DailyTech - Apple's "iTV" Not Ready for MacWorld 2007

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Blog: Gadgets Apple's "iTV" Not Ready for MacWorld 2007
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - January 2, 2007 4:56 PM

4 comment(s) - last by ninjit.. on Jan 3 at 2:11 PM

More fine tuning in the "iTV" operating system required

According to a report by AppleInsider, Apple's much anticipated iTV product may not make a showing at this month's MacWorld 2007. Apple initially announced the iTV back in the fall of last year, indicating that the set-top box would arrive sometime in Q1'07. However, Apple indicated that due to some quality assurance issues, the iTV may be delayed by several weeks.

The delay is apparently due to an issue in the iTV's operating system. The interface appears to be somewhat similar to the way Apple's Front Row software works in OS X.

The iTV will come ready to stream video from your home network onto a big (or small) screen TV through various connections. Wireless is supported through 802.11b/g and standard Ethernet is also supported. The unit will not have an input for cable TV, which would have been a nice touch for managing shows. Initially it did not appear like the iTV would be able to do any recording or live-TV rewinding and pausing because of the lack of onboard storage, but Walt Disney's CEO Robert Iger said that the iTV would have a "small hard drive".

Apple did previously mention that the iTV name was merely a temporary name, and that when the unit actually ships, it would be called something entirely different. On the hardware front, it does not appear like Apple will be adding or modifying any of the iTV's current specifications.

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No DVR, no dice.

By ChoadNamath on 1/2/2007 6:47:47 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Initially it did not appear like the iTV would be able to do any recording or live-TV rewinding and pausing because of the lack of onboard storage, but Walt Disney's CEO Robert Iger said that the iTV would have a "small hard drive".

It doesn't seem like there are any A/V inputs though, so the hard drive would probably just store media streamed from another computer. It seems like it will be nice (albeit expensive) if you just want to stream media that you bought from iTMS, but it also seems a little crippled without any DVR-like functionality.

TiVo

By Schadenfroh on 1/3/2007 12:43:35 PM , Rating: 2

Well, Apple could always buy Tivo if they wanted into this market, they could rename the TiVo to the iVO.

Why not just get a mini?

By ninjit on 1/3/2007 2:11:26 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know why you would want to buy this over a Mac mini.
yes, the mini costs more, but you also get much more with it.

The Mini comes with a Front row and a remote so you can already do everything the iTV is supposed to be able to.
Plus since it's full-computer, it has ample storage on its own, can support many more (and future formats) through quicktime plugins, alows you to browse the web on your tv and show snippets of youtube fullscreen.

And you can get a USB cable tuner and actually use the mini as a DVR.