Aidan MalleyApple CEO Steve Jobs took to the D: All Things Digital conference stage with surprise news that his company's media hub would soon grab YouTube clips — and unveiled a hard drive upgrade behind the scenes.
Unlike the computer experience, however, owners wouldn't access the clips directly; instead, clips would be added manually by a team that hosts the videos in an Apple TV-ready form. YouTube account holders could then login to their accounts from the hub and either browse individual categories or search for themselves using only the Apple Remote.
Image quality, however, wasn't set to be one of the changes. Jobs noted that the conversion would be an as-is method rather than employ upscaling or other enhancements. "You get what you get," he said.
"Thousands" of videos will go live when the update appears in mid-June, but continuing work will see the entire YouTube catalog in Apple TV form sometime during the fall.
And addressing concerns that the stock Apple TV's 40GB hard drive was inadequate for avid media collectors, the California firm also announced a 160GB hard disk option for the device, which raises the overall price to $400.
The revision is expected to appear tomorrow through the company's online store.
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50 Comments
Eeek. $399 for this box. This really does make me wonder what they are planning on doing with the Mac Mini.
They should be selling it for $349. Would make an attractive "up-sell". But hey, what do I know. I already think $299 is too expensive, considering the Nintendo Wii only costs $249.
Eeek. $399 for this box. This really does make me wonder what they are planning on doing with the Mac Mini.
Anyone else wish the Mac Mini and Apple TV would converge?
That would seem to be a pretty nice product.
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If the 399 version allowed 1080 then I think that would be cool. That is the one thing holding me back from buying one.
Anyone else wish the Mac Mini and Apple TV would converge?
That would seem to be a pretty nice product.
.
I don't know about combining them, but a standard DVD slot in the Apple TV would be sweet. Maybe in the next iteration we'll see that. So then people could get rid of the their old DVD players and clear up some space under their TV's. Maybe that would be worth the $399 price tag. Then as I and Rolo predicted, they'll announce the real Apple Television, and keep the little Apple TV as a side product. If you already have a new TV you can buy the little box, if you don't, you can buy the big box