“We’re approaching the Apple TV from a slightly different perspective than most of Apple’s prospective customers. We’ve had a Mac mini hooked up to our TV ever since the mini’s launch in 2005 and acting as an HTPC-like device for all of our non-live-TV needs. Our mini, which we upgraded to a Mac mini core solo last year, is able to stream music and video content through iTunes from other Macs and PCs in the house—just as the Apple TV can—but it can also play a wide variety of other files. The mini acts as a DVD player, and it can function as a DVR with the use of an Elgato eyeTV. It is a full-fledged computer, after all, with the TV as its monitor,” Jacqui Cheng and Clint Ecker report for Ars Technica.
“So what does the Apple TV have to offer us—people who have been slightly spoiled with the use of a seemingly more versatile device for years now? We tried to examine both how the Apple TV would fare among my family members who are intimidated by even the slightest hint of technology, but also how it would fare among fellow geeks,” Cheng and Ecker report. “To do this, we decided to spend some quality time using our Apple TVs before reviewing it, and we seeded our staff with a few units to get feedback from both PC and Mac users, from both HD videophiles and standard definition users. This probably isn’t the first Apple TV review you’ve read, but we also spent much more time going over everything than was possible last week.”
“We’d almost like to give the Apple TV two scores: one for our audience, and one for everybody else. Geeks are more likely than anyone else to hate the Apple TV out of the box… However, almost everyone else who witnessed the Apple TV in action in our presence fell in love with it instantaneously (about half of which were not Mac users). The look and feel of both the device itself and its functionality impressed all those who touched it. We would not worry whatsoever about our technophobic parents’ ability to set up the Apple TV and use it on a daily basis.”
Full review – recommended reading if you’re interested in Apple TV – here.
Related articles:
The chips inside Apple TV – March 27, 2007
Analyst: Apple TV is a platform, not a single product – March 27, 2007
Digital Trends reviews Apple TV: 7 out of 10, ‘huge phenomenon will challenge conventional thinking’ – March 26, 2007
Automatically convert video files for Apple TV with Apple’s Automator – March 26, 2007
Apple TV, iTunes, iTunes Store: BusinessWeek’s Wildstrom blows it – March 26, 2007
iLounge gives Apple TV a ‘B’ in hands-on review: ‘recommended’ – March 24, 2007
CNET reviews Apple TV: ‘Very Good’ – 7.7 out of 10 – March 24, 2007
Video: Apple TV menu and interface walkthrough – March 23, 2007
Analyst: Apple TV will change the TV business – March 23, 2007
G4’s ‘Attack of the Show’ host Olivia Munn licks Apple TV – March 23, 2007
Xvid fully functional on Apple TV – March 23, 2007
Apple TV does not require Widescreen TV or HDTV, works with standard TVs – March 23, 2007
CBS looks at Apple TV on ‘The Early Show’ (with video) – March 23, 2007
Scoble: ‘Apple TV rocks’ – March 23, 2007
Apple TV hard drive upgrade works – March 23, 2007
Apple TV dissection photos – March 22, 2007
Apple posts Apple TV User’s Guide online – March 22, 2007
Enderle: ‘Apple’s attractive and well packaged Apple TV likely to set the pace’ – March 22, 2007
David Pogue demos Apple TV in humorous NY Times’ video – March 22, 2007
PC Magazine review gives Apple TV 4 out of 5 stars – March 22, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue: ‘Apple TV offers a gracious, elegant, effortless, delightful experience’ – March 21, 2007
Mossberg hands-on with Apple TV: ‘beautiful design, easy-to-use, classic Apple: simple and elegant’ – March 21, 2007
Apple TV projected to surpass TiVo, Netflix – March 20, 2007
Former Microsoft ‘Enthusiast Evangelist’ Gartenberg looks at impact of Apple TV – March 20, 2007
Apple TV ships – March 20, 2007
Word.
MW: ‘thirty’ (million)
“For the most part people don’t like geeks.”
Maybe over rice or noodles with a nice Chianti.
MW: members (only jacket – not steel metal)
Apple TV is nice, but I messed with one at the NYC flagship store and the video quality on the SONY TV was horrible. I had a non-geek friend with me (I was the geek excited to see the Apple TV in action) and her first response was that the picture was bad. Apple needs to get a higher quality file available for purchase on iTunes. And I know Steve Jobs is dead set against it, but it’s time for a movie rental option. That would be worth buying an Apple TV. I could get rid of my blockbuster account. And couple that with a DVR… game over. Apple TV is a nice start, but it’s got a way to go. I’ll wait. iPhone first please.
@ Freddy the Pig: “We so often forget an obvious fact. Bill Gates is a geek. For the most part people don’t like geeks. Steve Jobs is not a geek. Bill will never understand Steve.
Steve knows what my 83 year old mom wants in a computer, and in a tv. And if she ever got the idea that she wanted to take the pictures and stuff on her computer and look at them on her tv – Steve would know how to give her that. Indeed he has!
Geeks don’t understand that, or my mom.
One more thing Steve knows. Even at 83 years of age there are more of my mom and her like out there than there are geeks.”
Will your 83 yr old mother understand the difference between SDTV & HDTV. If not, she should probably avoid the TV because to set it up she’ll need to know the difference. Will your 83 yr old mom know whether she should pick 480i, 480p, 720p, etc … because there’s a bunch of those settings on TV too. Will mom understand & accept why SOME of the video she has saved on her Mac in Apple’s own QT format (lets assume she anticipated the importance of this before TV arrived and saved all those home movies in QT in the first place), and which work fine on her Mac, won’t work on TV? Will your 83 yr old mom remember to have her computer turned on before using TV? Will your mom – obviously having some life-experience with the Depression Era – understand the logic behind paying $15 for a movie that doesn’t look as good as the $8 Walmart DVD she has on her shelf? When you tell her she can buy TV shows at more reasonable prices off the iTunesStore, do you think she might ask why can’t she just watch them on cable, since she’s already paying for that anyway? Or from the antenna for free? And if you tell her “But you’ll always have a copy if you buy it from iTS”, do you think she might respond, “But I can always use the VCR for that, silly goose”? Do you think your sweet old mom might also wonder why a 3 decade old piece of technology – that trusty VCR – can do something as basic as recording a TV show for free, and the brand spanking new TV can’t?
Look, some of us who are complaining are doing so with the non-geek in mind, believe it or not. In fact, most geeks are like most Macolytes (if for different reasons) – they love the whole idea of this box just b/c they now have something they can putz around with. It takes more than an attractive interface to make something a slam dunk for the average person. Using the product also shouldn’t require more thought than what the ads saying ‘TV will play the video on your computer’ imply. And a successful product for the average person should also do what the average person has come to expect from the OLD devices they already have, or some of the newer devices that some of their friends might already have (like Tivo).
How does that not make sense?
“… the TV will sell.”
You’re right. It will sell like hotcakes. To Apple geeks.
@Odyssey67
And the thing that just grabs you by the nuts is that there are more and more and more and more Apple geeks out there every day.