Hey guys, this is Austin and today I'm here with a review of the new Apple TV 3.
This latest model is very similar to the previous Apple TV but it does have a few
major improvements such as 1080p support as well as a new interface so let’s take
a look.
To get this out of the way first, if you have the previous generation
Apple TV the only improvement is 1080p video streaming as the new interface is
available as an update for your box.
If you're like me however and this is your
first Apple TV then there's quite a bit to like.
The hardware on the Apple TV is
very small, only slightly larger overall than an iPhone.
Around back you’ll find
ports for power, HDMI, MicroUSB, Optical Audio out along with Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
Probably my favorite feature is AirPlay.
If you have an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad,
Mac or even a PC with iTunes you can stream pictures, music and video over to your
TV via your local Wi-Fi network.
I'll put it simply: this by itself more than makes
the Apple TV worth it for it for me.
For example I wrote this review out on the
couch on my iPad while streaming music through the surround sound connected to my TV.
Even when you throw in more complicated things like streaming music using Safari it
still works brilliantly, allowing you to continue on with whatever you want to do and
keeping the native audio controls from iOS.
You can also throw pictures up onto the
screen and swipe through them as well as streaming video, both what’s on your device
as well as video from Safari.
In addition you can wirelessly mirror the display of
your iDevice which can be very cool for sharing anything on a larger screen and some
games like Real Racing 2 HD will allow you to use your iPad as the controller and have
the game display on the TV.
You can find a bit of lag from time to time but I
suspect this has more to do with my Wireless-G router than AirPlay itself.
Beyond AirPlay the new Apple TV interface looks and works well, much more like iOS.
You have all of your standard apps such as Netflix, YouTube and more, however what you
see is what you get.
There isn’t a way to add more apps and you can’t move or delete
anything unfortunately.
I won’t go into detail on everything but most apps have a very
similar style that’s half Cover Flow and half list.
To access video, music or photos
you’ll either need to stream it if you’ve bought it from iTunes or run it via
Home Sharing on a Mac or PC with iTunes installed.
While it would be nice to be able
to store content on the Apple TV itself I really didn’t ever find myself lacking for
a way to get at anything I wanted to watch.
Between my media on my iPhone and iPad and
what’s available on Netflix I never found myself wanting more.
If you don’t have any
Apple products then this is still a fine Netflix player and you can still stream your
media using Home Sharing with iTunes.
If you’re invested into the Apple ecosystem with
iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad then the Apple TV makes a lot of sense.
AirPlay is
outstanding and really ties it all together and with the ability to output 1080p it’s
no longer held back quality-wise.
Overall for $100 this is a fantastic little device
that I highly recommend.
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