Making a case for a new Apple TV

The current Apple TV is a nice bit of kit....

I want one. A new one. Not the current one (well OK, I do want that too), but a new upgraded one!

Apple have been notoriously quiet on the Apple TV for more than a year, instead focusing on the phenomenal success that is the iPhone 3G, and iPod/MacBook refreshes. But is it possible, in the near or medium-term future, that we might get a long-overdue refresh on the device that Apple could use to tie together their converged home strategy?

Well let’s look at what the device could probably now do with:

A bigger HD
Full 1080p support
More codec support
Restyling of the hardware – the aluminium unibody…..?
UI tweaks
iPhone integration

For me, a user that doesn’t mind paying money for good quality content, the Apple TV is currently something that could be great purchase, yet I have the nagging doubt that (a) there is in fact a refresh round the corner, and (b) there are some key things missing (listed above) that I would need to make me a (very) happy user of it.

Key amongst these is 1080p support, and also better codec support. At the end of the day, whilst iTunes is a great conduit for some content, you are invariably going to have stuff at home that you want to load on the Apple TV. Right now, that has to be in specific formats, and can’t exceed 720p. In my opinion, all “HD” devices have to be 1080p capable – because they can always scale down from this spec to meet the needs of less capable displays, and then display at native resolution on those “Full HD” displays.

But are Apple missing a trick with iPhone integration too? The obvious (and in fact deployed) feature is to use the iPhone as a remote to control iTunes, but knowing the cross-application integration that Apple are usually very good at, are there some more innovative features that could be deployed on the TV device? Probably!

If Apple want to tie together their computing product lines with their Mobile devices lines more completely, then Apple TV does seem a very logical place to keep on building momentum (however slow it might be) – like it or not, the converged home is slowly gathering pace, and in the next 24 months, you can expect to see most consumer CE getting USB and Ethernet ports – even if the firmware in the device isn’t initially activated to use it – fully in the knowledge that devices will need to become “network-aware” .

Apple’s legendary secretiveness about devices means we may well not know anything about a successor to the Apple TV current generation devices, until it actually hits us – what a shame, as I’d love to be placing an online order for the next-gen, integrated, upgraded, and converged Apple TV box right now!

Readers, how do you feel? Would you buy an Apple TV with new (perhaps mobile-integrated) features? Which features matter to you?

You can check out the current Apple TV here.

[Image via: Apple]

About The Author

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

PequaFrog

We love our AppleTV.
Yeah, we’d love it as a DVR and to play more media like HULU and other online stuff, but honestly it’s great. I rip our DVD’s using Handbrake and we stream all our movies right to the AppleTV. I have 5 kids and they always destroy (scratch) DVD’s. So now I rip them right away and they’re perfect! Plus, when we go away, we’ll sync 30 or 40 movies to it and bring it with us. Great product. Will be insanely great with the next upgrade! (I hope)
Lynda B

with Boxee software the Apple TV is fantastic… I would like Apple to upgrade the processor and put a lot more ram in the device; come on, this stuff has gone down in price… and a larger hard drive… Come on, Apple, do it.
Bill

With Boxee, the Apple TV has become much more useful. But, yes, the processor needs to be upgraded to handle 1080p. Apple needs to open up the codecs and allow more formats, including .mkv files. Stubbornly insisting that users purchase 100% of their content from Apple, or encode it to a non-widely used format is holding it back. And rather than included a larger hard drive, they could eliminate the hard drive altogether and just enable that USB port for external drives. That would bring down the price and allow the user a lot more flexibility. I’ve got a 1 TB and a 500 GB feeding mine.
Gogo

I’m on the exact same boat. I really want to buy an Apple TV, especially as an iTunes server to stream music to multiple rooms in my house w/o the need to turn the computer on.

But I just have this feeling that Apple’s gonna update the product as soon as I buy it. A hardware update is well-deserved. Come on Apple!
Christina

We have just purchased our first HDTV, and would LOVE to get the Apple TV… BUT, you are exactly right, we’ve not heard about it from anyone at Apple, so a new one is inevitable. It had BETTER have 1080p, and also easy ability to back the files up. I’m so afraid of purchasing great HD movies and shows, and then losing it all.
Anthony

I use my ATV for streaming. I’ve got 3 throughout the house all streaming content from my iMac. Awesome device. I’d really like to see a version that uses memory only with no hard drive like to iTouch 32Gb, support for 1080 and more video codecs like DivX.
Mike C

Forget the internal HDD. Just give me a plethora of ports in the back to attach my own storage devices. Play ALL the major codecs. Play, at minimum, true 720p at full HD bitrates. 1080 should probably be the standard though.

In general, and probably not likely to happen, give up the idea of trying to bottleneck everything through iTunes and the iTunes store. But they don’t want you watching any old video format you could have gotten somewhere else. They want you to buy their tweaked for ATV movies.

I’m more convinced Apple should just get out of the living room game. They’ve got too many contrarian vested interests to ever come up with a great box.
Juan

I love the APPLE TV but I’m not buying one… I’m sure there is a refresh just around the corner… I’m waiting…
Jason

I too love the concept of the Apple TV, but there are a few missing or lack luster features. HD to me, is only 1080P. I am an HD snob. All my movies are Blu-ray. Give me 1080p and a larger HD to hold these files and I’m a happy camper.
Dr_Macc

I’d like to see a nice shiny black version with a 1 or 2TB hard drive and 1080p HDMI output, with an update to iTunes to allow quick ripping of DVDs onto your home computer without the hassle of using handbrake then importing!
iTunes revolutionised the way we use my music- would be nice if they did the same for movies. Having my 300+ DVD collection on demand would be amazing, at present most of the discs sit in a dusty pile. I’ve only bothered encoding 2 DVDs, as my old mac mini takes 12 hours to encode one film!