I've been saying it all along. Apple TV is junk. Thank you Gizmodo for confirming it.
http://gizmodo.com/5431759/worst-gadgets-gallery/
http://gizmodo.com/5431759/worst-gadgets-gallery/
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Apple TV - "Worst Gadgets of the Decade"
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Apple TV Worst Product
While I do understand that there are things that could be added to the ATV to make it better I would not consider it in this worst product category. I know its advantages and limitations and am perfectly happy with what it can do and know how to take advantage of it.
Trying to get a product to perform in a manner that it was not designed for will doom it to failure every time.
Glennsan
While I do understand that there are things that could be added to the ATV to make it better I would not consider it in this worst product category. I know its advantages and limitations and am perfectly happy with what it can do and know how to take advantage of it.
Trying to get a product to perform in a manner that it was not designed for will doom it to failure every time.
Glennsan
I love my Apple TV, but the fact that it can't even playback iTunes 720p videos consistently without performance issues is disheartening. It's in desperate need of a processor, RAM, hard drive controller and video card upgrade.
The Apple TV is an oddball product that suffers from a lack of interest/direction from Apple's management. At this point, I'm not sure which executive is responsible for it, but I hope they're mocked everyday on the Cupertino campus.
However, I would rank it higher than some of Apple's other products including Time Capsule and the iPod hi-fi boom box. Both should have been killed in their planning stages and never put on the market.
The Apple TV is an oddball product that suffers from a lack of interest/direction from Apple's management. At this point, I'm not sure which executive is responsible for it, but I hope they're mocked everyday on the Cupertino campus.
However, I would rank it higher than some of Apple's other products including Time Capsule and the iPod hi-fi boom box. Both should have been killed in their planning stages and never put on the market.
Agreed. AppleTV might not be the blockbuster other Apple products are (partly because of the 'hobby' tag and limited promotion) but calling it a failure or one of the worst gadgets of the decade is ludicrous. It's a fantastic device when used as intended, allowing iTunes to come in to the bedroom or living room or what-have-you.
I Love Mine
I've got to say that I absolutely LOVE mine ... so does the rest of the family. I couldn't imagine life without it now tbh.
Sure, it can't play MKV's or AVI's - but I don't want it to. I've had other streamers both DNLA based and proprietary software based (stand-up Pinnacle Showcenter) in the past and all failed the primary test .... my wife and two kids. When I started looking at streaming, I started with everything based around AVI's, but I've now settled on iTunes and M4V as a DB for all my media and this makes the *perfect* compliment to it.
It's definitely NOT for everyone, and I can completely understand why some don't like it; it's a choice thing. If you don't like iTunes, you're probably not going to like this. It's not without it's interface faults, but it's sooooo much easier and slicker than other products I've tried.
Happy ATV user here!
I've got to say that I absolutely LOVE mine ... so does the rest of the family. I couldn't imagine life without it now tbh.
Sure, it can't play MKV's or AVI's - but I don't want it to. I've had other streamers both DNLA based and proprietary software based (stand-up Pinnacle Showcenter) in the past and all failed the primary test .... my wife and two kids. When I started looking at streaming, I started with everything based around AVI's, but I've now settled on iTunes and M4V as a DB for all my media and this makes the *perfect* compliment to it.
It's definitely NOT for everyone, and I can completely understand why some don't like it; it's a choice thing. If you don't like iTunes, you're probably not going to like this. It's not without it's interface faults, but it's sooooo much easier and slicker than other products I've tried.
Happy ATV user here!
I think Giz is pretty much correct - for the US market at least. Netflix doesn't operate in the UK meaning that the only viable way of renting movies online is via iTunes. I got my Apple TV last week, the tipping point being the closure of my local rental store.
Blah blah blah
Since getting my AppleTV at release, I have disconnected my satellite dish, saving me lots of money, and this is now my sole source of television (barring F1, the news and Top Gear via the Internet along with the ever so occasional BluRay or DVD).
It has saved me a lot of money, already paying for itself, and I still see all the TV that I want to see.
It also works great on my network and with my other devices.
I couldn't care less what Engadget thinks. AppleTV is the BEST device that has ever been attached to my television.
FWIW, at the time the iPod HiFi was also a really nice device.
Since getting my AppleTV at release, I have disconnected my satellite dish, saving me lots of money, and this is now my sole source of television (barring F1, the news and Top Gear via the Internet along with the ever so occasional BluRay or DVD).
It has saved me a lot of money, already paying for itself, and I still see all the TV that I want to see.
It also works great on my network and with my other devices.
I couldn't care less what Engadget thinks. AppleTV is the BEST device that has ever been attached to my television.
FWIW, at the time the iPod HiFi was also a really nice device.
I had an iPod Hi-Fi, and was basically paid to use it for 2 years. Honestly, I loved that thing. It was overall better looking and better sounding than anything the competition made, albeit costing 3x more. The most recent iPhones and touches don't even work right with it 
It was a good dock though, I would've been happy to go for another - had they made the dock connector stronger. It was .. great! Also, not worth $350.
I love the time capsule too, problem with it is it was terrible designed. They overheat and die after about 16 months, that's insane!
It was a good dock though, I would've been happy to go for another - had they made the dock connector stronger. It was .. great! Also, not worth $350.
I love the time capsule too, problem with it is it was terrible designed. They overheat and die after about 16 months, that's insane!
it's gizmodo not engadget
the walkman is a great device for listening to music, but cd players and mp3 players do the same job with more benefits. that is the point that the article is making. ATV may be the best device you've ever tried, but first among one isn't saying much.
I think it's ahead of its time. Mainstream physical media is on its way out - it's much cheaper (i.e. higher profit margin for studios) to deliver it digitally. But obviously, consumers aren't there yet. There are a few things holding it back - not the least of which are a lack of affordable bandwidth and the studios' reluctance to give Apple too much distribution power.
If Apple's subscription idea takes off (which I think is in doubt now that Comcast bought NBCU), it would certainly give the ATV a significant boost.
If Apple's subscription idea takes off (which I think is in doubt now that Comcast bought NBCU), it would certainly give the ATV a significant boost.
Not only do I like mine and not expect it to be a replacement for any & everything related to tv veiwing, but I would predict in 3-5 yrs Apple will be the one standing (and atv still working) and several of these streaming devices not heard of 2-3 yrs ago won't be heard of then either.
AppleTV is among Apple's worst hardware products.
It would make much more sense to buy a used Mac Mini and use Front Row or a third party Media Center app. At least with a Mini you have a good DVD player too (no need for a DVD player and another device).
Yeah you would pay more for a Mini but it doubles as a computer and can do a hell of a lot more than an AppleTV. You can rip all your DVDs (complete with Bonus features) on to it.
Plus, if you enable "Sharing" you can view other videos from other Macs/PCs at your home.
It would make much more sense to buy a used Mac Mini and use Front Row or a third party Media Center app. At least with a Mini you have a good DVD player too (no need for a DVD player and another device).
Yeah you would pay more for a Mini but it doubles as a computer and can do a hell of a lot more than an AppleTV. You can rip all your DVDs (complete with Bonus features) on to it.
Plus, if you enable "Sharing" you can view other videos from other Macs/PCs at your home.
True a device called TV that cant do tv? a poor device indeed im surprised apple is still selling this thing.
It's a ticking time bomb of data failure. With its dead power supply issues and the fact that the hard drive is not recoverable, it's simply a bad product.
A router with a sealed hard drive is never a good idea, and the fact that Apple only offers you two service choices upon failure - keep your failed Time Capsule and save your data (by opening the device up to recover data and/or run disk repair tools on the internal hard drive) or replace the entire unit and lose your data is unacceptable.
Additionally, there's no basic Disk Utility functions like repair disk or repair disk permissions available to run on the internal Time Capsule drive. So, simple disk errors (like a few failed Time Machine attempts) can corrupt your entire drive and require you to erase your backups and start over.
I firmly believe Time Capsule was only put on the market because Apple couldn't get the AirPort Extreme Base Station to securely write Time Machine data to AirDisk drives (like originally announced by Steve Jobs as a feature of 10.5 Leopard during WWDC '06).
I have not noticed any issues playing back 720p videos on my ATV. Are you streaming it? I have not tried that so far as I don't have a huge collection and they all fit on the ATV.
Glennsan
I'm fairly convinced the people who write such articles have a) never used an appletv for an extended period of time (ie. A one week review period), b) don't get what it's purpose is (get your iTunes library into your living room), or c) have lots of content from "unknown origins" and are mad that the appletv doesn't fit this lifestyle.
While it has it's flaws, I think the current platform could be saved by simply updating the codebase to 10.6 and extending the hardware acceleration capabilities of the nvidia gpu it already uses. At the very least, this should allow smooth playback of 720p content (although I think simply buffeting more before starting playback would help as well).
I'm the happy owner of two appletvs who has leveraged it (along handbrake of course) to eliminate my cable bill, buy season passes of the shows I want (which saves me from buying them later of DVD/bluray), and to eliminate clutter from hundreds of DVD, hddvd, and bluray cases from my living room.
While it has it's flaws, I think the current platform could be saved by simply updating the codebase to 10.6 and extending the hardware acceleration capabilities of the nvidia gpu it already uses. At the very least, this should allow smooth playback of 720p content (although I think simply buffeting more before starting playback would help as well).
I'm the happy owner of two appletvs who has leveraged it (along handbrake of course) to eliminate my cable bill, buy season passes of the shows I want (which saves me from buying them later of DVD/bluray), and to eliminate clutter from hundreds of DVD, hddvd, and bluray cases from my living room.
your right of course i for myself choose the mini but i am thinking of in the near future getting an apple tv for my parents and taking my moms dvds that are very expensive and riping them to play on the apple tv
ATV is about the best thing out there, not the worst. Everyone I have shown it to is very impressed.
Some people would just rather have the most complex geeky interface possible. The more crap and wires they can clutter up the world with, the happier they are.
And their dream of being connected to the world only by selected movies and podcasts, all somehow gotten for free (stolen), is pretty odd and unrealistic.
Apple, as others have pointed out, should have called it something else because it is a player, not a TV and it just confuses people. Clearly Apple needs to demonstrate how it works and what it does. Jobs calling it a hobby was really quite odd and very misleading.
Time Machine is a very useful device as well in terms of its function, but if indeed it is an overheating and failure-prone device, then shame on Apple. That is simply a ripoff and they should make amends.
Some people would just rather have the most complex geeky interface possible. The more crap and wires they can clutter up the world with, the happier they are.
And their dream of being connected to the world only by selected movies and podcasts, all somehow gotten for free (stolen), is pretty odd and unrealistic.
Apple, as others have pointed out, should have called it something else because it is a player, not a TV and it just confuses people. Clearly Apple needs to demonstrate how it works and what it does. Jobs calling it a hobby was really quite odd and very misleading.
Time Machine is a very useful device as well in terms of its function, but if indeed it is an overheating and failure-prone device, then shame on Apple. That is simply a ripoff and they should make amends.
Any product (like the Apple TV) that has brought in $1.5 billion in revenue shouldn't be termed a "black mark" or "worst gadget of the decade" (revenue figure based upon recent estimates of nearly 7 million units sold). Just because it didn't have the same level of success as the iPod or iPhone is no reason to claim that it is a failed product. In Apple's Q1/2009 financial conference call it was reported that Apple TV sales were up three fold over Q1/2008. If those rates continued throughout 2009 then that could mean that the Apple TV has had a very good year.
I'm sure that there are a lot of companies that would love to have that level of sales success even if it was their only product.
I'm sure that there are a lot of companies that would love to have that level of sales success even if it was their only product.
If Apple advertised it correctly when it was first released, it would have been a bigger hit. Apple will most likely eliminate it over the next two years, and replace it with an actual TV with this device built in. After all, they already have 27 inch iMacs, whats to say, they won't just make it bigger, and put the AppleTV device inside. If this was to happen, Apple could upgrade the Remote app on the iPhone to incorporate their TV, to browse channels. TV Guide could be included, iTunes videos could be purchased, similiar to on demand, except you can save it forever. Upgrades could come via built in WiFi. The possibilites are endless. Any more ideas anyone?
The problem is that its just missing too many features, it needs several out of the following to be good:
- A DVD drive
- Ability to record live TV
- Ability to rip DVD's
- Ability to play video content you mysteriously have on your PC.
- Ability to work with S-video/SCART/the yellow video input cable.
- A 320GB+ hard drive
- Ability to use iPlayer/Hulu etc
Just search the internet for sales number estimates on the Apple TV. Nearly all of the analysts have shown sales in excess of one million units during each year, with 2009 and perhaps even 2008 in the multiple million range. After that it is simple math -- let's say six million total units (which is on the low side of all of the estimates I've found).
6M units x $229 (minimum price, average sales price is probably higher) = $1.4 billion
Here are some links:
http://www.ipodobserver.com/ipo/article/Piper_Jaffray_Estimates_2.9M_Apple_TV_Sales_in_CY2008/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV