That low rumbling whirrr you heard coming from the west as you sat down to your Fruity Pebbles this morning was the sound of the generators for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field coming online. The master took the stage once again today to wow fans, put an end to some of the recent speculation and introduce some new products. As far as MacWorld's go, this one was a little odd. Most of the keynote was devoted to the new iPhone, with no mention of iLife, iWork, Leopard or any of the computer hardware. You can get the complete rundown on the show, including all the info about the iPhone, from our pals over at TUAW. For our purposes here though, the big news is Apple TV.
The new set top box aims to bring all your entertainment junk (music, photos, movies, TV) from the computer to the big TV in the living room. With Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB, there are many options to get your content on to the included 40GB drive. Once there, five different computers will be able to connect to the box, making it a hub for your entertainment collection. Apple TV will also be able to stream online content, like the trailers from Apple.com. Units are available for order now, and begin shipping next month. An HDMI output and support for 720P are included. The price is $299.
As with most innovations, it's not that they are doing anything groundbreaking, but more that they are improving and simplifying the process. I already have a somewhat kludgey setup that lets me use Front Row from my MacBook on the big TV, but it's not something I would recommend to most users, and it's certainly not as elegant as the Apple TV experience will be. Look for more details on the performance of the units once they begin to ship.
[ via Engadget ]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-09-2007 @ 5:42PM
whawha said...
Score another one for Apple Computer...um, I mean Apple, inc., as it must now be called. I paid a boatload for a Roku to hook up my iTunes throughout the house...the thing is crap. It sometimes deigns to work, and sometimes even refuses to shut down. Other options like teh Sonos system are too pricy.
If Apple TV does half of what Jobs says it will, I'm in. Even if it's just for the music.
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1-10-2007 @ 11:21PM
Andy said...
Sounds awesome
Lets see how long it takes for Microsoft to make a copy-cat....
Reply
1-12-2007 @ 5:00PM
Joel said...
AppleTV seems amazing, but I think it is missing some obvious features that would have made this product absolutely amazing and a MUST have. The first being the lack of a DVR. Apple restricted usage of the AppleTV to content that can be controlled by Itunes. This is a bad play in my book. Apple could have included this feature and it would have made the value of having an AppleTV much more enticing. The second feature is the ability to use your TV as your computer screen, broadcasted via wifi. This would be amazing! I don't see any reason why this can't be done if you can stream content from a computer. Why not have the AppleTV box turn your big screen into a wireless monitor?
I still want it, but I won't be rushing to get it.
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