Apple TV Is a Joke

Almost every product Apple makes is a huge success and I must confess, I’ve owned every iPhone since the 3G came out in 2008. But there’s this one product that has never gone too well: Apple TV, a device currently in its third stage. The first version couldn’t do much, then the second version came out and instead of a complete overhaul Apple chose for a software upgrade, which added… a better interface. But now there’s a third version and it looks different.

Because this time Apple has changed the hardware. It now features an A4 processor and is black, furthermore it lacks a built-in HDD, which allowed for a smaller casing. But other than that feature wise it’s still a downer in media land. It can stream your iTunes library, photo library and allows access to online podcasts and an overpriced on-demand system. But that’s about it.

So what about movies? Well of course you can watch any movie in your iTunes library with the MP4 format, you know the one nobody uses. And there’s YouTube which you can conveniently control using the four-button remote.

So is it me or is this device completely useless? It can’t play the formats we use, it can’t do 1080p, and it lacks any storage making iTunes only accessible when your mac is switched on. Not a great device and even worse considering this is Apple’s third attempt at it.

But I’m not one to criticize and would like to take some time to sum up a few things that Apple can do to improve the Apple TV for its fourth attempt.

First of all please support all formats! We don’t want to convert all our movies to mp4. It’s a pain and takes ages on most processors. A media player should be great at playing media, and the Apple TV isn’t.

Secondly support 1080p. Just make the hardware a little faster. Almost every TV people buy supports it and most cameras now record in 1080p as well. For a product that came out in 2010 and has an Apple logo on it, I was a little surprised it was so technically inferior.

And last but not least add a built-in hard drive. We just don’t want to stream everything to our TV. It’s not energy efficient.

I’m not a big fan of the Apple TV. And because of that reason I’ve never owned one and therefore consider this more a column than a review. I hope Apple (or a curtain community) adds these features to finally make this a great product.

Apple TV review