I’m still at CES… And not only am I behind on events/info occurring here I’m also still getting caught up on Apple’s announcements.
I just took a brief gander at the $299 iTV (now branded Apple TV), and am disappointed with the first rev of their software. What I’m bothered with as a consumer is that a Mac or PC is needed as an intermediary for iTunes video purchases. With a 40GB hard drive, it’s probably safe to say at some point they’ll take the computer out of the equation… right? For $100 more you could pick up an Xbox 360 with TV and Movie downloads direct to the console, no PC required. Oh yeah, you can do a bunch of other stuff too. The second issue I have is that Apple continues to lock us into their ecosystem — A model that has worked well for them with audio, but may not be as successful with video in the era of YouTube and DivX: The iTV has limited multimedia format support compared to products such as Netgear’s new Digital Entertainer HD.
Good, bad, or just average – I’m sure Apple will move a decent amount of product. They build sexy looking hardware and software, and seem to have the marketing game figured out. However, they can’t count me as an early adopter. I’ll be looking forward to Matt’s review if/when he picks up a box.
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i agree, my main gripe is that your locked into itunes purchases, so the apple tv is merely a product to boost itunes movie sales, because the majority of people who buy an apple tv may not be savvy enough to import videos from outer sources into itunes (tivodecode manager for example). I think that the value in the cost would be much more justifiable if the appletv was more versatile. also, has anyone read what the use of USB will be? maybe it will handle external storage, or even support an ipod...
As much as I'm a complete Mac addict, I won't be buying this version of Apple TV either. I was hoping we'd be able to download directly from the Apple iTunes Store, as well as hoping to see some sort of rental partnership with netflix. Also, it would be great to surf through google video or youtube and view internet clips online as well.
Perhaps in the future...
I will be picking one up.
The cool factor of the music (read: cover flow etc.) and photo presentation (read: slide shows with music) is reason alone to buy in and ditch my Series 2 next to my Series 3 in the living room, which is my media extender at the moment. While Galleon and Liquid Faucet could enhance Series 2 HMO features to a level comparable with AppleTV for photo's and music it was a bit much for a geek-in-training and/or not stable enough. Why Tivo didn't support or adopt these 3rd party application I still don't know?
(The Netgear unit looks interesting but I don't own a pc.)