I love movies. With a growing family and career on overdrive however, I don’t get to see many these days. There’s a swank new theatre in town that serves booze and has reserved seats, but it might as well be a figment of my imagination.
I loath mindless TV. I dropped cable service for good a few years back and honestly don’t miss it. Well, the occasional ballgame would be nice but it’s an acceptable loss. And with the exception of another historic event (such as 9/11 or the moon landings), the web blows away TV for concise and directed news consumption.
Enter AppleTV. First, in full disclosure, there are some who call me an Apple fanboy. I prefer to think of myself as a connoisseur of fine things and an admirer of Steve Jobs, but I’ll admit Apple’s marketing has me zeroed like a German 88 on a Normandy crossroads (yes, we’ve been watching Band of Brothers again).
I purchased it on a bit of a lark, and was frankly not very impressed for the first few months. It wasn’t until their 2.0 software update and some experimentation running Boxee as hack that I began to think more about the device.
It’s first big win came from an unlikely place, the screensaver. The default setting (assuming you choose to sync your photos to it) is to display all of your photos in a subtle but engaging stream across the screen. Intellectually that doesn’t sound so cool, but if you keep photos from your whole life in there, watching events from different corners of your life really makes it a stream of memories. There have been several occasions with guests were we simply sit and watch it. Sometimes for more than an hour. Great reminders.
Since there are 3 iPhones in the house, the free Remote app (iTunes link) that lets you control the AppleTV (and any other shared iTunes library) via WiFi connection was a brilliant addition. It’s great for wowing guests in the demo or lowering the volume of Johnny Cash during a late night poker game.
The next step was the death (due to old age) of my all-in-one DVD player / surround sound system. Having just invested a small fortune in baby resistant living room furniture, I was in no mood to spend even $100 to replace the device. It’s rare I actually watch a physical disc these days, as I love the convenience of having my collection in iTunes and independent of the screen. For now, no actual disc player hooked to the TV.
So now the only competition for our AppleTV comes from the Roku device that sits next to it, solely for the Netflix streaming (and maybe next year for MLB.tv to scratch that ballgame itch). I’d like to see the next AppleTV update include streaming from say Hulu. Can’t we all get along? Live sports and breaking news, even as content subscriptions, would be intriguing. RSS and Twitter would be nice to throw up on the big screen, maybe as part of the screensaver.
Lastly, the biggest improvement will come from the network, not the device. Just as AT&T turns off potential iPhone converts and frustrates the faithful, Time Warner’s 1.5 down (on a good day) simply doesn’t cut it for spur the moment movie rentals or anything in HD. You basically have to make your choice well before dinner or the night before. I’ve heard about the mythical Verizon FiOS, but alas not a soul at that company can tell me when it will be available in my neighborhood. Why is that such a secret?
While I realize it’s just a hobby for Apple, I hope it gets upgraded to full fledged side business. It’s good lemonade.