Apple TV is the best set-top box out there for streaming movies, music and photos to your TV, from my first impressions of trying Apple’s new device.
But it also has the potential to be much more and, contrary to Steve Jobs’ assertion that users don’t want a computer by their sets, Apple TV might just become one.
I will be giving Apple TV a full review and a comparison with its rivals in next Friday’s Personal Technology column in the FT, but the basic capabilities are intriguing.
The $100 box contains an A4 processor, ideal for rendering video in high definition without stuttering, but also making it suited to regular computing functions.
There is 8Gb of internal storage, which Apple says is to help with buffering data and ensuring smooth video playback. But 8Gb is too much just for that and provides plenty of room for new applications to be stored, especially as Apple insists on streaming large video, music and photo files from elsewhere rather than making them local storage hogs.
Apple TV also runs the same iOS operating system as the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad, albeit with a different big-screen interface.
So with the same A4 chip, operating system and internal storage capability, Apple TV seems just as much a computing device as its siblings.
It even has a touch interface if users download the Apple Remote app onto their touch/iPhone/iPad to control Apple TV with this rather than the provided remote control. Then, swipe gestures can be used and a touch-enabled virtual keyboard.
So it follows that Apple TV should be able to feature apps as well – stock charts, weather, games, even a browser – anything found in the current App Store should be able to be adapted to work on the Apple TV interface.
But that is not how Apple is starting out with this product.
At the launch event on September 1, Steve Jobs said the company’s experience with the previous version of Apple TV, released four years ago, had taught it that consumers did not want a computer by their TV, they just wanted something that delivered high-quality content in HD.
The Apple TV does that -although the breadth of content is not there yet.
Apple is allowing developers to create limited types of apps for Apple TV through its AirPlay feature, coming in November. This allows users to switch video, photos and music they are watching or listening to on their touch, iPhone or iPad over to Apple TV and continue watching on the bigger screen.
Third-party developers will be able to make their apps do the same as long as they are video, photos or music.
Other set-top box makers are offering apps or channels from developers that give Facebook updates, news feeds and other information.
Apple could offer much more if it chooses to tap its developer community and it could even challenge the ambitions of Google with the forthcoming Google TV.
In the meantime, it has succeeded in introducing an impressive and affordable media player.
