It seems likely that the OP was a troll, but for those who might be genuinely interested in why people would buy the AppleTV, I thought I'd give my story.
When the AppleTV came out, I thought "that's nice, but why do I need it?" I didn't come up with an answer and basically forgot about it. A couple of months ago, I started thinking about the AppleTV again (can't remember what piqued my interest) and I started researching what it actually did. Once I realized what the AppleTV was capable of, I started getting interested. However, I became concerned that Apple was not committed to the device and decided to wait until MacWorld SF in January.
First, I wanted to see what changes they were going to make. For instance, if they added an optical drive. I also wanted for Apple to show a commitment to it, which seemed likely with the rumors of the iTunes rental service. When the keynote addressed rentals and a software update, along with the price drop, I placed my order just a few hours later.
Even without the Take 2 features, I wanted one. I have been using my Mac as a music server for years, but it was always a bit of a pain. My computer is upstairs and, to get sound throughout the ground floor, there were a lot of hoops to jump through. If you have a lot of music on your computer and it's not convenient to listen to in your living room, the AppleTV is great. Plus the way it uses our photos from iPhoto albums as a screen saver is great. We've gotten a great deal of enjoyment from that.
Another pre-Take 2 feature that appealed to me was the ability to sync the material so that the computer didn't have to be on (hence, the reason I got the 160 GB model). Now my wife can simply turn on the AppleTV from our Harmony remote with a single button push, then navigate to a playlist and she's got music and pics. I would rarely find her listening to music when I wasn't around because it was too many steps to get it going. She now listens regularly.
One last feature was sold me was the ability to format home videos for AppleTV and have them synced. My wife rides a horse. I took all the videos from last year's show season and put them on the AppleTV. Now she doesn't have to shuffle DVDs to watch the horse show videos.
Now as to Take 2, I'll have to wait and see. At it's current price, I don't know how many movies I'll want to rent that way. We've been NetFlix subscribers for so long that we have a no-longer-available plan (4-at-a-time at the same price as 3-at-a-time). One of the things we like to rent most is TV shows, which are not available yet for rental. I'm also not crazy about the 24 hour limit once you've started watching (we often get interrupted by a phone call and end up finishing the movie the next night). However, these issues are likely to get worked and I think the iTunes rental model is a great start.
The YouTube capability wasn't even on my radar, but I have to admit it's pretty cool. The search capability is limited, but we've watched quite a few YT videos since we got our AppleTV and neither of us were really into this before.
Personally, I think AppleTV is a very nice device in its current manifestation. There are a lot of intriguing possibilities that could make it a whole lot nicer in the future. It may not be for everyone, but I can't imagine too many people who wouldn't think it was very cool if I got a chance to show them what it does and how I use it.
When the AppleTV came out, I thought "that's nice, but why do I need it?" I didn't come up with an answer and basically forgot about it. A couple of months ago, I started thinking about the AppleTV again (can't remember what piqued my interest) and I started researching what it actually did. Once I realized what the AppleTV was capable of, I started getting interested. However, I became concerned that Apple was not committed to the device and decided to wait until MacWorld SF in January.
First, I wanted to see what changes they were going to make. For instance, if they added an optical drive. I also wanted for Apple to show a commitment to it, which seemed likely with the rumors of the iTunes rental service. When the keynote addressed rentals and a software update, along with the price drop, I placed my order just a few hours later.
Even without the Take 2 features, I wanted one. I have been using my Mac as a music server for years, but it was always a bit of a pain. My computer is upstairs and, to get sound throughout the ground floor, there were a lot of hoops to jump through. If you have a lot of music on your computer and it's not convenient to listen to in your living room, the AppleTV is great. Plus the way it uses our photos from iPhoto albums as a screen saver is great. We've gotten a great deal of enjoyment from that.
Another pre-Take 2 feature that appealed to me was the ability to sync the material so that the computer didn't have to be on (hence, the reason I got the 160 GB model). Now my wife can simply turn on the AppleTV from our Harmony remote with a single button push, then navigate to a playlist and she's got music and pics. I would rarely find her listening to music when I wasn't around because it was too many steps to get it going. She now listens regularly.
One last feature was sold me was the ability to format home videos for AppleTV and have them synced. My wife rides a horse. I took all the videos from last year's show season and put them on the AppleTV. Now she doesn't have to shuffle DVDs to watch the horse show videos.
Now as to Take 2, I'll have to wait and see. At it's current price, I don't know how many movies I'll want to rent that way. We've been NetFlix subscribers for so long that we have a no-longer-available plan (4-at-a-time at the same price as 3-at-a-time). One of the things we like to rent most is TV shows, which are not available yet for rental. I'm also not crazy about the 24 hour limit once you've started watching (we often get interrupted by a phone call and end up finishing the movie the next night). However, these issues are likely to get worked and I think the iTunes rental model is a great start.
The YouTube capability wasn't even on my radar, but I have to admit it's pretty cool. The search capability is limited, but we've watched quite a few YT videos since we got our AppleTV and neither of us were really into this before.
Personally, I think AppleTV is a very nice device in its current manifestation. There are a lot of intriguing possibilities that could make it a whole lot nicer in the future. It may not be for everyone, but I can't imagine too many people who wouldn't think it was very cool if I got a chance to show them what it does and how I use it.
