Apple TV

What is Apple TV ? 

Apple TV is a tiny entertainment powerhouse that plays the content you love from iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, and your favorite sports leagues on your widescreen TV. In up to 1080p HD. Just plug it in and discover a whole world of movies, TV shows, photos, music, and more. 

The Apple TV lets you stream all of the movies and TV shows available in the iTunes Store to your HDTV on a rental or purchase basis, with purchases stored in the cloud. Purchased content can also be transferred to other iOS devices for offline viewing. 


Netflix, MLB.TV, and a handful of other online media services are available, plus music, videos, and photos can be streamed from iOS devices using AirPlay. And Apple TV's user interface remains best-in-class.

While it offers fewer native channels than the competition, the Apple TV is an indispensable living-room companion for anyone who's already invested in the iTunes and Apple hardware ecosystems.

The "new" Apple TV is new mostly in name. The box itself is exactly the same on the outside, and the upgrades that do exist are modest--1080p support, a new single-core A5 processor, a redesigned user interface, and improved iCloud video support. In fact, if you flip between the two boxes (as I did during my testing), it's almost impossible to tell which model you're using.

Design:
The look of the Apple TV hasn't changed from the last incarnation, but it's still the best design around. It's just a simple, unobtrusive black box with a small white light on the front when it's in active use. Around back are just a handful of connections, including HDMI, optical audio output, Micro-USB (for service only), and Ethernet. There's also 802.11n Wi-Fi built in for connecting to your home wireless network. Note that HDMI is the only video connection available, so if you have an older TV, you're out of luck.

Supported formats:

Apple TV supports the following audio, video, and picture formats:

Video

• H.264 up to 720p at 30 frames per second (1st & 2nd generation)
• H.264 up to 1080p at 30 frames per second (3rd generation)
• MPEG-4 up to 720×432 (432p) or 640×480 pixels at 30 frame/s
• Motion JPEG up to 720p at 30 frame/s

Picture

• IPhone
• IPod
• IPad

Audio

• HE-AAC (V1)
• AAC (16–320 kbit/s)
• FairPlay protected AAC
• AC-3 Dolby Digital pass-through
• MP3 (16–320 kbit/s, with VBR)
• Apple Lossless
• AIFF
• WAV

Second generation:

The second generation sold 250,000 units in the first two weeks it was available. On December 21, 2010, Apple announced that they had sold 1 million units. In the second fiscal quarter of 2011, it had topped 2 million in total sales, with 820,000 sold in that quarter alone.

On January 24, 2012, Apple announced they had sold 1.4 million units in the first fiscal quarter of 2012.

Posted in: Apple