Apple TV

By Ed@smalldog.com

After previewing iTV last September, Apple has unveiled the final specs for the device, which is now called Apple TV. It’s intended to include your widescreen (or even non-wide-screen) TV to your Macintosh entertainment network via a wireless or wired connection. As Apple says, “Your computer is the center of your digital life. Your TV is the center of your entertainment life. But what if you want to watch movies, TV shows, movie trailers, podcasts, and photos from your computer on your TV? At $299, Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen.”

It looks excellent. Specs are:
– 40 GB hard drive – 720p high definition video – 802.11 b, g, and n compatible – Some form of Intel Processor – Designed for widescreen TV’s – can stream from up to 5 computers (or from apple.com/trailers) – Auto-sync your Macs media content to the iTV.

Apple says “One-time setup. Full-time entertainment.”
Auto-Sync might be the coolest feature of Apple TV. According to Apple, “Open iTunes and Apple TV appears in your devices list, ready to sync. Set iTunes to sync unwatched TV shows, movies, and podcasts. Set it to sync new purchases. Or manually select what you want to watch. Set your syncing preferences once and Apple TV automatically updates as your iTunes library changes.”

“Apple TV streams as well as it syncs, so you can pair up to five additional computers and let friends and family stream their iTunes libraries to your TV. Apple TV stores up to 50 hours of video, ready to watch when you are. And if iTunes is still syncing what you want to see ? or if you don?t want to sync at all ? you can watch a stream from your computer right away.”

We’ll have the iTV in February, and will make it available for pre-order shortly.

During the Keynote, Steve Jobs said that he might screw up and call the Apple TV the iTV -which he did, numerous times, without catching the error. It is hard to call it the Apple TV, and not the iTV – just like it was hard to call the MacBook Pro the MacBook Pro, and not the Powerbook. It took me a year to adapt to that change – hopefully this will be easier.

By Ed@smalldog.com