Apple TV shipping now in the USA
Apple introduced another interesting product on the consumer market: Apple TV is described as digital media center that comes with its own fully featured store – this is only a partial truth, because all people not living in the States don’t have access to this internet store. This will probably result in the very common situation: a huge hype in the USA while the rest of world stays relatively calm. Apple TV is designed to work with Apple’s iTunes digital jukebox that runs on either Macintosh or Windows computers, thus giving users access to more than 400 movies, 50 hours video, 350 TV shows, over 4 million songs, 5000 music videos, 25,000 photos, and myriad podcasts plus audio books.
Apple TV connects to a TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs users’ iTunes libraries from any Mac or PC in the house. And most importantly, if a user changes his library in iTunes, the change automatically gets reflected on Apple TV wirelessly. The device comes with a remote control that lets users watch movies or TV shows bought from Apple’s iTunes store or view photo slide shows or listen to music. This is Apple’s first foray into consumers’ living rooms, and many other products extending that reach are waiting in the pipeline, according to sources. Meanwhile, Apple TV is shipping in the US this week onwards at Apple’s online store, retail stores, and through resellers at $299 approximately. TV’s design is again one of the most important parts: noone wants boring grey machines, it’s the style which sell outs all stores…
Comments(16)
Its all hype over nothing.
I’ve been using XBMC for years on my Xbox which does everything this apple thing can do and more. XMBC lets you watch what ever you want in loads of different formats and this mac box wont let you watch divx or xvid, only video bought from the apple store?
Waste of cash but it will sell well because there are so many apple fan boys out there that buy anything apple release.
ehhh.. i can see this not even entering EU market. Not that interesting, i think.
pointless, 10 years too late. They’ll try to sell any rubbish nowdays..
Is it for sure that it will only play videos from Apple Store??
If it was the only thing out there and pcs didn’t exist it would be cool….but there are option out there now..
Try the advance Media Player hardrive enclosure now called the playtime media player one of the best and cheapest out there right now. £65 and bung a hard drive in it. details on request
I just heard on the news you can also play home movies..so wouldn’t you be able to convert movies not from apple into a similar format, then put them onto your itunes, and send them over….if it could do that it would be not entirely useless….
can’t do anything above 720p
Wait, You pay 300 bucks so you can shop at their store? What does this thing actually do? Like many things Apple, I just don’t see the point other than they get money for something I wouldn’t use much. My el-cheapo mp3 player is 1000 times more user friendly than my kid’s Nano, My PC seems to do everything my friend’s iBook does, plus games (I won’t even mention they had 1-button mice, I gues they are too advanced for me?!?), and now this…thing? I’m just dying to see what the iPhone does.
*uck Fagple!
that sums it up quite nicely i think.
TVIX is not an apple but a cherry on the cake
Its also available here for $450 Australian.
I rather get something like the following with a 250GB HDD for the same price! (Well, here in Australia it is).
Mvix MX-760HD
http://www.mvixusa.com/product.php?product=mx760&page=specs
(Its Linux-based and there is the source code, so you can hack and modify it if you wish…If you check the specs, it utterly craps on Apple TV in terms of the video formats it supports).
The lack of flexibility and the narrow video format support of the Apple TV, isn’t gonna bode well for the general PC community. Then again, its not aimed at us, is it? Its for those who prefer stylish crap and are willing to pay for it, but remain totally ignorant to technology. (ie: “Looks are everything” + “easy to use” crowd).
Thanks, but no thanks.
“Its for those who prefer stylish crap and are willing to pay for it, but remain totally ignorant to technology.”
what the hell? did you go get a physics degree to better understand electromagnetism before watching a VHS tape? why should watching video be hard?
the lack of flexibility and narrow video format is exactly why people (not here) would be interested in it. not everyone wants to hack source or solder points to get video working. and this isn’t a set-top box, its a connector between your entertainment system and you main computer. a video ipod with wifi and HDMI.
and yes it can do non-Apple Store video in H.264/MPEG-4. limiting it means not having to deal with the jumble of encodes that rippers spew. no having to deal with morons complaining their ancient kazaa’d indeo porn can’t play.
basically, it’s something you can send to your mom and not have to spend hours doing customer support for.
and no, not a fanboy. had a silent linux box doing this for quite a while, but computers are my living. if people dropped the “must be complicated to be worthy” attitude then Apple and Microsoft wouldn’t be able to make so much money off those with better things to do with their time.
If it cant even play divX, its not even worth thinking about.
if i’ve just bought a fancy new piece of kit, the last thing i wanna do is immediately have to open up screws. it should play divx as standard, but it doesnt because apple know that divx is the warez standard.