New Toaster
Here’s your reference.
The other day, Apple released its new software for their Apple TV and so I went and purchased the 40 gig model. Setup was a cinch. Plug into the wall, plug into your TV, and turn it on. Then you tell it which WiFi to connect to and that’s essentially it. It did need to download and install its new OS, but it did that all on its own. You can choose to let it run in just streaming mode, or choose one of your computers to have it stay synced with all your content on iTunes, in addition to all your photos in iPhoto. It can also access any content on any other computers on the network you tell it to. The point is that this all happens automatically, and then it operates automatically. Even if you don’t do anything it will begin running all your photos on the TV in interesting arrays and graphics. Want to listen to music? It’ll show you the album artwork and then it”’ start going through all your photos as music plays. I suppose you could have it not do all this, but I can’t think of a reason to change it.
Perfect, right out of the box.
I got it specifically to use for renting movies and never has it been so easy. In fact, I haven’t rented movies for years. It was just such a bother to go to the video store, and then maybe something comes up and I don’t want to watch it just then. Then there’s the late fees, the lost or uncredited returns, the phone calls three months later asking where the movie is that you returned three months ago… Netflix wasn’t much better. First, I don’t like the idea of a subscription because it makes me feel an obligation to get my money’s worth whether I feel like getting and watching something or not. So I’d end up with movies I thought I wanted to watch, but then didn’t at that time and they would sit around. Then there’s the issues with getting a movie only to have it scratched and unplayable.
Apple makes it so easy. You don’t pay unless you rent, and once you rent you have a generous 30 days in which to watch it. You can move it from your computer to Apple TV, or back and then over to your iPod or iPhone. So you have a number of ways to watch. Or, you can rent directly from the new Apple TV interface.
Anyway, wholeheartedly recommended.
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Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
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"Perfect, right out of the box."
Well, almost. I just had a scary time updating to Leopard 10.5.2. After the install, hung on reboot. After a half-hour I powered down and rebooted, fine, but still at 10.5.1. Ran the installer again, it took forever with no feedback, so I thought it hung again… waited… waited… It finally started to reboot, then shut itself down and rebooted again. After another forever, it finally came up showing 10.5.2.
It worked, but it was a nerve wracking hour or so. I spent the whole time thanking myself for backing up before doing the update and wondering if I was going to have to lug the thing over to the Apple Store. Steve needs to work on this.