The new Apple TV is here, and early reviews indicate Apple has done a better job with the device this time around. But can it succeed in a way the original Apple TV failed to?
Apple TV
As with every new Apple product, the Apple TV received a lot of buzz in its early days. But the world both consumers and content owners) just didn’t seem ready for an online video set-top box to become mainstream.
Steve Jobs and co. soon wrote the whole thing off as nothing more than a hobby, while at the same time heading back to the drawing board and creating Apple TV 2.0. Which has now arrived.
The All-New Apple TV Arrives
The all-new Apple TV has started landing on doorsteps this week, and there have already been a healthy sprinkling of reviews around the Web. Most of them are mainly positive, but it doesn’t appear as if this Apple product will change the world in the way others have.
Fox News isn’t who I would normally turn to for a technology review, but as it posted its one before anyone else it deserves coverage. The review is very much from a mainstream perspective, with the reviewer referring to his mom and how she’d get on with it. The overall verdict is that while the new Apple TV is very promising, it’ll need some heavy marketing to actually achieve anything.
CNET gives the new Apple TV a good going over, as it does with all products it reviews. The bottom line of, “The Apple TV’s new low $99 price makes it an easy impulse buy for Apple fans looking to bring Netflix into the living room, but you may want to wait until more content–or Apple’s forthcoming AirPlay update–becomes available,” pretty much says it all. In essence, the review states that while the Apple TV is nice but a lack of content is costing it dear at this stage.
Engadget gives the new Apple TV the most thorough review of all. The image and sound quality tests are particularly interesting because they find that while the sound is strong, the image quality isn’t as good as Amazon content streaming on a Roku box. The comparisons with other set-top boxes continues, with the Boxee Box also getting a mention. Its conclusion is that Apple TV is a good simple option but not the be all and end all. In fact, it still feels a lot like a hobby.
Conclusions
It’s probably too early to truly tell exactly what the new Apple TV is going to bring to the table. Until the competition (Google TV and others) arrives then no one is going to truly know whether any service is going to be the magic pill which bring online video into the living room in a big way. Until then the Apple TV at least looks good.
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