After the announcement of the new Apple TV my disappointment was perhaps inevitable. I try not to let the rumours build up my expectations of a unannounced product, but in the case of the AppleTV I couldn’t help it.
2 weeks later, and I’m coming around to the idea. I’ve calmed down about the whole rental thing, and realised that I’ve missed the ramifications of Airplay. Thinking of Apple TV 2 as more of an airport express that does video and photos, and it suddenly starts to feel right. The ability to stream from Macs and iOS devices is very appealing, and could well be the winning aspect. I can see how much better this is than syncing in the long-run, I just wish it could pick up content from a NAS drive rather than having to have a Mac running all the time.
It’ll be really interesting to see the tear-downs when the box starts shipping. How much local storage is there? Enough to run apps, or hack it? Even Steve Jobs hasn’t ruled that out
He tells Bloomberg Businessweek that when the time is right, Apple could open an App Store for the TV that could do for television sets what all those apps have done for the iPhone.
Who knows how far off that is though?
In the meantime, I’m eyeing up and deliberating over both an Apple TV2 and a Boxee Box (finally available to pre-order in the UK from Amazon !), but only one can be purchased of course.