New Apple TV UI Demoed

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• khaydin - Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - link

  I never understood the point of devices like this. Why would you want to add another device to your living room? Why not get an all in one device like a TiVo or build a Windows 7 Media Center PC with one of those 4 tuner Ceton Infinitv cards ( this is my current setup).

• Ronakbhai - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link

  Oh there are many reasons why people would want to use this! :)
  
  It's super small, so it really doesn't add too terribly to clutter. Just 2 wires to a small box, that's all! Some would even call it cute. Plus, the remote is very simple and easy enough for my grand-parents to use.
  
  It's UI is very user friendly and simple. What you see is quite really what you get. Don't see it? Doesn't do it! :)
  
  Streams via. AirPlay quite natively. Again, people like my grand-parents don't have to figure out what apps to download and how to set up related servers to get video mirroring. It's fast, simple, and easy.
  
  We've already a ton of content on iTunes that we can just stream to our TV along with our photos again without much hassle at all. Hell, our Apple TV never turns off 'cause it's always playing something or the other. The moment you turn on the TV, there's some pleasing music playing. Which is great when you are also working on side projects, as it's not just a blank screen or annoying ads until you can pick something to watch.
  
  Now I might add, that we do have a Windows 7 based HTPC connected to our TV, and we've used it almost exclusively for more than a year. We just got an Apple TV at the beginning of this year, and I can say that the HTPC has only been on twice since then. Mainly because really the only thing our HTPC can do that our Apple TV cannot is add to our media collection. We've so many computers around the house that can already do that though, so it's not really a big deal. In fact, the HTPC will soon turn into a Linux-based web-server since it's being rarely utilized.
  
  My parents are retired software engineers. They've worked for the better part of 40 years in IT with various systems and configurations. They were always very up-to-date in the computing industry, and definitely know how to utilize computers more than many youngsters I see nowadays. Despite their familiarity with computers, they prefer to use the simple UI of the Apple TV. The simplicity of it makes for a very pleasing experience.
  
  And I think that's really the strong point of devices like this. It's deceptively simple, very easy to use, and your experience with it is quite natural.