It’s hip2b2

Finally, after numerous delays and delays and delays, the Apple TV is finally out. So fans of integrated home entertainment wizardry would like to get a crack at this elegant and classy entertainment appliance from Apple. Of course, we do not expect anything less. As far the online press is concerned, it has been a success so far (from NYTimes).

Basically, it’s an iPod for your TV. That is, it copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or Windows PC on your wired or wireless home network to its 40-gigabyte hard drive and keeps the copy updated. The drive holds about 50 hours’ worth of video or 9,000 songs; if your iTunes library is bigger than that, you can specify what subset you want copied — only unwatched TV episodes, for example.

But, not all is well in Apple Land. For a device that requires an HDTV to work the video is only presented in standard definition. So, it is pretty disappointing to see a high definition menu screen but low definition content. In general, it is more a media library and manager than a full fledged TiVo killer. It allows the usual access to the iTunes music store and all the other goodies you expect your iPod to have. But, no on-demand TV recording Looks like Apples is making friends with the content publishers and this is the ultimate act of good faith.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.