Apple TV Review

Using the Apple TV

Installing the Apple TV is very easy: just plug the AC cord, connect it to a TV using an HDMI cable (as we mentioned before, you will have to buy one), and press any button in the remote control to start using it. You can also connect it to a home theater sound system using an optical cable, if you want. And if you do not have a wireless network, you will need to connect an Ethernet cable, since the Apple TV is just a stylish paper weight if you do not connect it to the Internet.

After powering it up for the first time, you will have to configure the Wi-Fi network, by just choosing one available in your house and typing the passkey using a virtual keyboard.

After that, using the Apple TV is a breeze. We actually put the control in the hand of a seven-year old girl and in a few seconds she was watching her favorite shows without the need of any help.

The first option in the main screen is to rent or buy movies at Apple iTunes store. There is also an option to listen to the music you own at this same store, and browse over content shared by a computer running iTunes (it can be a Mac or a PC).

Figure 7: Main screen

The Apple TV is excellent to watch YouTube videos, and for watching movies and TV episodes on Netflix, for example. There is also access to several other services, as you can see in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Main menu

One of the coolest things about the Apple TV is the integration with iOS devices. You can use your iPad or iPhone as a remote control and input keyboard for the Apple TV. You can also redirect the audio output of your iOS device to the Apple TV using AirPlay, which is great if you want to be the DJ playing the music stored at your iPhone while you walk around on the party, for example.

You can even mirror the screen of your iPad or iPhone at your TV, which can be great for presentations and lectures, or to show your photos and home videos to your family at a big screen.

However, there are two big minuses on this gadget. First, it is not a media player in the strict sense. You cannot watch a movie or see photos you have stored in a USB memory stick or external hard drive, since the USB port behind the Apple TV is for maintenance purposes only. Actually, there is no way to store any content (the 8 GiB of internal memory is actually not documented, the user cannot access it) or play stored contents.

It would be great if you could simply remove the memory card from your camera and insert it on the Apple TV to show your photos at your TV set.

Second, you are not able to install (or uninstall) apps on it. You can only change the order of the icons on main menu, but you are restricted to those options, most of them attached to the iTunes store. The Apple TV does not allow the user to browse the web, as most smart TVs do.

It is very disappointing, even more if you keep in mind the device uses a modified version of the iOS. It should not be difficult to include a browser or at least Facebook and Twitter apps, but the reason seems not to be noble: if you could surf the Internet on an Apple TV, you could be less motivated to buy an iPad.

Figure 9 shows the settings menu, which brings a few options, mostly devoted to configure your iTunes Store account, Wi-Fi settings, screen saver, etc.

Figure 9: Settings menu