Erik Ankrom dot com

New Apple TV

A couple of observations I have related to today’s Apple TV announcement: It has the new A4 processor, which will help with better processing, and HD video support.  It is NOT iOS based (like iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), and keeps the same general menu structure as the current version, with some minor enhancements.  The current Apple TV version 3.0.2 is built on top of Mac OS 10.4.7 (Tiger).  The latest version of Mac OS is 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard).  This is important for a couple of reasons.

Some software like Plex, require at least Mac OS 10.5, and hardware accelleration is also built into the latest OS versions. 

If developers want to hack the AppleTV to install third party programs, they will continue to use methods like the unsupported Backrow SDK.  Apple has never opened the AppleTV to developers.  Think of how successful the iOS devices have been for the developer communities, the AppleTV is still lagging behind.  I can see though, how the AppleTV may not fit well with the iOS for a couple of reasons.

The AppleTV isn’t a touch device.  It’s a whole different experience for the living room, not a portable device.  You don’t have to worry about battery, you don’t have touch controls, the visual elements would be different all together.  I just think they need to make a developer ecosystem with an app store for the Apple TV, with the same concepts of iOS.

It will be interesting to see what Mac OS version they built this latest version of the Apple TV sofware on top of.  Let’s hope it’s at least 10.5, I would like to see some of the new features of the Plex app, (including iOS App), running through my Apple TV!