Cheaper and slimmer – Apple TV

This is the first time that Apple has revised the Apple TV and it has been a couple of years since the manufacturer released the original product. The company has done plenty of changes in design, functionality and price of the product. The device is very small and this can be attributed to the absence of hard disk drive inside. You cannot buy and download the videos now and the new Apple TV is limited to just video streaming now.

On the bright side, there are two options on the Apple TV. One is that you can buy content from Apple iTunes on the computer and then stream the video content from to the Apple TV through the PC via home network. This process is a bit cumbersome and takes a lot of time. Also, buying is not an alternative here because you’d need more money. A single HDTV episode will cost you $2.99.
Another option for viewing the content on Apple TV is through NetFlix streaming. I am a huge fan of Netflix’s online streaming service as it offers unlimited viewing of movies and shows for $9 a month which is really cheap. It is finally there on Apple TV and I am glad about that. But it does feel like Apple has included this feature just to stay in the race because everyone else has already done it. The interface is different from what you’d get normally. The menus look really cool with all the animation and the viewing queue can be modified.
Apart from Netflix, Apple TV gives you access to Flickr photos, MobileMe photos, YouTube videos along with podcasts and tons of Internet radio stations. You can stream videos, music, and photos from Mac or PC through iTunes. Remember that you are just limited to the services that Apple has given on this Apple TV. You don’t have a app store unlike the iPad or iPhone so content cannot be added from third party providers. For connections, Apple TV just has optical audio output and HDMI. Apple has given this device state of the art wireless dual band n Wi-Fi and for wired connections, there is an Ethernet jack.