Now Apple TV has a Killer App
In what appears to be a direct response to my multiple blog entries on the topic, Apple announced yesterday that it will update Apple TV so that it can directly access the iTunes Store for rentals, videos and songs was music to my ears, since I’d been calling for that behavior for some time, as noted here and here.
Watch the guided tour and then sit back and realize something. You page through films, choose one to rent, then you rent it. Then you watch it. On your TV. That’s it. It works.
That, my friends, is a killer app.
Oh, plus, you can buy TV shows, play podcasts, play your music collection, buy more music…Apple TV just became the heart of your media center. (If you could rip movies to MPEG-4 from DVD that would take this thing even further. The drag-able movies from new DVDs will be the next best thing.) Apple TV can replace your music channels on digital cable or satellite — in fact, it can replace your CD player or iPod dock device altogether. Internet radio. It’s all there.
Once I’m allowed to buy an HDTV (ahem…Ms. D?) this will revolutionize how *I* watch TV. I imagine others will agree.
Now if only they would make it so that you can purchase football and baseball games without the damn commercials…
With Apple TV, Video Podcasts Now Make Sense
OK, so I haven’t been the most vocal supporter of the Apple TV given that (a.) it won’t download movies and TV shows directly from the iTunes Store, which remains a massive oversight IMHO and (b.) it doesn’t serve as a wifi base station on its own, instead requiring that you buy an AirPort base station.
Also, (c.) I don’t have a hi-def TV yet and it seems doubtful that Ms. D is going to let me get one anytime soon. So I’m being a bit snarky, perhaps.
Having said all that, just a few days ago I actually found myself doing something that I may *never* have done before; I watched an entire video podcast. It was an episode of MacBreak starring none other than Leo Laporte. I watched it probably because (a.) I’m utterly in awe of the amazing volume of content Leo Laporte manages to put on the Internet and (b.) because they were talking about the Apple TV, and like a sheep to the sheer, I’m an Apple-anything addict, in spite of myself.
WIRED Reports on iTV Features I Don’t Care About
So, according to WIRED Blogs: Gadget Lab, maybe it’ll be possible to add some sort of DVR capability to the Apple TV device so that the shows that you want to record using Apple TV as a DVR could be synced with your Mac for storage, since the Apple TV has such a small hard disk. I think I’m getting that right.
Who cares? 
Mac Rumors: Apple TV A Gaming Platform?
I hate to say I told you so — especially when the evidence I have that I was “right” is a single post based on the slip of a tongue of a game developer that was then posted to a notorious Apple rumormongering site, but, check it: Mac Rumors: Apple TV A Gaming Platform?.
In a recent interview with Wired, Greg Canessa, the ex-General Manager of XBox Live Arcade, and now Vice President of video game platforms at PopCap games indicates that his role at PopCap will be to help proliferate their games onto multiple platforms, including the Apple TV.
I told you so.
Er, wait…I just read my old post again. Apparently I was ranting about how focusing on games for the Apple TV would be stupid, but that the real killer app would be allowing people to download movies and TV shows directly from the iTunes Store.
Which would, in fact, be the killer app.
I agree with me.
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