Apple TV: Take 2

I was both excited and discouraged to hear Steve Jobs talk about the new Apple TV Take 2 at Macworld. As an early Apple TV (Take 1?) adopter, I thought I would be left out in the cold like so many other Apple products. This was not to be the case. Apple announced a firmware upgrade for the old Apple TV that would give it basically THE SAME CAPABILITIES as the new "Take 2". This was the move that once again endeared Apple to my already Mac lusting heart. Even more importantly it proved that they can admit when things are wrong.

I'll break this review down into five sections and let you know what's up with the "Take 2" and why I see this as the future of media at home.

It's a wifi "collector" for all your media
Updating the software was a breeze. It took about ten minutes and suddenly I had an all new device. The first thing I noticed was that all my media (no matter what the computer) showed up on the Apple TV. I was able to see and stream video effortlessly. A previous problem that I had hated with the Apple TV was that if you streamed content, it did not remember where you left off the next time you started the stream. This effectively forced you to put your content on the Apple TV's relatively small hard drive. With the new update, that has been fixed. Now I really don't have to rely on my hard drive at all. All my music, movies, podcasts, and TV shows have streamed effortlessly.

The interface just rocks!
The "Take 2" interface has changed to actually use the screen real estate that comes with your wide screen TV. The main menu flies into any screen that you are looking at by just hitting the "menu" button on your remote (a topic for a later rant). Accessing your personal content (Movies, Podcasts, TV Shows, and Pictures) appears almost exactly the same as the original software. Your content sails by as you navigate through the menus. The most impressive new addition the ability to directly link to the iTunes music store. Best of all, my non-techie wife can use it effortlessly (a feat only matched by the Tivo interface).

You can buy stuff without getting off your lazy ass
I was ok with the original concept of buying stuff from you computer and then transfering it to the Apple TV, but I had been waiting for the direct link to iTunes that the "Take 2" update finally gave us. In the first two hours of testing it out, I found myself wandering in the iTunes store right there on my TV. All of the products in the store have short previews, just like iTunes on your computer. I found myself checking out old episodes of "The A Team" and "Scooby-Doo" (hey, don't judge) and my finger was lingering over the "buy" button each time. Just to test out the interface, I purchased an episode of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" for my daughter. The download began right away and the show was available to view withing the first 20 seconds. After it fully downloaded, it synced with my iMac and showed up in the "TV Shows" section of iTunes. This is a very dangerous concept. It was so cheap and easy to access the content on the Apple TV, that for a brief time, I actually found myself considering giving up cable and just relying on the content from iTunes. If you are not a big sports fan, having a Netflix and Apple TV would be a cost savings over the huge cable bill that we all seem to have to pay. Did I mention that you can buy music like this as well? Truly addicting.

You can share and view photos with ease
I have been thinking about getting my parents a Mac Mini for Christmas next year. Now I think I'm just going to save some money and get them an Apple TV instead. Let's face it, my whole goal with buying my parents a computer was to get them easily view photos of their granddaughter . "Take 2" now supports Flickr accounts as well as .Mac. This will allow my parents to just turn on the TV and view up to date photos and movies of everything we are doing. Flickr integration also means that you can now access your friends' accounts as well. "Take 2" also lets you use any of you or your friends accounts for screen savers. This would be a nice bragging piece for my Mom when her friends come over for coffee.

Welcome to surround sound
Suddenly, my personal DVD's that I had ripped were booming at me in 5.1 surround sound. It shocked me at first because I didn't know that surround sound was part of the update. Finally, some of the TV shows that I had purchased from iTunes sounded good on my home theater.

Ok, there are a few drawbacks.
1. The system seems more sluggish than it did before.
2. That damn little remote control is starting to get on my nerves. At first I was excited about how small it was, but after loosing it for the 100th time in the couch, I'm hoping that Apple will release a remote with GPS. That way, I can navigate directly to it.
3. You need a big hard drive SOMEWHERE in your house. Your content has to live somewhere. If you are serious about the Apple TV and want to transfer a bunch of your content from DVD as well as purchasing new stuff from the iTunes music store, you are going to need a pretty big hard drive. I would recommend at least 500GB to start with.

If you are contemplating making the move to a media center, think about the Apple TV. The combination of your personal content, iTunes movies, TV shows, podcasts, and music will keep you entertained for years to come.