Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple TV
Apple TV on Yahoo! Tech's Worst of 2007 list
Apple products often find themselves on the yearly 'Best of' lists composed by the mainstream media and bloggers alike, but they don't often grace the 'Worst of' lists. Sadly, Yahoo! Tech has deemed the Apple TV as one of the 'Top 10 Worst Tech Products' of the year. Apple TV made the list for a few reasons: you can't buy content directly from the box, the lack of updates to the software, and the lack of DVR capabilities are all reasons that the Apple TV is on the naughty list.I find myself agreeing with Yahoo! on this one. The Apple TV is pretty much just a glorified iTunes extender, and that's why I haven't bought one for myself. That might all change, though, if you are able to rent movies directly from the device in the near future. Let's revisit this one after Steve's Macworld keynote, shall we?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
David said 4:11PM on 12-28-2007
Could the AppleTV be better? Sure, a lot better. Does it do what's advertised? Sure does. It does what it's supposed to do. Hopefully the rumors about an update are true and it will be even better.
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Steven said 4:23PM on 12-28-2007
I got an AppleTV for my birthday in May, and while initially it was cool, it's been pretty worthless for the last couple of months.
The more content that I get that it can't play, the more useless it is to me...
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Pete said 4:23PM on 12-28-2007
I bought an Apple TV when it first came out. I really love how well it works and we use ours all the time. It's especially useful when I make a project in iMove and just want to watch it on the big screen real quick.
I do hope we can rent movies thru it though. That would be very useful.
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Brent said 4:25PM on 12-28-2007
I think that Apple TV is a great device. I have one and love it. I don't understand why it doesn't have the iTunes store on it yet (you'd think it'd be pretty easy since it's now on the iPhone) but once it gets that and possible movie rentals, it'll be even better. Not so sure why it gets such a bad rap. It's a great way for me to have my entire music library accessible no matter where my laptop is.
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tves said 4:30PM on 12-28-2007
I'd purchase 3 if it could play VIDEO_TS folders from the network like FrontRow. Or Itunes allow them to be placed in the Movies section w/o transcoding.
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Jeff Weitzman said 4:31PM on 12-28-2007
That's like criticizing a train for not being a bus! "It's restricted to a fixed set of tracks, it can only stop where there's a pre-existing platform, and worse, you can only go in one direction on each track at a time!"
The Apple TV may or may not be a long-term survivor in the lineup, but it does what it was designed to do very well. Add a transcoder like Visual Hub and the video options become even more useful, but even without that, some of us just want an always-synched media player for our photos and music and home videos. That's what Apple TV is. The fact that it hasn't (yet) become an all-purpose media set top box is beside the point.
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Galley said 4:31PM on 12-28-2007
I've been dying to buy one, but I'm waiting until Macworld to see if a version 2.0 is released.
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mentalsticks said 4:34PM on 12-28-2007
The AppleTV COULD be a great device, but as it is it isn't.
How ridiculous is it that it doesn't play divx or xvid? If MS would come out with a box that could only play wmv, then we'd all be over it like a pack of rabid wolves.
Mind you, I use my aTV on a daily basis and rather I'm happy with it. But part of the reason that I bought it was Steve Jobs's remark (i don't remember exactly when) that there'd be updates and improvements to it, and there haven't been any, except for the semi-crippled YouTube one (which doesn't work anymore for me, and for many many others too). My brother just bought a living room media box for a quarter of the price which does about five times as much.
So, sadly, I tend to agree with Yahoo.
It could change on Macworld, of course, and I'd be very happy to see something new (for example, those rented movie: will that be US only as seems to be the new rule with Apple? I can't even buy music videos here yet). But it's also entirely possible that there'll be an AppleTV G2 and that everybody who owns one already is up sheet crik without a paddle...
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LD said 4:36PM on 12-28-2007
"The Apple TV is pretty much just a glorified iTunes
it will still be a glorified iTunes extender. That doesn't change.
I'm not sure what point you are making by calling a spade a spade. It does precisely what it's supposed to do.
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Chris Newton said 4:50PM on 12-28-2007
And what that spade does is weak. That's the point. At $300... it's weak.
Mike B. said 5:05PM on 12-28-2007
I'm not sure what point you are making by calling a spade a spade. It does precisely what it's supposed to do.
The problem appears to be that not a lot of people find its functionality especially useful, not that said functionality doesn't exist.
The train analogy is telling: trains were made obsolete (except for very short hauls centered around urban areas) by planes, because planes do the same job better.
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Dan Neuman said 5:08PM on 12-28-2007
If you aren't making any mistakes, you aren't trying hard enough.
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JohnPQ said 5:26PM on 12-28-2007
Apple is kicking a dead horse with the Apple TV. I'm afraid that in this day cable, satellite, DVDs and Tivo it will always be a niche product at best. Who really wants to buy a $300 dollar rental box?
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Jason Greene said 5:45PM on 12-28-2007
I have an AppleTV. I love it and use it on an almost daily basis. It seems like most of the complaints about the ATV come from people who don't own or want to own one.
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Frank Furter said 5:59PM on 12-28-2007
I agree with Jason. I never saw the need for one, but my curiosity peaked (and my daughter wanted to hear 'her' music in the theater room).
It does exactly what it's advertised to do. And so far, it's been ROCK solid. I don't cringe every time I use it (as opposed to Rhapsody on TiVo - are you kidding me?).
I have 13,000 of my own songs (legal, ripped from my collection), I use Handbrake to copy DVD's and stream to it, and it displays my photos without a hitch. TiVo (talk about needing updates) would constantly choke, reboot, hang, whatever doing anything besides watching TV.
Sure, I wish the AppleTV would also record TV in true Apple-design-like wonder, but not yet. Maybe not ever. But worst of the year? They obviously haven't been to about any of their own websites. My Yahoo is silly.
Able-X said 6:04PM on 12-28-2007
Jason, you nailed it. I've had mine for awhile and use it constantly. I'm almost finished converting all my dvd's to mp4's for it, and my itunes library is MASSIVE now.
All the people complaining about it seem to be people who want it to do all kinds of other stuff, and don't own one themselves. If it doesn't work for you, buy one of the many other types of media extender boxes out there.
For me, and many like me, it works great, and does exactly what its supposed to do.
The one caveat is the broken youtube functions, but since i never used it anyway, i could frankly care less about having youtube on there.
jin said 6:40PM on 12-28-2007
I operate the ONLY Apple TV-related news/information web site, http://appletvsource.com. The site has been in operation since day one of the Apple TV release. Even I would have to say that Apple is really not taking care of the Apple TV well. There was only one software update so far and all to play some pixelated Youtube videos.
I think its reliance on iTunes content was the main reason why the product didn't appeal to a large number of consumers. For Apple TV to succeed, Apple needs to follow the sure-fire formula that made iPod and iPhone successful and that is to open it up to 3rd party developers. There is a "made for iPod" program but there is no "made for Apple TV" logo program.
I have written an article entitled "Repurposing the Apple TV" detailing what Apple could do to revive the Apple TV. It is available here:
http://appletvsource.com/content/view/464/
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mentalsticks said 6:41PM on 12-28-2007
@Mike B: yes, you're right, it says exactly what it does on the box. And what it does, is not a lot for EUR/US$300 - and I'd guess that's why it's on the list.
Also, offtopic: trains are far, far from obsolete, and in Europe and Japan, long-distance train traffic is on the increase. Get your facts straight.
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Dave said 6:57PM on 12-28-2007
The Apple TV is a good device for those who want it. But it is a bit of a niche product at the moment. If Apple adds rentals (with the ability to rent from the Apple TV itself), it will be a killer product.
I like my Apple TV, it's a great little unit. I love it even more now that I've enabled AFP, SSH, Perian, rTorrent and support for USB mass storage devices. :)
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Hank said 7:03PM on 12-28-2007
I have to agree with the Apple TV being on the list just for the lack of DVR capability alone. I'd buy one tomorrow and replace my Tivo with one, but not until they have DVR. Period. It's just a total blunder that they didn't provide such. A real misstep.
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