Walt loves Apple TV

Gadget godfather Walt Mossberg is first out of the gate with a review of the Apple TV, and he likes what he sees. It seems that Apple's first A/V product designed for the living room worked exactly as advertised. Over 10 days of testing, Mossberg (and colleague Katie Boehret) was able to stream the iTunes-based music, video, and photos from six computers--three Windows PCs and three Macs--without a hitch. Even more impressive was the fact that the video streaming was stutter-free, even though he was testing with an older 802.11g wireless router rather than the state-of-the-art 802.11n Wi-Fi version that's built into the Apple TV.

The full review at Mossberg's Personal Technology site (which, curiously, does not require a subscription even though the paper's main site does) goes on to point out the key limitations of the device--it only streams iTunes content, and only works with HD or EDTVs--as well as some feature comparisons to the streaming and video download services available on the Xbox 360 (one of several competing devices). You can also watch Walt and Katie's YouTube-esque video review embedded above.

CNET will have a full review of Apple TV soon.

Video link from mac-essentials.de via Engadget

[make_or_break]

When does Mossberg NOT like anything Apple does?

I'd really like to know, not that ol' Walt is anything close to tech-savvy to begin with (he admits it himself, for bloody sake).

[kimberlyholmes113]

Viewer Habits

It will be interesting to see what the viewing habits are like with this thing.

This week, Shelly Palmer reported that YouTube's busiest time is Saturday
afternoon:
http://advancedmediacommittee.typepad.com/emmyadvancedmedia/
2007/03/googles_idea_of.html

I was kind of shocked by that, and wondered if that's when most iTunes
videos are purchased.

I'm guessing that, if this feels more like traditional TV (i.e. watched from a
couch) then viewer habits may fit traditional more models.

Jessica