six_of_one
Pool Bar
Registered: 04/19/02
Posts: 4474
Loc: Alexandria, VA
Quote:
So riddle me this Batman, what good is Apple TV ? I don't get it. just to beam stuff from your Mac to the HDTV ? someone enlighten me.
So, Apple TV in it's old incarnation would let you buy, rent stuff from the Music Store as well as play your iTunes library of video/music on your TV. You could have it store stuff locally on it's own HD or stream from your Mac (which is what I do now, since I have one of the earlier models with, like, no storage at all =P). Plus you could do some free interweb stuff like view YouTube videos and podcasts and whatnot ...
Sounds pretty mundane, but it's really very nice =)
The new version gets rid of the on-board storage and is all streaming, all the time. No purchases directly from the unit -- you have to buy stuff using iTunes on the mac and stream that content. You can rent still rent stuff directly, however. Aside from that, it provides the same functionality as the old unit, plus let's you grab Netflix stuff if you subscribe to the instant streaming service (which is spooky-great magic, btw ;-) ... Plus, it'll let you stream stuff from your iPhone/iPad, which opens up a lot of opportunities, especially if you can stream Keynote presentations and stuff ...
That, and it's half the size and 1/3 the price of the old version. I'm going to get one just for the Netflix if nothing else, which will mean I won't have to fire-up they BluRay player just to get to that content ...