It’s been one of those weeks where the days fly by but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten anything accomplished.
On the plus side, I’ve gotten all the FexEx, UPS, & USPS shipments that I was expecting.
So now i’m good to go for the next shooting competition. I’m looking forward to it.
One of the other shipments was the new Apple TV 1080P I really like the machine a lot. There are a couple minor warts on it…
Apple TV
On the Plus side, I like the new AirPlay feature. Even though I’m not using Lion I can realize some of the benefits.
The Netflix interface is one hell of a lot nicer than the Netflix interface in my DVD player. With the player, I have to answer 3 questions and wait for it to figure out that the network cable plugged into the back of the machine is live and that the network is really there and that netflix is really there… On & on.
With the Apple TV, selecting Netflix just displays a menu and you’re off & running. It’s very nice.
The only real annoyance I have with the Apple TV is at least in part, not apples fault. The problem is this; If you’re on a DSL connection trying to stream HD content from the Apple Cloud is really slow.
For example, It’s not at all uncommon for me to see wait times of 2 hours before the movie I want to watch is going to be playable.
If Verizon in their infinite mercy would put FIOS in the town, or if one of the cable companies would supply internet up here, this would probably not be an issue. I’m still trying to figure out what kind of idol and religious ceremonies or animal sacrifices are necessary to get decent service out of Verizon. If anyone has suggestions leave them in the comments.
Of course in Cuppertino where EVERYONE has access to blazing fast internet, it isn’t an issue. I’m sure that the Apple Engineers or Apple Software Quality Assurance never saw any problems and probably never even considered the issue.
However In the REAL world… High speed internet DOES not exist everywhere.
Thats the part of the problem that is NOT Apples fault.
The part of the problem that is Apples fault is this;
If I have content that I’ve purchased, stored on a Network attached storage device like Apples Time Capsule or another network hard drive from another manufacturer I can’t directly access that content with the Apple TV.
Yep, I can’t access that data that I own the rights to play unless I have a computer running iTunes turned on and pointed at the network storage device. (In this situation, computer can be an Apple Computer, iPhone, or iPad, or PC running iTunes).
So even if I have told my computer to download the video and stored it on my local network which my AppleTV has access to… I can’t just tell the Apple TV to play the movie. I have to leave my computer or some secondary device running…
My Xbox 360 doesn’t have a problem doing this… but It can’t play the Apple video data because of the damn DRM.
SO… Hey Apple! You’re not being very green! Why do I have to have a device that I’m not USING… turned on so that I can use another of your devices that I am using?
In point of fact… in this arrangement I might as well just plug my computer into my TV and use IT to watch the movies, and shows that I’ve rented, or purchased, and I can stream Netflix too.
After all… The HDMI connection works either way.
This little bug a boo is Seriously annoying to me. In fact, I consider it to be a MAJOR flaw in an otherwise very slick machine.
The Apple TV is a network device, it has full internet capability and it is obviously capable of checking the DRM status of any file it is asked to play. You can watch it do the check when you try to access a film or show from the cloud. So it shouldn’t be any big deal for the Apple Software engineers to add the feature.
I like the Apple TV enough that I’m not going to return it. When it’s out of warranty I’m going to hack the hell out of the bitch! Especially if Apple hasn’t figured out that Access to NAS devices is critical to the success of the device if they’re planning to capture the video market. I’m absolutely sure that some really smart folks are working on a modification even as I type this…
But First… I’m going to write a nice letter to Apple and explain why I think it would be best for them to add the function.
Given Apples attitude toward such suggestions I’m absolutely sure that they will promptly ignore and then lock the Apple TV up even further. But I can dream right?
Cloud Storage
Having a slow internet connection from a single source in my town is one of the reasons that I’m not terribly interested in internet cloud storage that everyone and their brother is all excited about. iCloud, Amazon Cloud, dropbox, whatever…
For small files… sure it would probably work ok. For big files…. Like movies, music, or for large encrypted files… cloud storage is next to useless to me. Actually, cloud storage is beyond useless because I don’t have the patience or desire to wait for uploads or downloads.
It’s cheaper for me to throw another NAS device on my network than pay the yearly fees for increased storage that I may or may not be able to access depending on the vagaries of my internet provider.
This is why I have 5 TB of local network attached drive storage, and an additional 5 TB of portable USB dives.
I’m also not really sure that I want my stuff stored on the internet. We’ve already seen that banks and even the government can’t protect our personal data. Why should I think that cloud storage is going to be any different?
Maybe I’m being un-necessarily paranoid, but honestly there is stuff on my computer… well lets just say I don’t think I’d want it broadcast across the world wide web…