Apple TV Hits the Market - Tech News - Playfuls.com - Science Technology

Apple Inc has announced it will start shipping its Apple TV, its long-awaited set-top box that can wirelessly play or download iTunes content from a PC or Mac on a HD TV. The magic box has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each and is capable of delivering high-definition 720p output.

Apple would not explain the uncharacteristic one-month delay and said only that the launch took a few weeks longer than expected.

The price somewhat reasonable: $299. The box is reportedly easy to install and use, and looks good - all three quite expected from Apple.

Apple TV comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports and is using high-speed AirPort 802.1 wireless networking. Of course, a good-old Ethernet port is also there if you're a wire man.

Apple TV and iTunes lets users choose from over 250 feature-length movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; four million songs, 5,000 music videos, 100,000 podcasts and 20,000 audiobooks.

Apple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet age -- providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement.

Essentially, the Apple TV downloads the stuff from any computer with iTunes to its own internal hard drive, and then plays it from there.

The gadget can connect with as many as five computers. However, it can't record the content for later use. Users can also view multimedia content stored on their PC or Mac, such as photos and DRM-free video clips.

It remains unclear how Apple will be able to sell the Apple TV outside the US. Not being compatible with competing online video providers, and without many options on iTunes, I can hardly see the gadget launched outside the United States. In Europe, Apple has so far failed to strike the deals with movie studios and television companies which would allow it to sell video content to download.

Of course, that is bound to change, in time, maybe for Apple TV 2.0. However, some like UK's Channel Four now are beginning to sell downloads from their own sites.

Eventually, the online video and TV industry should seriously think about implementing standards that would allow cross-compatibility. Apple milking its market dominant position in music downloads due to the iPod-iTunes combination will not happen anymore in the near future, I think.