New Apple TV

[TuxRacer]

The new Apple TV has been announced.

Doesn't look like we get any TV shows though, unlike the states. Just expensive films and I suppose youtube if you like your video amateur and/or blocky.



Great looking piece of kit though, if anyone gets Linux running on it I'd buy it instantly. Cheaper than a Beagle board and with a nice case and remote control thrown in.

[TuxRacer]

Seems to work as well as any other site in IE7, at least as well as any site does on these thin clients we use. Just two more days until they're replace with Linux boxes.

[TuxRacer]

It's a new architecture isn't it? If so I doubt there's any hacks out there yet.

This is less than a sixth of the cost of the cheapest mac mini now.

Edited by TuxRacer on Thursday 2nd September 11:08

[TuxRacer]

CzechItOut said:

Does this mean I can stream a Divx or Xvid file off my laptop onto my TV via WiFi?

Not as it stands, to my understanding. Unless you can get it into itunes on a desktop maybe (I've no idea) to stream from there. Thinking about it, maybe someone's written a fake itunes server program that could do it.

If someone gets Linux onto it, then yes, it'll certainly do a superb job of that.

[TuxRacer]

Gillet said:

Thats what I was thinking, and if you have Sky package you can register this on your Xbox - they have 350+ movies and hundreds of TV shows to stream for free

[TuxRacer]

LukeBird said:

Looks good and I would be interested, but as mentioned the Mac Mini makes better sense as an HTPC.

£649 instead of £99 worth of better sense? I'm not convinced. I've got a Mac Mini running Ubuntu and Boxee and I'm tempted to get the new Apple TV and regain the Mac Mini as a desktop.

[TuxRacer]

A second hand one of these will be even cheaper too.

What extra can the mini do though? 1080p and a small amount of local storage is all I can see. And there's a rumour that the hardware can handle 1080p, it's just the content isn't there.

Edited by TuxRacer on Saturday 4th September 12:44

[TuxRacer]

Murph7355 said:

Optical disk drive.

I'd rather use the USB port that the new Apple TV has.

Murph7355 said:

A decent amount of onboard storage.

I'd rather use the TBs of NAS I have.

Murph7355 said:

...More ports on the back (handy for IR extenders and other expansion etc). You can obviously also use it as a reasonably powerful desktop computer via the TV.

Possibly.

Murph7355 said:

Quite a bit more freedom to use whichever software you want without resorting to hacks.

This is the make or break for me. If it becomes apparent that you can put a Linux distribution on it relatively easily then it'll have all the freedom I could want from a TV front end. If not, it leaves it virtually worthless.