iTV, has 802.11 wireless built in, will sell for $299 and works with PCs and Macs. It will let you stream movies or music to televisions. The new device will sell for $299 and works with PCs and Macs. From what I can tell, it doesn't have FireWire. Why not? There may be a good reason for this, but such a device would seem to be a natural for this type of connectivity.
Also, iTV? I know the folks at El gato, makers of EyeTV software, have to love the name. Then there's [url=http://www.itv.com]ITV[/url] or Independent Television, the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC.. Ay-yi-yi!
By the way, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said a typical movie will take about 30 minutes to download fully, but consumers will be able to start watching the movie after the first minute while the download process continues.
Noting that Apple is already in people's cars and pockets with the iPod and the den with the Macintosh, Jobs said the iTV "completes the picture" getting Apple in the living room. The device, though still months away, has gotten pretty good buzz.
"It's a pretty elegant solution and at $299, consumers can buy it and not worry about having to subscribe to another service," Gartner analyst Jon Erensen told internetnews.com. Erensen says he's impressed with what Apple has done to simplify the process of getting multimedia to different devices throughout the home, or even update an office computer connected to an iPod with the latest content that's been purchased. Still, he's concerned that iTV, and all those digital movie sales, will miss the holiday season. Erensen, and others, are a little leery of the fact that, for now, only Walt Disney Pictures (and affiliates, Pixar, Miramax and Touchstone) have signed on to Apple's new movie download service.
Will other studios sign on? I think so, and time will tell.
Finally, where's that "true" video iPod that everyone's always speculating about. The 2.5 inch screen on the fifth generation iPod is still too small for long term video viewing, brighter or not on the latest devices.
Thoughts? Write me at daseller@earthlink.net
