Apple TV and other Macworld news

OK, so the iPhone wasn't the only thing Apple announced yesterday but it was all I had time to cover! So here's the other stuff.

Apple TV

As expected, the second major product launch was Apple TV (formerly iTV), the set-top box of tricks for streaming and storing iTunes content from your Mac or PC for playback on your TV.

The details are much the same as reported last year but just to recap, it's a slim, set-top box with a 40GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, ethernet, HDMI, component and optical output, USB 2.0 and an included Apple remote.



It supports output for either high or enhanced definition TVs in 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz.

It works pretty much like an iPod in that it syncs with iTunes but it does so automatically across your wireless (or wired) network. So if you download a new album, podcast, TV show or movie on your Mac, or upload a new photo album from your camera, it will all automatically sync to your Apple TV ready for viewing on your big screen TV.



It uses the latest draft 802.11 'n' specification wireless technology but is also backwards compatible with the older 'b' and 'g' 802.11 varieties. With the extra speed of the new 'n' WiFi it can also stream video directly from your computer without having synced it first.

It syncs with up to 5 computers (even visiting friends' computers!) and sets itself up pretty much automatically with minimal configuration needed from you.

It definitely looks pretty cool and I would find it useful as I use EyeTV to record Freeview programs quite a bit, so I can use this as an easy way of watching that recorded content on my TV without having to burn it to disk (although it will mean exporting it to iTunes first).

Airport Extreme

To go hand-in-hand with the Apple TV and enable you to take full advantage of its new draft 802.11 'n' specification wireless, Apple also announced an all-new Airport Extreme base station. The new spec offers up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of networks created with the earlier 802.11 'g' standard.



It turns out all the latest Core 2 Macs have been shipping with 'n' spec wireless cards, so you'll be able to take advantage of that extra speed across your whole network if you are lucky enough to have recently bought one.

Connect almost any external hard drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and AirPort Disk turns it into a shared network drive. Anything on the drive instantly becomes available to anyone on your network, Mac and PC alike. The same USB port also allows you to share a printer throughout the network.

Apple, Inc

As if confirming their increasingly clear consumer electronics strategy Apple Computer, Inc is no more. Steve Jobs announced at the keynote that the company is to be known simply as Apple, Inc from now on.

It seems to make complete sense, they haven't been just a 'computer' company for quite some time now. After the announcements of the last couple of days, if I were an executive at Samsung, Sony or Philips I would be quite worried. Apple is coming.