The question for the past few years has been simple: who’s going to make it into the living room first. The market is growing, features are being added, but no clear victor has been declared.
I think I may have come upon a conclusion that appeases almost everyone. Bear with me, it’s a bit loopy. I [...]
I use Blockbuster Online, and I love it. Apple TV and downloadable rentals that I can transfer to my iPod sounds even better than getting DVDs in the mail, but I don’t own one. The Blockbuster subscription plan works well for me and is cheaper than the $229 required for the Apple TV. I have [...]
Chimoosoft created this fantastic little donationware app called TubeTv. With this app, you can save video files from YouTube and other sites and make them playable on your Mac, iPod, or Apple TV. There are of course other ways to do the same thing, but a standalone app that grabs your URL from your default [...]
The Apple TV’s new found friends may have brought it up to par with several of its competitors, but does it compare to Apple’s own standards?
With a completely redesigned UI and a slew of new features, the Apple TV seems a new breed of set top box. One, oddly enough, in the same packaging we’ve [...]
For the past 24+ hours RSS readers around the globe have been awash with OS X 10.5.2 update news and notes on the ancillary side updates. The Cupertino software barrage continued today, including the Apple TV “Take 2″, which added access to iTunes rentals, Flickr/.Mac photos/movies and HD trailers.
I started the download before my evening [...]
When it comes to harnessing your Mac’s power for video encoding, you’re left with two choices: digital or physical.
Digital
Handbrake is the go to source for creating digital copies of your video. With Handbrake you can pop in a DVD and select the appropriate preset. You can encode straight to iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Handbrake [...]
This is the fifth year I’ve attended Macworld Expo on the day of the keynote, and it definitely wasn’t as exciting as 2007. But after last year’s introduction of the long-rumored iPhone, how could it be?
Of course, another big difference is that I didn’t get into the keynote this year. There’s always a disconnect between [...]
Today Apple released it’s second version of it’s AppleTV product.
To go along with the new iTunes movie rental service, Apple’s new version of the AppleTV has had a nice update.
A quick feature rundown:
No computer required
Rent movies directly from the AppleTV (HD movies for $3.99; $4.99 for new releases)
DVD quality and HD quality + Dolby 5.1
Buy [...]
The Apple TV and iPod are often maligned for being proprietary. Designed to work with all the content you’ve acquired and ripped into iTunes, they work primarily with music, TV shows, and films you’ve acquired from the iTunes store, or with your iPhoto library. But step outside these file formats and you’re pretty much out [...]
After months and months of Apple TV owners, including myself, decrying Apple’s lack of an iTunes movie rental strategy, which would add great value to the device, it appears the company is going to get the users what we want. According to the Financial Times, Apple has struck a deal with 20th Century Fox that [...]
Everyone still seems hot and bothered that the Apple TV remains nothing more than a “hobby.” But if you consider a couple years ago, Steve Jobs assured us that Apple is listening, and that they understand user demands. What has this translated to us over time? Amazing products that usually go beyond our considerations, namely [...]
As you may know, Apple has posted a guided tour of Leopard to the company’s Web site, giving us the most in-depth preview so far of the latest operating system upgrade, which hits stores this Friday. After taking the 20+ minutes to watch the video in full, I can unequivocally say I am very impressed, [...]
With Sony announcing a DVR for the PS3, what are the odds Apple will make a similar move? Sony and Apple are very different companies. What drives Sony may not drive Apple.
These days, Sony seems lost. They missed out on the digital audio player market after being the dominant player in the portable audio market. The [...]
My Apple TV is looking for more work to do. Yes, it’s happy to be playing songs and the occasional show from my iTunes library, and surfing YouTube, but I get the sense it’s bored. Meanwhile, next to it, my Nintendo Wii is running interactive video games, downloading classic arcade titles over the Internet, and [...]
This morning, Apple released a software update for Apple TV owners which added the ability to access YouTube videos, in addition to content already present in iTunes. Not one to wait around, I installed it immediately, and it works well, but I can already see limitations to the service that surprised me.
Upgrading the Software
Accessing the software [...]
