Apple TV

Posted by T3 Online on Mon 29 Oct 2007

iTunes streamed to your box.

Apple TV is a revolution in the making. Syncing in the same way as an iPod, it sucks up all the music, photos and videos from iTunes on to its 40GB hard drive, and puts them on your front room flatscreen and hi-fi.

Apple's used Draft N Wi-Fi, meaning files are on your Apple TV almost as soon as you've downloaded them, although it's equally happy if your Wi-Fi's of the older B/G standard. Filling the box to the brim takes just over five hours using a B/G network, but it's in the background, so you'll barely notice.

Stutter-free tunes start with no delay, photos look crisp and Apple's squeezed in some nice touches too, flipping album artwork to avoid screen-burn and streaming the latest movie trailers straight from the internet.

So why is it only a revolution in the making and not the real thing? Because content is king, and Britain's still waiting for TV and movie downloads from iTunes. Trailers and pics are nice, but until video arrives, this will be a beautiful but flawed TV companion.