Pamparo in Toronto

After I week of Apple TV usage, here’s my fair assessment …

Apple TV

Love:
- Internet Radio — this really is the main reason for this
- Sync iTunes Library — including all DRM-infested music & videos
- Youtube Streaming — we’ve been cracking-up on failblog.org videos a lot more!
- Wi-fi connectivity
- iPhoto sync — our photos never looked better seeing it on a big screen
- HDMI 1080p output

Hate:
- Remote — tiny and limited features
- No keyboard support — a pain when doing searches and typing wi-fi password
- If the TV is off, the output goes back to 720p — minor, but annoying!
- Heat … literally, this unit runs very HOT!

Verdict:
If you use iTunes a lot (especially in a Mac), you will love this. It extends the functionality of iTunes to the home theater setup which is really impossible because of all the DRM stuff. It has its problems like some videos won’t play because of the encoding or ever once in a while, it will be dropped off the network (using wi-fi). Of course, the lack of keyboard makes this a bigger problem. But show me a device without an issue and I will be all over it!

Otherwise, this device is pretty much useless. A lot of people on the net complain about Apple TV. Unfortunately, they bought something and would like it to do what they want instead of using the device for what it’s meant to be.

I like mine … note, it’s not “Love” … but, I really do “Like it”!

I just bought Ambrosia‘s album “Ambrosia: Anthology” from iTunes tonight. I have to be honest that I didn’t really know how good this band was since I only heard a couple of their “soft-rock” on the radio when I was growing up. Beside the regular hits like “You’re the Only Woman”, “Biggest Part of Me”, “How Much I Feel” and “I Just Can’t Let Go”, this album is filled with great progressive-rock tracks that I am really enjoying.

I am sure that I am going to have this on my regular rotation of subway-listening playlist! How about you, what have you been listening to lately?