AppleTV

As a Mac guy, some people have been asking me what I think about the AppleTV.

I've been seriously considering getting the AppleTV since I saw it at MacWorld, and have been eagerly awaiting its release. Now that it is here I am holding off on buying one. First of all, it's generally a good idea to wait until at least the second iteration of any new technology. Secondly, I don't really care about the watching downloaded TV or movies feature, but it would be nice to have that smooth interface to play all my iTunes music via the stereo. Right now I have a dock for an iPod, but having my entire library loaded, browseable, and available all the time would be really nice. That, and the iPhoto/slideshows feature would be useful too.

I have also put off getting an AppleTV because I need a new DVD player, and as long as I am getting a new one of those I might as well ditch my 5-CD changer and just play CDs through the DVD player, since longer playlists or mix-cds will be replaced by the AppleTV. And I could use the component real estate (the 5-CD changer is enormous).

But if I get a new DVD player that can play MP3s, CDRs, DVRs, DIVX, etc, I may need a new receiver. The receiver I have now only has a single optical audio input for the 5.1 decoding, but the DVD players I've looked at tend to have only coaxial component audio out. My parents gave me a gift certificate for a new DVD player for Christmas but I don't want to spend too much. I also have a gift certificate to the Apple store which would abate my cost of the Apple TV. But now researching and pricing a new DVD player, and a new receiver, getting the AppleTV, and rewiring all my components just seems less like geek fun and more like a hassle. The hassle factor sort of dulls the shine on the AppleTV, for which I wasn't all that passionate anyway.

However, reviews are in and are favorable. I just think the 40GB hard drive is anemic. Now that the Apple TV has been out for a couple of weeks, blogs are starting to post the hacks to make the most out of the device, including how to switch out the drive for a 120GB model.

Cult of Mac: AppleTV Hacked Six Ways to Sunday
Gizmodo: Top 5 AppleTV Hacks

Update: Best review (thoroughness, style) so far is this one from ArsTechnica.