Skip to main content

Apple TV to Bridge iTunes and Television

Apple TV to Bridge iTunes and Television

In addition to its iPhone announcement, the newly-renamed Apple Inc. put a price tag on the Apple TV, its forthcoming set-top box designed to bridge the gap between digital media and video stored on a Mac or Windows computer and your high-definition living room televisions. Oh, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention it ties in with Apple’s iTunes store, wouldn’t we?

As envisioned by Apple, the Apple TV basically acts as a storage receptacle for movies, TV shows, and other video downloaded to or stored on a Mac or PC. Equipped with a 40 GB hard drive, 100Base-T Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi, users sync content with their iTV, then watch it on their living room enhanced- or high-definition wide-screen television using a simple Apple remote and a Front Row-like interface. The Apple TV will offer HDMI and component video output, optical audio output, and offers 720p high-definition output.

Recommended Videos

"Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century—you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a release. "Apple TV plays the same iTunes content that users enjoy on their computers and iPods, so now they can even watch part of a movie in their living room, and watch the rest later on their iPod."

And, of course, Apple would love it if Apple TV users purchased lots of movies from iTunes for playback via the Apple TV: the company just announced that in addition to feature films from studio Disney, Paramount will be making a good portion of its movie catalog available for download via iTunes as well. (Apple is also touting that more than 2 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes since its launch, with more than a billion of those sales coming in the last year.)

The Apple TV will be available in February for $299, and requires iTunes 7 or later for Mac OS X or Windows XP, an 802.11b/g/n wireless or wired Ethernet network, and broadband Internet access.

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Apple TV with Zoom means it’s finally time to call your mother
Zoom on Apple TV.

Zoom on Apple TV uses your iPhone as a camera (sweet dog blanket not included). Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Zoom is now available on Apple TV, complete with Continuity Camera. That means you can use your iPhone camera as, well, the camera and your TV as the screen on which to see the folks on the other side of the call. And because Zoom is a cross-platform app, it means you don't have anymore excuses for your Android-wielding family.

Read more
Express VPN joins the growing ranks of VPNs on Apple TV
The app listing for ExpressVPN on Apple TV.

One of the bigger features added to tvOS 17, at least on paper, was the ability for Apple TV to run a VPN application. That’s a big deal because folks don’t tunnel their entire home network traffic through a virtual private network, both because they’re probably normal human beings who don’t attempt such things and because routers don’t always make that an easy thing to do.

And the news today is that ExpressVPN — one of the bigger players in the space — is now available for Apple TV. It joins a growing cadre of tvOS-capable VPN apps, which at the time of this writing includes VPNify, X-VPN, IPVanish, PureVPN, hide.me, LeapVPN, US VPN, and Anycast, for starters.

Read more
Should you install beta updates for Apple TV 4K?
Apple TV beta software options as seen on a TV.

This is sort of one of those things that you see pop up from time to time whenever Apple unleashes an onslaught of new beta software. And it's worth discussing. Should you, proud owner of an Apple TV (or the newer Apple TV 4K, which is still our pick for the best streaming hardware you can buy), simply sit back and let production-level tvOS updates hit your box as Steve Jobs intended? Or should you live on the edge and take your chances with beta updates?

It's a fair question. I'm a sucker for updates. But there's a little bit to think about here.
What is a beta update?
For us mere mortals (as in someone who doesn't work at Apple), there are three software tracks from which you can choose on Apple TV. There's the regular software that everybody gets, which we'll call "Production." Because that's what it is. There are two types of betas. There's "Developer," and there's "Public."

Read more