Wall Street Journal Works Hard to Promote Apple TV...and Fails

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117443716237743525-AC8bUe8X978hZmC7A85mAccsld8_20080320.html' target='_blank'>http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117443716237743525-AC8bUe8X978hZmC7A85mAccsld8_20080320.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The race to connect your TV to your computer and the Internet is about to kick into high gear this week when Apple Inc., the company many believe is best positioned to pull off this feat, introduces a slender, wireless set-top box called Apple TV. This silvery little $299 gadget is designed to play and display on a widescreen family-room TV set all the music, video and photos stored on up to six computers around the house -- even if they are far from the TV, and even if they are all Windows PCs rather than Apple's own Macintosh models. It can also pull a very limited amount of music and video directly off the Internet onto the TV."</i><br /><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/PJ-AJ876A_pjMOS_20070320194930.jpg" /> <br /><br />This article may as well be an ad for Apple. A "glowing" review of the Apple TV. There's so many shortcomings that are overlooked, and so few criticisms, I have a hard time even reading this propaganda. I like Apple, I like Apple's products, but Apple TV is not the second coming of television. See <a href="http://thomashawk.com/2007/03/10-reasons-why-300-idongle-is-not-for.html">Thomas Hawk's article on Apple TV </a>for a more fair and balanced viewpoint.

[Tim Williamson]

Why not just pick up an Xbox 360 which can do the same thing and a whole lot more (if you have a Media Center PC)?

[Felix Torres]

Because the iDongle (great name!!!) has the Apple logo and follows the "less is better" philosophy of the turtlenecked god himself.
Its not as if you *really* need a volume control anyway, right?

Besides, think of all the cool features they'll be adding once they finalize the software next year.

This is the first time in ages Apple has clearly rushed a half-baked product to market. Dunno what, but *something* has to have really really spooked them.

And, BTW, you *don't* need an MCE PC to outdo this with a 360; the 360 is a perfectly fine Media Center in its own right *without* a PC. So is the PS3, for the most part.

But hey, it comes from Apple; we must bow and pray to Cupertino 5 times a day, dontcha'know?

[Tim Williamson]

This is the first time in ages Apple has clearly rushed a half-baked product to market. Dunno what, but *something* has to have really really sppoked them.

PS3 maybe? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/t-will/Smilies/kekekegay.gif

[Felix Torres]

This is the first time in ages Apple has clearly rushed a half-baked product to market. Dunno what, but *something* has to have really really sppoked them.

PS3 maybe? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/t-will/Smilies/kekekegay.gif

That *was* my thought last fall when they made the "iTV" vapor announcement. (Look it up in the archives here. 8) )

Of course that was before the Video Marketplace was announced...
...and before the RCA/Vongo streamer was announced, and before Amazon got in bed wit TiVo and...

[Jeremy Charette]

Vongo sucks. It's all SD 4:3 format, with no widescreen, or even a widescreen stretch option. It looks like complete a$$ on my HDTV.

I tried it recently, and canceled two days later.