According to that Wall Street Journal review that I can’t read (thanks to Apple Insider for posting about it) the AppleTV is running some variation of OS X.
That’s good (if not expected) news for a variety of reasons. The primary of which is the options that it opens up for compatibility with Leopard. I sincerely hope that we see that rumored Leopard only feature of being able to stream your desktop onto your television via the AppleTV.
If that happens, we suddenly have an Apple supplied work around to the whole “it can’t play divx files” issue that is a perfect way to keep the Hollywood studios happy, and still let us watch whatever the heck we want on our AppleTVs.
It also solves the “AppleTV is not a DVD player” issue, which – while not a big deal by any means – is still something I would have liked to see. I expect that even if this rumor ends up NOT being true, companies like Migila will be providing us with solutions to these kinds of problems in the very near future.
I’m steering clear of AppleTV reviews until I get a chance to try the thing out for myself, and I also plan on comparing it to the Amazon+Tivo Unbox service at a friend’s house soon (assuming she lets me).
The closer we get to the AppleTV’s arrival, the more excited I am to get it…and the more ready I am to dump this cable. My HD-DVR box has been on the fritz for a few weeks now, and I haven’t even seen the last 2 episode of Lost because of it. I can’t wait to drop this thing off at the cable company and tell them where they can stick it.
3 thoughts on “Briefly: Apple TV runs OS X, Apple TV Rumors, and Rantings about Cable”
I don’t quite understand how we’re supposed to run Leopard over AppleTV. I have an HDTV permanently hooked up to a PowerMac G4 and here’s the problem – how exactly would you control OS X? Using the Apple Remote? That would be painful. Or would you use the computer’s mouse and keyboard? At that point, why not just hook up the computer directly to the TV? A DVI>HDMI cable costs $25.
Further, it doesn’t really matter for desktop sharing that AppleTV runs OS X. A client that just dumbly mirrors the screen of a Mac would fit into a Shuffle – no need for OS X.
I think desktop-LIKE functionality will make its way to AppleTV. But some sort of desktop-to-TV streaming? Very clunky.
I think Michael is elluding to the possibility of using your Mac as a DVD player. If Leopard can share its desktop with the AppleTV, then the Front Row functionality of playing DVD’s might be accessed via the Apple Remote through AppleTV.
This could be somewhat inconvenient if your Mac is in a room separate from your TV; but it would allow you to play through your purchased DVD collection with no need to replace your current DVD player in the future (or you could even do away with it entirely if its an cheap model).