Hasta La Gadget!

SAN FRANCISCO — When Steve Jobs was preparing to introduce the Apple TV, he called it “one more hobby,” and based on our first impressions, that’s a safe choice of words.

The new Apple TV is a major hardware upgrade. One quarter the size of its predecessor, it’s a small black box with curved edges, somewhat resembling a hockey puck. The highlights: It costs $100, and it integrates nearly instant streaming TV and movie rentals, along with Netflix streaming.

The major limitation: For TV rentals, only two studios are on board to stream shows through the Apple TV — ABC and Fox. This isn’t an adequate replacement yet for cable subscriptions.

So calling it a “hobby” was right — Apple’s starting out small, and maybe it’ll roll into something bigger if more studios warm up to the idea.

Nonetheless, I got some hands-on time with the new Apple TV and it is a promising start.

TV and movie rentals are really snappy and fast. After choosing to rent a movie or show, the Apple TV takes a few seconds to prepare a buffer and begins streaming your video live.

Also particularly cool was internet integration. I enjoyed searching through Flickr streams: Select a photo and hit the Play button and it immediately plays a slideshow with music and fancy transitions. I’m too lazy to check my friends’ Flickr streams the normal way on Flickr.com, aren’t you? Plus, the photos look great on a big screen through the Apple TV’s HDMI connection.

The Apple TV’s remote is familiar: It’s got the same aluminum and black design as the current MacBook Pros. It’s also very similar to the current Apple remote that controls Macs — only it’s a little longer and the buttons have small bumps for subtle tactile feedback. It feels great in the hand and navigating through the Apple TV menu was really smooth.

As good as the idea sounds, you won’t be able to use your iPhone or iPad as a remote for the Apple TV (not yet, at least). Instead, there’s a feature called “AirPlay,” so if you’re using your iPad or iPhone to listen to music, look at photos or watch a video, you can tap an AirPlay button, select your Apple TV and boom — your content is streaming onto your Apple TV. We weren’t able to test that since this feature won’t be available until iOS 4.2 ships in November, but we’ll keep you posted.

You can also stream media from your Mac’s iTunes library by choosing the “Computer” option and selecting a movie or playlist. I tested that out too, and it worked fine, but do note that iTunes only supports a few formats for video (.H264, for instance). So if you prefer getting media through some alternative non-iTunes-compatible means, you’re still going to be doing a lot of file conversion before you can watch your videos on the Apple TV.

All in all, it’s a cool device, and for $100 it’s going to pose a serious threat to the Roku Netflix player. But as a TV replacement, it’s still not there yet. Maybe later.

See Also:

• Apple Takes Aim at Cable With Tiny New Apple TV
• Live Blog: Apple’s iPod, Music Event
• Apple to Live Stream Press Conference — to Apple Customers Only

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

PDP is no stranger to the third-party peripheral game, adding a little Tron theme to controllers, adding a little motion to the Xbox 360, and releasing the Rock Band Stage Kit so that you can add a little fog to your foyer. Now the company is taking things a step further, producing a series accessories for what Microsoft hopes will be the hottest accessory this fall: the Kinect. There is a trio of mounts, starting with the $15 Kinect wall mount, then the $30 floor stand, and finally the $40 TV mount, which will occupy the VESA holes on the back of flat-panels. Curiously, the most expensive thing is the extension cable: $50 for the privilege of moving your googly-eyed camera a further nine feet from your console. All should be available this November, and all are officially Microsoft licensed, so you can feel good about paying too much for them.

Continue reading PDP announces accessories for your accessory so you can connect your Kinect

PDP announces accessories for your accessory so you can connect your Kinect originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, it’s just boring ol’ component news but you can guarantee that this advance will affect the appearance of Sony (and Sony Ericsson) products some time soon. Sony just announced the development of a “single wire interface technology” that replaces the 22 or so cables (used for power, control signals, audio, video, etc) typically found inside mobile devices (tucked away in the hinge or rotating parts) with a single copper wire cable capable of transmitting data at 940Mbps. That should translate into greater reliability while giving Sony’s product teams more flexibility with their designs. Sony plans to “swiftly” implement the technology by licensing the IP to ROHM to help jointly develop the required silicon. More with less, as they say.

Sony replacing handset wiring with a single copper cable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 02:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We suppose the good news is that Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge mentioned the intent is to bring all of its services — broadcast TV, video on-demand — to networked devices capable of displaying video, specifically mentioning the iPad, and that it is also working on program guide software for Android and PCs. Unfortunately, unlike the TV Everywhere websites from others like Comcast, or Dish’s Sling-powered placeshifting Cablevision only plans to allow access within the residence. According to Light Reading, the comments came during the company’s second quarter earnings call, when he also noted that the PC to TV Media Relay for bringing web video to the cable box was still undergoing testing ahead of a fourth quarter launch, while the long awaited network DVR is in its second phase of testing will also begin rolling out later this year. We’re not sure if Cablevision’s reluctance to extend video beyond our four walls is a technical issue, greed, or if it’s simply tired of fighting Hollywood over content rights after the network DVR legal battle, but we’re still hoping for a change of plans down the line.

Cablevision promises TV, VOD streaming to iPads, other networked devices — but only at home originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why pay for cable to watch stuff on my television when I can stream most of the TV I care about to every screen I watch for $10/month? That’s what I’m thinking after using the awesome Hulu Plus iPhone app. More »