I read this review about Apple TV today. A copy is provided below. It's an iPod for your widescreen TV. With this, you can watch your iTunes video library on your widescreen TV. I've been waiting for this!
By Tim Gideon and Joel Santo Domingo Since the late 90s, Apple has attempted to make the technically complex simple. The iMac did it for personal computing and the iPod is a paragon of portable consumer electronics. Now with the $299 Apple TV, Steve Jobs and company want to simplify your home entertainment experience. But what, exactly, is it? The basic concept of this product is straightforward: wirelessly stream content from the iTunes libraries of up to five computers as well as play content directly from the box's 40 GB hard drive. This means you can enjoy almost anything on your PC, be it movies, photos, podcasts, or music, on your enhanced definition and high-definition widescreen televisions. Apple's slogan says, "if it's on iTunes, it's on Apple TV" - and this is mostly true. Those who don't mind hooking up a few cables and thinking a little about the set-up will enjoy this wireless extension to iTunes. Overall, it does a pretty damn good job, despite some limitations.First, we'll quickly describe how the device works, then we'll get detailed about what you need to set it up. Connect the Apple TV box to your television (using either the HDMI 1.2 connection or component video) and make sure the computer you have your iTunes library on is connected to a wireless router. Once everything is powered up, Apple TV's menu will ask you to choose a language and then walk you through the incredibly simple - and, frankly, gratifying - process of pairing your computer with Apple TV. Apple TV appears as a device on the left hand menu in iTunes (just like an iPod) when you choose to add a library on Apple TV's menu. To set it up, you enter a 5-digit code, which should already be displaying on your television. Type it in and that's it: you can now stream iTunes content from your computer to your television.
If you wish to make this computer your "host", you can easily sync the computer to Apple TV and all the material on your iTunes (well, almost all - read on to find out about certain video roadblocks) will be transferred to the box's 40GB hard drive. Just as iTunes syncs with your iPod, iTunes will constantly update your Apple TV with new material you've downloaded. You can also stream content - either stuff that is in your iTunes library or content from other iTunes libraries connected to your wireless router.
Apple TV lets you stream from up to five different computers aside from your main host computer. Songs and videos are not put into one master library, but switching between the libraries on the Apple TV menu is a relatively short and painless process. When you stream content, Apple will stop synching and pick up where it left off when you finish. If you start watching a video on your iPod, then stop, attach your iPod to your Apple TV-connected iTunes library, it will keep the bookmark and play on your TV from where you left off.
You can view photos on Apple TV, but it uses iPhoto on Macs and Photoshop Elements on PCs and cannot stream files, so you'll have to sync photos or slideshows you've created in order to watch them on your television. That's basically it.