Saturday, March 24, 2007

Apple TV is another way to enjoy the content you manage by iTunes, and a natural evolution of the work Apple has done with the iPod. It's not the first to utilize a TV--you can easily connect most modern iPods to your TV with an optional dock and set of cables (and, incidentally, duplicate almost everything the Apple TV does at a lower cost)--but it is the first Apple device designed specifically and exclusively for the living room. And while it is missing some very key functionality that would make this device far more compelling, it's not a horrible first attempt.

I'm a huge fan and regular user of iTunes and various iPods, but the Apple TV is lacking that special something that those solutions have in spades. It is neither best of breed nor even in the running. It is, in short, simply OK. And I know Apple can do better than this.

And if you are thinking about an Apple TV, consider this: You can do virtually everything the Apple TV does with the iPod you probably already own, a $39 dock, and a $19 set of cables, albeit at standard definition resolutions. Is the Apple TV really worth the $300? At this point, the answer, for most people, is no.

Labels: Apple, iPod, iTunes