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March 26, 2007
The Apple TV Revolution
Steve Jobs would have you believe that the Apple TV is the most revolutionary product to hit the living room since the invention of the ... well ... TV. So is the Apple TV revolutionary? A lot of people online would have you believe that it's nothing more than an overpriced hype machine to stream low quality iTunes content to your living room.
"I don't understand what makes appletv revolutionary. Why all the hype over a media extender?"
"Pay $300 to download overpriced content?"
- From digg.com
Do you have to buy your video from the iTunes Store? No. Is it for everyone? No. Are there other products out there that do the same thing. Yes ... well, sort of. So how could the Apple TV be revolutionary?
The amount of ire that the Apple TV is generating on blogs and discussion groups is bizarre and funny. Most of the comments seem to stem from a lack of information as much as a rebuke of all things Apple. Even professional reviewers seem to be missing the mark a bit. Since I don't own a video ipod, I've only listened to the audio version of the dl.tv podcast. In last Thursday's show, Patrick Norton gave their first impressions of the device and closed with these thoughts, "This is for people who have a whole lot of money invested in iTunes content." That's a refrain I hear and read again and again.
Sitting there on my couch, watching dl.tv for the first time, I thought, "Well, that's ironic." Patrick Norton made no mention of how revolutionary this could be for video podcasters. Whoops, did I just say "revolutionary"? Of all people, I would have expected a video podcaster to point out how easy the Apple TV makes it for podcasters to reach the living room. Yes, there are other products that do this, but do they do it with the amazing simplicity of an iPod? You plug it in, turn on iTunes on your PC or Mac and it just works.
For the first time I watched podcasts like Diggnation, dl.tv, The Merlin Mann Show, The 1Up Show, and many others in my living room on a giant screen. The video quality varied from the mediocre to the sublime. Some of the broadcast shows that I watch don't look as good as Pixel Perfect with Bert Monroy. It was after Pixel Perfect that I realized how revolutionary the Apple TV could be. Whoops, there's that word again.
Let's not forget that the iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it was the most user friendly. For the moment, the same holds true for the Apple TV.
For me the ability to watch podcasts on my HDTV is revolutionary, but is the Apple TV truly a revolutionary product? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, I’m going to pop open a beer and enjoy the latest episode of Diggnation while sitting on my couch.
- From toyman.tv
Posted by mferrell at March 26, 2007 3:31 PM
