Apple TV Take 2 Gets it Right
It’s taken a year and a half, but Apple has finally made the Apple TV (40GB $230; 160GB $320) worthwhile. Most of my original complaints are no longer valid, though I was correct in the device’s initial failure to grasp only but a niche market. With version 2 of the device, Apple has changed very little, but have added one major capability to iTunes: HD movie rentals.
Just when we thought Blu-ray had won the format war, Apple has made things very interesting. While one can’t own the movies they purchase (this will be coming at some point–probably with a virtual catalog in the iTunes Movie Store instead of local storage), Apple TV makes HD movies that much more accessible. A $3.99-$4.99 price tag on rentals also adds some competition for Netflix (who recently announced unlimited streaming movies–but those aren’t HD).
Apple TV Take 2 was my favorite announcement from the MacWorld 2008 keynote, which also featured a NAS (dubbed Time Capsule), new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the deliciously green and expensive MacBook Air.
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