Thoughts on the Apple TV
I’ve had my Apple TV for a few weeks now and I’m using it every night. I’m a podcast whore, which was one of my main reasons for buying it, because it means I now get to watch them on the big screen in my living room. Diggnation, Tekzilla and the other Revision3 shows do look very nice in HD on there. And for the audio stuff I listen to, the various shows from the TWIT network come out a lot clearer than they do via my laptop speakers. One thing that does bother me though is the necessity to still download this on my laptop and then sync it across, as it seems like an unnecessary step. The unit itself has an Internet connection which is perfectly capable of downloading items, it’s even possible to browse the podcast directory on my television screen, just not actually subscribe to anything. I can only hope this somewhat bizarre oversight is fixed in a future revision.
I don’t yet have my music in a place that is easily accessible for synching over to the unit, but that’s something that I hope to resolve in the coming months as I reorganise my computer setup. But it is nice that the limited music I do have available on my laptop can be streamed to the Apple TV and out of my computer by selecting it as a speaker output within iTunes, just like you’ve been able to do with an Airport Express.
Purchasing content straight from the Apple TV is fast and painless, and although I was initially going to complain that the search functionality was almost completely crippled by the slowness of the on-screen keyboard, I’ve since realised that this is because of some weirdness with my universal remote as switching to the one shipped with the unit makes the interface feel much snappier. I do think though that £1.89 per show for TV is a bit much, and is unlikely to sway me from the less reputable sources of the stuff. Even buying whole series is overly expensive. It’s about £20 for a season of Friends, when the same thing on DVD is easily available for less than £10. They’re going to have to do something about that if they really want to compete with torrents.
Overall, I’m pleased with the purchase, and will get even more from it once my music can be synched across. I’d like to finish by making a special mention of the photo screensaver, it’s an excellent touch that has everyone who sees it just fascinated.
