“Apple TV is as easy to use as it is to set up. The included six-button remote can be used to easily navigate through the menus to select and play content. Navigation is completely intuitive, and it’s hard to find anything more to say about browsing and playing content on the Apple TV — it simply works,” Heather Havenstein reports for Digit.
“Apple deserves high praise for the look and feel of the Apple TV interface, which is stunning while still managing to be simple. Each interface element delivers a cohesive look while drawing from such diverse sources as personal photos, album art and stills from video content. You really get the feeling as you navigate through the Apple TV that this is your personal digital media experience,” Havenstein reports.
“The fact that music and video tags from iTunes are displayed to give you additional information about selected titles (description, air or publication date, etc.) is a nice touch,” Havenstein reports. “One of the most visually stunning and personalized features of the Apple TV interface isn’t even truly part of the interface. The included screen saver feature will display random photos synced to the Apple TV with beautiful 3-D effects (you can also choose to view CD album art instead of photos). In fact, this screensaver makes your TV into a great digital picture frame when you’re not watching other content.”
Havenstein reports, “The Apple TV is focused on one goal: Bringing iTunes-based digital media stored on your computer to your TV. It achieves that goal quite well and simply with a device that is simple to set up and a delight to use.”
“Apple TV, however, isn’t for everybody. For one thing, its $299 price tag isn’t exactly inexpensive. And you are largely limited to using the iTunes store, which has a large and loyal following. However, videos are available from a variety of other sources that aren’t supported by Apple TV and the iTunes software,” Havenstein reports. “Still, if you want easy access to music and video from iTunes, as well as your personal digital images, Apple TV is an excellent choice.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Newsweek: Apple TV has a lot going for it – March 29, 2007
Apple overriding Apple TV hacks? – March 29, 2007
Hacking Apple TV: Joost successfully run on Apple TV – March 28, 2007
Apple TV software hints at future DVR functions? – March 28, 2007
Ten Apple TV myths – March 28, 2007
Ars Technica in-depth review: Apple TV ‘impressed all those who touched it’ – March 27, 2007
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
I am so looking forward to a very personal test in the next few hours!!!
It just works is a given.
MDN = given
All of these glowing articles about Apple TV, the iPhone, and February Mac sales (5x the industry average) are BOUND to drive the stock down in the near future, huh?
Go figure.
Have you actually SEEN the picture quality on an AppleTV? It sucks! I was really, really disappointed when I saw it in person at the Apple Store last weekend. *sigh*
MW: Apple has not moved to buy one.
The expression “It sucks” is so overused.
The quality is as good as you put into it.
I never understand it when critics say something is expensive, or in this case not “exactly inexpensive.” It seems like they say these things without regard to what it is they are buying. I mean, yes, $299 is not a small amount of money… but you can’t say something is expensive without considering what it is you are buying. $299 for a toothpick is expensive… $299 for a mini computer with a 40gb hard drive that will sync with your other computers in the house and display your media on a HDTV… doesn’t sound that expensive to me. Same thing for the iPhone. $600 for an ipod is expensive… $600 for a plain cell phone is expensive… $600 for a smartphone with a widescreen ipod, WiFi and large touch screen… doesn’t sound too expensive.
Yeah, but I could just copy and paste the exact same comment ad nauseam on each and every thread to an TV story on MDN. Love that command-v.
Do schools still teach constructive criticism and original thought?
Once again, Yeah, but…Stop posting the same 2 sentences over and over again without telling us what was being shown on it or you will be labeled a troll (which is likely anyway).
MW = “fact” Which is what we need from you “Yeah, but…”
Well, no doubt ‘Yeah but’ post the picture sucks story over and over again will induce seven people to reconsider buying. But any intelligent person will see for themselves.
And so far ‘Yeah buts’ view is in the minority of about 200 opinions to 1.
I look forward to making up my own mind than you.
Have to agree about the picture quality of movies and TV being disappointing.
I love the functionality but I want this device to replace something in my overloaded AV rack. It doesn’t quite replace the Tivo the DVD player or the Cable Box. When one of those can go away and the picture quality is HD, I’m sold.
“Have you actually SEEN the picture quality on an AppleTV?”
Yes, I’m looking at it in my room right now. It looks awesome.
What’s disappointing is the quality of some videos sold on iTunes. Not all, mind you – my episodes of Monk look as they would on any non-HD TV.
I had some movies in non-AppleTV formats and I converted those in QuickTime (and VisualHub). They look excellent.
Most of the time I watch free video podcasts in all sorts of resolutions and compression qualities. I appreciate the nice-looking ones, but the fuzzies really don’t bother me. With millions of people YouTubing every day, I wouldn’t side with picture quality when it’s matched against content.
I have had my AppleTV for a week now, and for those of you complaining about picture quality, what did you expect? The movies and TV shows that you buy from iTunes are NOT HD, they are not even DVD quality. Considering this, I have had no problems with the quality of iTunes Store content. The DVD’s that I have ripped, have been MUCH better quality, and I can only tell it’s not the DVD if I concentrate on the lines and shadows, but that’s not why I watch something. The xvid and divx files that I have improted into iTunes through quicktime look great, and video podcasts look great for what they are.
“Have you actually SEEN the picture quality on an AppleTV? It sucks! I was really, really disappointed when I saw it in person at the Apple Store last weekend. *sigh*”
I have an Apple TV and I love it! The picture quality is awesome. However, I agree that the picture quality I saw in the Apple Store in Tyson’s Corner, VA sucked!
Whoever is setting the demo units up in the stores should be fired! Immediately! It is a disservice to the buying public to mislead them into thinking this box only displays the crappy resolution video that is being displayed in the Apple stores.
“its $299 price tag isn’t exactly inexpensive”
Uh, what decade are these guys living in? Have they noticed what people are spending on TVs these days?
In other news…
http://www.omninerd.com/2007/03/26/articles/74
“As far as “straight-out-of-box” conditions go, both Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s OS X are ripe with remotely accessible vulnerabilities. “
“Without a diligence for applying the appropriate patches or enabling automatic updates, owners of Windows and OS X systems are the most susceptible to quick and thorough remote violations by hackers.”
enjoy
Yes the demo footage that they have at the store SUCKS! But have you seen 720p Quicktime throught this box? OUTSTANDING!
You are a Troll – or a Microsoftie.
@Reality Check…
After reading your post I went to the apple store and checked out the quality. They must have done a huge improvement because what I saw was great. The demo I saw was on a wide screen HDTV, great high quality HD video movie trailers, and it streamed flawlessly. (on a “g” network I might add)
The video content was AMAZING…. looks like they musta fixed the quality issues you referred to, because it was streamed from the net.
Bought one, wasn’t planning on it but heck, it’s apple after all.
Also, there were a number of people there checking it out when the store opened, I actually had to wait.
MDN word is long, as in it’s gonna take a long time to explain this one to the wife.
Hey Joe –
The guys over at ‘omninerd’ should get one of those free laptops available for anyone who can ‘quickly and thoroughly’ violate OSX remotely – that is, if they can…
hey joe, i read through some of that, interesting. i don’t understand it all because i’m not a programmer, but it was still interesting to see. i’ve never believed that there is a completely secure os, but i strongly believe that ours is more secure than windows anything.
a guy i work with says it’s because ‘no one uses macs, windows has more market share, why would you go after the little guys’ mentality. he used to work for microsoft, so obviously, there’s a soft spot there.
anywya, good read, interesting stuff.
The writer of that OS article contradicts himself. He states that he had to activate services in OSX and OSX Server otherwise there were no open ports.
Later in his conclusion, he states that OS X is insecure out of the box.
@Joe and @Shawn–
I read the article and I do understand it. The test is highly flawed. Note that the writer had to enable every available service before doing his test. Then he complained about potential flaws in the enabled services. Later he writes what Joe quoted: “Out of the box…”. Well guess what? Out of the box none of those services are enabled, and therefore those potential vulnerabilities don’t exist. And that’s leaving aside the fact that this guy thinks a scan with the Nessus utility and mmap constitute a proper security scan.
Shawn, I can understand your confusion. That’s what the article hopes to exploit. Joe, on the other hand, strikes me as something of a troll.
The only good advice in the whole article is to patch your systems when new patches are released.
“Do schools still teach constructive criticism and original thought?”
Yes, but you’d be amazed at how hard the little fsckers resist…Their parents as well.
Sorry–We’ve been rained-in for about two weeks now. I love the children. Really.
MW “deal”
That’s just cruel…
“Apple TV, however, isn’t for everybody…”
Yeah, not for me, yet. I am hard of hearing and I depend on closed captioning when I watch TV or movies. Until Apple incorporates CC in the shows offered in the iTunes Store, then I’ll get ?TV.
thanks darkness. i did notice that he went out of his way to turn things on and off, which struck me as odd. i guess i’m ok then since i haven’t turned shit on really!