Apple TV is Apples foray into more then just streaming music around the house, but rather streaming media of all kinds.
With the ability to hook into your iTunes library this little device can stream all the HD content you have bought from the iTunes store and play it right on your HDTV as well as let you listen to all your music.
With its small form factor( think about half as big as a Mac Mini ) it will be sure to fit nicely in your media cabinet and with the ability to use the new draft n standard of 802.11 for its wireless connection you should have no problem streaming HD over it.
The AppleTV uses a modified version of FrontRow to display your music,video,photos,audio books, etc on a very simple menu system displayed on your TV. Using the supplied remote you just navigate the menu like you would an iPod and select what you want.
This is one of those products that is going to help bridge the gap between geeks like us gushing over networked media and mom and pop realizing the beauty of digital storage of all of your media.
Lets hope Apple can do it again and revolutionize yet another area of technology!
Some things we like about the device:
- No restrictions on playing iTunes content since this is an Apple product
- Native support for HDMI and all things HD
- Small form factor
- Support for the 802.11n standard
- Very cool looking version of FrontRow
And some things we don't like
- Ships with the same basic remote that lacks any real functionality
- Only works with iTunes so no vision of a cool media center of your
creation - Internal hard drive is not currently operational
- No PVR support
We will have one in house later this month When this finally ships sometime in March we will be sure to put it through its paces and let you know what our impressions are. Until then enjoy the music.
