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The only reason Apple TV is great is the ability to mirror my mac or iphone. Probably the most useful thing I have ever had for a tv.

Apple really needs to open the app store to it, it could sell so many more.


However, I am pretty sure Apple has some great game changer behind the scenes which is why they have yet to do so ;)
 
The only reason Apple TV is great is the ability to mirror my mac or iphone. Probably the most useful thing I have ever had for a tv.

Apple really needs to open the app store to it, it could sell so many more.


However, I am pretty sure Apple has some great game changer behind the scenes which is why they have yet to do so ;)

The question that comes to mind whenever the ATV comes up in conversation, what is so great that Apple continues to wait and wait and...

It must be vaporware if we haven't seen it by now. DOA also comes to mind.
 
The question that comes to mind whenever the ATV comes up in conversation, what is so great that Apple continues to wait and wait and...

It must be vaporware if we haven't seen it by now. DOA also comes to mind.

I was the idiot that thought I could jailbreak it. Then thought the jailbreak would come soon. It didn't. I thought with an App store it will have all the iPlayers, 4oDs, Lovefilms, etc. so kept the useless thing. That never happened.

I wasn't that interested in streaming stuff from iTunes to it.

It streamed grainy YouTube cartoons for the kids. I could see no other use for it.

Any junky eBay Android ATV clone is better. Roku is better. The most rubbish smart TVs are better. Anything running XBMC is (100s of times) better.
 
Roku may be more popular share wise, but who wins in the revenue department? It's like the comparison between Android and iOS. Apple doesn't want to have huge marketshare and no revenue. That's always been their thing.

And that's simply not true. They continue to state this now while loosing market share. Market share is so much more then actual amount of devices running iOS on it, it makes investors to believe things are heading in a good way. And if the market shares continues to decline then Apple is not happy with that, not any other company would be happy about that to be precise.

I'm not naive, the market works in the same way for Apple as it does for any other branch.

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I use Apple TV a lot! And even more over the past few months. There are so many apps here in Holland like "Uitzending Gemist" which stores all of the programs on television for a few days which you can visit and look again. Using airplay to stream those programs to my television or my beamer, it works great!

More often I'm using Plex on my iPad, just browsing to the series or movies I've got and with a press on a button I can airplay stream it straight to my television set or beamer. Works like a charm.

I also use Apple TV for presentations when I've visitors and people would like to see the holiday shots we (my girlfriend and I) made on television and/or the beamer.

Apple TV rocks, and since my TV is also high quality I don't even need a specialized Apple television if one might be sold. This works just fine.
 
I know absolutely no one with a roku. I think my brother bought an LG appletv look-a-like but he never uses it

Actually, the Apple TV 2nd and 3rd generation are WD TV Mini look-a-likes, so if the LG looks anything like the Apple TV, then it's a WD TV Mini look-a-like...

WD TV Mini (released Fall 2009):
18


Apple TV 2nd (released September 2010):
apple-tv-patch-stick.jpg
 
Love my Apple TV

I'm in the UK - and love my Apple TVs. I have one of the originals and the latest.

I got one originally when I was briefly out of work so I could watch my music videos and listen to music on the TV rather than on my iPod Touch. The day after I got it - Apple released movies! Perfect!

Now it has Netflix, Sky News, YouTube and iTunes it's almost perfect for me. Would like a little more UK based choice - iPlayer, 4OD, etc. But I find it's much more stable than Virgin Tivo or Samsung Smart TV apps. Netflix on Samsung is horrid, much prefer Apple TV as it does what I want, how I want it!
 
if the AspleTV 3 could have had a corefire style hack/jailbreak applied to it then I would have purchased several new AppleTV devices, instead I didn't buy any.
 
Currently using PlexConnect with my AppleTV 3 to get my 4 meager requirements:

1. Plex or XBMC
2. Netflix
3. IR Remote to program to my Harmony
4. Doesn't Suck

I also own a Roku and it does what I need great as well, but it is now in the children's room.
 
Owning both, I can tell you AppleTV's lack of Amazon Video is what causes mine to collect dust.
Mine also collects dust... because it doesn't have to move to do what it does. I use my Apple TV daily to watch Netflix or whatever videos I pull up on my iPad or iPhone and want to push to my home theater. Actually just ordered a second ATV for the bedroom (will actually be putting the old one in the bedroom because it's an ATV2, so the living room gets the 1080 ATV).

Plus, with apps like AirVideo, you can push any video from your computer to your TV -- whether it's supposedly compatible or not -- by either streaming it from your computer or by converting it on the computer and keeping it stored on your iOS device.

Regarding Amazon Prime, I can put that straight on my TV using the Smart TV features. I could also do this for Netflix, but I find the quality of the ATV -- the interface, the speed, and the actual output -- makes it better than my Smart features. Plus, there's a lot of crossover of shows and movies on Netflix and Prime, so I basically never use Prime.

The Apple TV is what I dreamed of for so long having spent much of my adolesence reduced to watching all my TV shows on a tiny monitor.

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The ATV has many problems, in my opinion: the remote, although sleek, is too small and has a limited number of buttons (there isn't even a sleep or power button!), which themselves are hard to press and make scrolling through lists a chore
If you have an Apple TV, you probably have some sort of iOS device. Just use Apple's Remote app.


  • You can be anywhere within the same wifi network to use the app with the ATV, rather than having to point the actual remote at the ATV.
  • You can use a full keyboard to type login info or search for things rather than having to scroll through a non-traditional keyboard and enter one letter at a time.
  • You can fast forward and skip to a specific spot in the video just like you would watching a video on your iDevice rather than using the three "speeds" of scrolling like you have to on the actual remote.
I could go on. I have the Remote app on my iPhone and iPad and just use whichever is more convenient at the time. I frequently have no idea where my Apple TV remote is and could care less.
 
I have 3 ATV's and love them. I have nearly 500 movies (over 200 purchased on iTunes). I have Amazon Prime, but have never used their service for TV/Movies.

We use ATV mainly for Movies and Netflix. I cancelled Hulu Plus as it didn't seem to be worth it now that I have Dish. I use Harmony remotes in all three rooms so control of ATV isn't an issue for me. I sometimes use iOS app, but that is mainly in Master since ATV is mounted behind flat screen and sometimes doesn't pick up IR signal.

Hoping to see good things come from ATV as I am pretty invested, but either way it does everything I need it to now so anything new would be a bonus.
 
Apple TV needs App Store so developers can make apps for device like roku. I bought the roku for ease of use and the huge selection. If Apple could open up the Apple TV similar to roku I think more would make switch. Price did help the roku but the higher end units sale for the same price as the Apple unit.
 
ATV needs to either get more service or drop in price.

Apple could sell the ATV for $29, and recoup costs from all the iTunes streaming sales. It can be a terrific loss-leader for Apple.
 
as long as the new apps keep being cable subs apps then demand won't increase.

Not necessarily true. Lots of current cable subscribers are looking for a better way to discover and access all the content they are paying for. If Apple makes a great service for this people will buy them (especially if it allows them to eliminate cable box rentals).

I'm definitely in the minority, but I actually subscribed to cable specifically for the TWC TV apps for iPad, iPhone, and Roku. I'm dying for an Apple TV version as well. Technically, they could upgrade those streams to 1080p, which would be better than cable (1080i max) and that could sell devices, too.
 
Story is ********.

Roku states their sales are five million.

Apple t.v. it's sitting at twelve million.
 
Statistically speaking, that is a fairly significant sample.

Not when the math doesn't add up at the end to unit sales nor it comes close. Just look at overall sales of both devices. There are other variables besides a sample size to make something correct.

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Not necessarily true. Lots of current cable subscribers are looking for a better way to discover and access all the content they are paying for. If Apple makes a great service for this people will buy them (especially if it allows them to eliminate cable box rentals).

I'm definitely in the minority, but I actually subscribed to cable specifically for the TWC TV apps for iPad, iPhone, and Roku. I'm dying for an Apple TV version as well. Technically, they could upgrade those streams to 1080p, which would be better than cable (1080i max) and that could sell devices, too.

I think you are in the minority. Why get a second box to give you the same content is what the average person will tell you.
Either way most people that buy an atv don't buy it for the cable apps.
 
Story is ********.

Roku states their sales are five million.

Apple t.v. it's sitting at twelve million.

The Roku number is U.S. sales.
The Apple number is global sales (and an estimate, as Apple doesn't release AppleTV sales figures).
 
Story is ********.

Roku states their sales are five million.

Apple t.v. it's sitting at twelve million.

Depends.

If you believe that:
1. Those buying Apple TVs are more likely to upgrade to a newer model when it becomes available than those buying a Roku.
2. Those buying Apple TVs buy more of them, for example if each kid gets one, than those buying a Roku.

Then what the survey states may very well be true despite lower sales for the Roku.

A survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households revealed that 37% used a Roku device while 24% used an Apple TV, making Roku the most used streaming set-top box in the U.S.

Note that it says percentage of households using a certain device and nothing about total number of devices used by each household.
 
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Not when the math doesn't add up at the end to unit sales nor it comes close. Just look at overall sales of both devices. There are other variables besides a sample size to make something correct.

The survey is estimating which device is used in most homes, it's not estimating unit sales.
 
The survey is estimating which device is used in most homes, it's not estimating unit sales.

Survey is estimating which one is 'most popular' by ownership not most used.
When one does a sample survey, it's results are supposed to match closely to reality. Not in this case, which tells me the study was not done properly to cover all bases.
 
The question that comes to mind whenever the ATV comes up in conversation, what is so great that Apple continues to wait and wait and...

It must be vaporware if we haven't seen it by now. DOA also comes to mind.

I have a feeling it is more about securing content. That is pretty much what is holding it back.
 
Survey is estimating which one is 'most popular' by ownership not most used.
When one does a sample survey, it's results are supposed to match closely to reality. Not in this case, which tells me the study was not done properly to cover all bases.

You're wrong, it's household usage, not ownership:

A survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households revealed that 37% used a Roku device while 24% used an Apple TV, making Roku the most used streaming set-top box in the U.S.

For someone complaining a lot about the survey, you sure don't seem to have an understanding of statistics and you sure don't seem to understand what the survey was about...
 
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