“I had some meetings with Canon yesterday about cameras and camcorders, and while chatting with one of their technical guys I realized how Apple could better position its slow-selling Apple TV. Rather than sell it as a device for viewing standard-definition video on high-definition TVs – a substandard experience – Apple should sell it as a beautiful way to view photos and audio slideshows,” Jon Fortt blogs for Business 2.0.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple has not reported Apple TV sales figures. Fortt’s description of the device as “slow-selling” comes with no supporting evidence.
“The realization came to me after the technical specialist told me this is how he uses his Apple TV at home. He offloads his photos onto his Mac upstairs, then goes downstairs to watch them with other people on his high-definition TV,” Fortt writes.
“Suddenly it all made sense. Photos, even high-resolution photos, can move over a wireless network much faster than video can,” Fortt writes.
Full article, in which Fortt writes that Apple would need to release a Windows version of iPhoto, here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV doesn’t stream photos for Macs, either, although Apple is working on adding that ability with future updates according to reports. Currently, photos must be synced from your Mac to the Apple TV hard drive for viewing, which works quite well, albeit with limited slideshow and other customization options. Regardless, Apple TV can be positioned many different ways and there’s no reason why Apple couldn’t tout Apple TV – even as it exists right now – as a “photo station” to one audience and as something else to other targets.
Apple TV: putting the “idiot” back in “idiot box.” C’mon, MDN. You were absolutely wrong about the iPod Hi-Fi. Now you’re in denial about the Apple TV.
Apple makes great computers and software. But selling “home stereo reinvented” and the “future of television.” hasn’t worked out so well. Time to touch base with reality, MDN. Some products fail because they are lame ideas.
Again with the naysaying…seems the only people with negative things to say about Apple TV are people who don’t own an Apple TV. I have yet to see ONE individual who owns an Apple TV that say it’s useless.
@ Surrounded By Idiots:
I’ve yet to meet one person who owns an Apple TV or has even expressed interest in one.
There’s a big difference between “useless” and “worthwhile.” Some of us are able to live contented lives without devoting all our waking hours to conjuring up new ways to passively view an idiot box. Makes one wonder what the “idiots” surrounding you are perceiving that you seem to be missing.
Apple TV is a good product and when YouTube becomes available it will have a killer app. Games on it would be fun too. Apple will update the software so there will be changes.
Hi All,
Me again. Wo wow wo Imac Phones to cool.!!
I am sooo Excited about Tuesday:
PS : MS is Crap agan
PSSS: Have a look at my new sites coming.. macsnacs.com
and Mycrime.org
AppleTV is wonky in synching photos, and there is no way to do it on Windows that I’m aware of. So the author is right in suggesting that this rather simple trick be added to the bag – or at least fleshed out better (why it wasn’t right out of the box baffles me).
But I have no doubt that it isn’t selling that well, b/c a device with “TV” in it’s name needs to be a better video device than AppleTV is. I can’t play my existing DVD collection through it easily – or at all if I don’t want to break the law and spend a shit load of time ripping. I can’t buy iTS content from it – gotta use the stupid computer. And none of the already paid for (or free) content that I get on my TV already is easily accessed or stored on it either. I have to buy a few hundred dollars worth of extra stuff from EyeTV, hook that up to my COMPUTER, synch my COMPUTER with AppleTV once I’ve recorded my local sports team (or whatever) ON THE COMPUTER, etc … it’s a total waste of electricity, CPU cycles, and a time sink. In other words, it’s a pain in the ass.
So here’s my suggestion Mr CEO Steve Jobs – In addition to all the interesting-but-not-really-substantial things AppleTV already does, make it a DVR, give it the ability to easily store and retrieve stuff on networked storage, let me by stuff from iTunes FROM AppleTV, and for christsakes just put a simple DVD drive on the damn thing. That makes it perfection. You’ll sell more than you can make. End of story.
I too was a skeptic on the Apple TV, I’ve had a mini plugged into my TV.
A friend of mine bought the 40gb version and it has been sitting in it’s box because his TV did not have componant video. He brought it over last week and told me to go ahead and use it that he wouldn’t be getting a new TV till winter.
I decided to set it up and see what it was all about. MY WHOLE FAMILY has gone nuts over the thing. They don’t want to use the mini, it’s KB or Mouse. They want content on the Apple TV and they want to easily navigate with the remote. The video looks great, it is hooked into the living room surround and beats the experience of my Airport Express which was previous to the TV plugged in.
Apple TV rocks and until you get one and USE it, you have no idea what you are talking about..
“…until you get one and USE it, you have no idea what you are talking about.”
Less true words were never spoken.
Clue in, buckwheat. The sheer number of valid criticisms cannot be dismissed with your insipid, head-thoroughly-up-ass comment. Some of us ARE able to “know what we are talking about” without wasting money first. Only the lower-IQ’d among us require learning EVERYTHING from first-hand experience.
And that would be you, “Reality Check.” Perhaps you should watch TV less.
@ informed
I think you are wrong. Apple is about the experience, not the specifications.
Based on the comments and reviews I’ve read, most of the positive comments come from people who have actually used it. Most of the negative comments come from so-called “informed and high-IQ experts” who read the specs and can set up a virtual simulation of the experience in their oversized brains.
You all are just a bunch of geeks who have nothing better to do than argue online about computers and who knows more about them. I came on here looking for some good feedback on the product before I buy and had to read through all of this crap! Get a life!
>>John: I came on here looking for some good feedback on the product before I buy and had to read through all of this crap! Get a life!
Time to step off the high-horse bud.
—–
>ken1w wrote: Most of the negative comments come from so-called “informed and high-IQ experts”…
That you feel inferior to someone else isn’t that person’s fault.
The defense of the Apple TV by many of you is: You can’t comment about it if you don’t own one.
Of course, that is completely ridiculous. And in true fashion, when that sort of weak defense is pointed out, someone resorts to name-calling or childish rants… like you just did.
The only programs that Apple will write for Winblows are programs that are traditionally free. For example, iTunes and Quicktime. This is why I think the next currently Mac-only program to go Winblows is Safari. It makes sense. Apple swooping to the rescue of all the Windoze losers tired of IE with their own browser that is essentially open source.