Apple TV
The media have had a busy week with Apple’s new streaming media device - they’ve been tinkering, taking it to bits, hacking it and general trying to make sense of whether it’s a great product or not. The concensus seems to be a guarded ‘yes’, though with most reviewers lamenting Apple’s ‘walled-garden’ approach and wishing for more flexibility. Although the primary function of the Apple TV is to play back television and film content managed by - and possibly purchased from - iTunes on your (widescreen) television, this also means that users’ music collections can also be accessed via your television. I’m not an expert in this area, but I assume a significant number of people will welcome the opportunity to play their music through their surround-sound equipped TV. Those considering purchase Apple TV in part to enable this should note the following from PC World’s review:
(…) Apple TV starts copying your content from your iTunes library onto its hard drive in a specific order: first movies, then TV shows, then music, etc. If there was a way to move something to the front of the line, it wasn’t obvious to me.
Walt Mossberg notes in the Wall Street Journal that music and video content can be streamed from any of five computers additional to the primary sync’ed computer with which Apple TV can communicate with, so this isn’t such a concern. However, the following point is more worrying:
Music playback was very reminiscent of the iPod’s interface, with lots of ways to view your collection. Album art for the music I was playing displayed beautifully—so beautifully it made me wish I could navigate my collection by the cover art, like the cover flow view in iTunes. But, alas, that option isn’t available. One other complaint: Once you left the music area, your album stopped playing. I would have liked to be able to continue listening to my choice while I was picking through pictures or watching a slideshow.
Update: Example of Apple TV confusion regarding streamed music
Links: Apple TV product page, PC World review, Walt Mossberg review
