because it’s a Mac gadget. They just make better stuff, Period.
-Pi
and remember this is only V 1.0 of this thing.
Shift-option-k gives you .
Doubt if this applies to every font, but it definitely works here at MDN.
I’ve never had any real problems with OS X since 10.1 (completely full 10GB hard drive make Puma choke…), and I don’t see how “corruption and errors” could be considered inevitable. I agree it might be helpful to have some kind of external restore capability (could be done from a Mac or PC, perhaps), but I doubt it would be necessary, or even used very often.
Of course, there certainly are ways in which one could corrupt an tv, thereby causing errors, but that’s probably warranty-voiding-type behavior…
(to “dumbass”: = Option+Shift+K. Wheee!)
@Joe
You can restore the Apple TV
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305205
Here’s what it’s missing:
5.1 support… well this is an issue with the iTunes store in general, and AppleTV in partcular. This is a BIG problem.
Remote Control. No, not the little Front Row Remote… Control via a computer.
I use my AppleTV for playing music more than moves(since there is no 5.1 support yet). So I have to fire up the TV, which, in my case is a video projector) just to get it to play what i want it to play. It shows up in the “Devices” list in iTunes, all the songs that are on it on on the list, all the movies that are on it are on the list… why can I tell AppleTV what to do from iTunes?
This would make me a much happier camper!
When ATV records and archives as simply as my present VCR (VHS no less!!) or my Miglia EyeTV, I’ll be a buyer.
— Aha, so that’s where the is. Is there a grey version that’s not quite so in yer face?
All you surround sound fans should try reading this:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/147048D8-D8B7-45E7-9A97-3CD5B4C2B75A.html
Thank you so much for providing this.
I am sure that it will be very helpful for many peoples.
@Tacitus
Thank you for that.
V informative.
7 out of 10 = 70%. This doesn’t exactly bestow a stellar GPA, so why should Apple receive rousing reviews and enthusiastic compliments? Apparently, Apple TV needs much improvement to get an “A”. Thanks, Apple, I’ll wait.
Yeah, depending entirely on a harddrive image for recovery isn’t exactly the best idea for a robust restoration system. The minute the harddrive dies or the image is corrupt, it won’t be as simple as plopping a new one in, and restoring the OS. I hope the next revision provides a recovery disk that can be installed by plugging the device into a mac or pc via usb. Otherwise, I doubt I will be purchasing this device. I’ve seen far too many devices that depend on images on a harddrive fail, and at that point instead of being able to resolve the problem yourself you will now be at the mercy of whenever an apple store can fit you in for having the issues resolved.