Apple TV for Me

This is the future of the television. This is where the computer and the living room television begins to merge for the average family.

The Apple TV.

This slim little box plugs into your High Definition television and brings you streaming content from the internet, your computer, your iPhone, or your iPad. You can rent movies from Netflix or iTunes, you can rent television shows for 99¢, you can watch YouTube, or you can watch a slideshow of your family photographs, and much, much more. Oh, and the price was just cut from $249 to $99.

In my opinion, this is the direction living room-centered, home entertainment is heading. It's coming into the house through the internet and is dovetailed with your computer and personal devices. Your television, movies, music, and photographs all play well together in the same environment.

Here's a few thoughts:

• This will further redefine what a "remote control" is. Increasingly, we all carry a computer/communications device around with us that could wirelessly control our television. Who needs three to five plastic sticks full of buttons, when one touchscreen device can do so much more?
• The idea of starting a movie on my phone or iPad and then "throwing" it to the family television, and then back again to my personal device is fascinating. It changes the dynamic of sharing the television, when Dad wants to watch football, Mom wants to watch a movie, and the kids want to watch their own stuff.
• Listening to her iTunes library over our home theater sound system is going to appeal to people like my wife. A lot.
  
• This doesn't replace Cable (or my 10-year relationship with DirecTV)… yet. But with YouTube, NetFlix, internet podcasts, Flickr slideshows, and more… it's getting closer to the day I call DirecTV and tell them to come get their dish.
• 99¢ to rent a single episode of a television show is a much more reasonable than the old $2.99 price. That's actually tempting, if you're trying to catch up on an episode you've missed or try a new show.
• There are some pieces missing here before Apple takes over the living room: Primarily, it needs to also be a DVR, preferably with an HD antenna attached. I would rather use Apple TV to watch movies, but what about the news, the football game, or plain old network TV? My family's television viewing revolves around recording television (for free-ish on our DVR) and watching it at our convenience. Apple TV doesn't help me watch free, over-the-air television.
• If Apple could give me an a la carte choice of cable channels, streamed to my Apple TV, then DirecTV would get the boot. I'd take ESPN, the History Channel, Fox News, and a few others, along with a reduced cable bill, and life would be grand. But cable TV packages of 100, 150 or 200 channels are bloated with dozens of channels most folks don't want. I'm sure we don't watch 25% of the channels available to us, especially the 15 home shopping and 30 music channels.
• It's not 1080p, but that may not matter. It's still HD (720p) and HD is really all about bit rate and the ratio of your screen size to viewing distance.

Right now this is just an extra gadget, to help wrangle your iTunes, Netflix, and iPad-centered video. But the future is heading in this direction. Another couple of years and we won't be able to remember the way it used to look.