Apple stores to offer hands-on Apple TV workshops and demos

Apple on Wednesday formally acknowledged the first shipments of Apple TV and said customers can expect wireless streaming media device to turn up at Apple and authorized retail stores "beginning this week."

In a press release, the Cupertino-based company described Apple TV as "an easy to use and fun way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts."

The device, which easily connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, lets users quickly browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room from up to 30 feet away using the simple Apple Remote.

â€œApple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet ageâ€”providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV,â€ said Philip Schiller, Appleâ€™s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. â€œApple TV allows you to wirelessly play your content from your PCs or Macs using your existing WiFi network as well as the newest and fastest version of WiFiâ€”802.11n.â€

Integration of Apple TV and iTunes gives users access to over 400 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; over four million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store.

Users can also watch their favorite movie trailers right on their widescreen TV, listen to their favorite music on their home entertainment system, and view slideshows of their photo albums in high definition resolution.

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each and is capable of delivering high-definition 720p output. It comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort 802.11 wireless networking, Apple TV can alsoauto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to your TV without any wires.

Apple TV, which bundles the Apple Remote, will be available beginning this week from the Apple Store, Appleâ€™s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US).

Apple retail stores will also offer hands on workshops and demonstrations of Apple TVâ€™s features, Apple said.

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36 Comments

louzer

said about 17 years ago

Wow, this device is so complicated, they need to have workshops to explain it to people?

And do people really have "favorite movie trailers"?

sandau

said about 17 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louzer

Wow, this device is so complicated, they need to have workshops to explain it to people?

And do people really have "favorite movie trailers"?

think of the workshop as more of a selling seminar. And a lot of people like to see all the features before they make a decision to buy. Its a smart move on Apple's part, to have a 'genius' display its best feature set.

yeah, before Serenity came out, the 1080p trailer was one of my favorites to test out computers to see how they handled it....

Other than that, no.

bdj21ya

said about 17 years ago

Ahhh news. Turns out the Apple store WILL be displaying Apple's newest product? AND they'll be doing classes on it?

Seriously though, I appreciate the notice. I'll have to check the schedule and make a time to go see the demonstration.

MacPro

said about 17 years ago

Any sign of 720p content yet? I just checked iTunes store and didn't see any explicit mention. If the current material was intended for iPod I assume it is way smaller than 720p. Is Apple planning to offer two versions of all movies, iPod only and ATV, i.e. smaller or larger? One would hardly want to wait for a 720p if the iPod was the only intended player but those of us with ATV will want 720p... so many questions! I just read Walt's column and no mention of this and as i say iTunes store has nothing I can see. Anyone have any information?