January 9, 2007
Apple TV
Apple is devoting a surprising amount of booth space to their new Apple TV product this year. One whole side of the booth is occupied by Sony Bravia LCD TVs and Apple TV units. And unlike the iPhone, the unwashed masses are allowed to touch and play:
It's super-thin (I wonder if it uses an iPod-sized HD in there?)
An obligatory butt shot.
Overall, I am not as enthused by Apple TV. When I finally decided to leave the stone ages and acquire a HD-capable TV, I'm sure that I'll end up getting one of these thingies. But for now, it is just a curiosity.
One thing that I learned from an Apple person is that while the Apple TV wants to output HD at 720p, it will apparently upconvert for TVs that require this (probably similar to what the Xbox is doing).
The key realization that I had about the Apple TV during the keynote is that the Apple TV is basically a headless iPod. When SJ covered how you can sync your content from iTunes to the Apple TV, it struck me how similar this is to syncing to the iPod. I think that is a really brilliant move on Apple's part. The other hot feature of this thing is that it allows you to stream content from ad hoc machines (i.e. laptops) quite easily. That will prove to be a killer feature, as laptops continue their current upwards sales trends.
-Andy.