Yesterday Apple wasn’t confirming that its new wireless set-top was on the way; this morning there’s a press release and a party of the front page displacing the months-away iPhone. Apple calls it a “DVD player for the internet age.”
Update: David Pogue’s NYT review is out now, too: “But there are lots of unanswered questions that make onlookers wonder if Apple has bigger plans for the humble Apple TV. For example, it has an Internet connection and a hard drive; why can’t it record TV shows like a TiVo? Furthermore, it’s a little weird that menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies. All iTunes videos are in standard definition, and don’t look so hot on an HDTV. And then there’s the mysterious, unused U.S.B. port.” He brings up some competition with more features—Netgear’s EVA8000 and the Xbox 360: Its rivals, meanwhile, offer many more features — but they’re piled into bulkier boxes with much less concern for refinement, logic or simplicity. Put another way, these machines aren’t direct competitors at all; they’re aimed at different kinds of people.”
Related:
— Apple TV Ships This Week; Mossberg Likes It
—Make Room On The Couch: iTV is Now Apple TV