Product Review: Apple TV

My first post is about one of my favorite home technology devices:  Apple TV.  (Disclaimer...you will here from me that I am very high on all Apple products and own them all).   I have owned Apple TV for 6 months and recommend everyone get one.  I even recently bought a 2nd one for another TV in the house.

First, what is it?  Apple TV is a small device, a little larger than your cell phone that connects to your TV (you have to have a newer TV with an HDMI port).  From there, it basically connects your TV to the internet and to your iTunes account on your home computer.

What can it do?  Apple TV will allow you to stream movies, TV shows, music and your family pictures/home video from your computer, iPhone or iPad right to your TV.  Think about that for a second...If you collect movies, TV shows, home video, family pictures, you can centralize them through your iTunes account and easily view them on your TV.  If you want to rent movies, you can rent them for $.99 through iTunes on your Apple TV.  If you want to stream Netflix, you can do it through Apple TV.  The best part of Apple TV?  It costs only $99.

I have two of them in my house and I use it mostly to stream things from my computer to the TVs.  One Apple TV is connected to the 55" TV in the basement and one is connected to the 32" TV upstairs in the family room.  I have collected hundreds of movies and TV shows and have them on the hard drive on my iMac in my office.  Anytime anyone wants to watch a movie they simply bring up the Apple TV menu on the TV and scroll through the list of movies or TV shows that I have in iTunes.  The menu and remote are very easy to use and the performance is great.

Beyond that, I have thousands of family pictures and many home movies.  If a family member comes over and we want to show some pictures of our vacation (for example), we can access them from Apple TV.  Pictures of your kids look great in 55" high def and it's a lot easier than five people standing over your shoulder while you scroll through pics on your laptop.

If you have an Apple iPhone 4 or iPad, you can instantly stream video and pics, taken on that device to your TV, using Apple TV.  It is very cool to be able to take a picture or video one minute on your iPhone and show it to a group of people seconds later on your TV.  No other device can do that...oh yeah, there is a free app that lets you use your iPhone or iPad as a remote.  Pretty cool.

Are there any limitations to Apple TV?   You have to have iTunes (most people do) and a home wireless network.  You have to have a newer TV with an HDMI port.  They started putting HDMI ports on TVs about 3 years ago.  If you don't have an HDMI port, don't even try to use Apple TV...sorry.  I did initially and it just does not work.  Some reviews nitpick Apple TV as other products have keyboards, access Hulu, etc.  Apple TV's strengths are:  it's cheap (by comparison), easy to install and use and does a great job of streaming media you already own to your TV.

Are there any other products like Apple TV?  yes, Roku, Boxee, Google TV.  You can see a review of them all here:  http://searchengineland.com/internet-to-tv-streaming-players-compared-60304
If you have a mac or use iTunes Apple TV makes more sense.    These other products are more expensive, clugy and some come with a monthly cost.

Bottom line:  Get with the times and combine your TV and computer using Apple TV.  You will not regret it...

You can see more about Apple TVhere:  http://www.apple.com/appletv/
Make sure to watch the video...