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Apple HDTV Coming to Your Living Room
By Shane Sturgeon
Publisher & Chief Technologist
Posted on January 10, 2007
Category: Products & Equipment
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Apple TV Coming to Your Living Room

Movies, TV Shows, Music & Photos on Your Big Screen TV

Apple TV - CarsMACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO - January 9, 2007 - Apple® today premiered Apple TV™, an easy to use and fun way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes® content from your Mac® or PC on your widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Using Apple TV's stunning new interface, anyone can quickly browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room using the simple and intuitive Apple Remote. Apple TV easily connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, and will be shipping in February for just $299.

"Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century-you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Apple TV plays the same iTunes content that users enjoy on their computers and iPods, so now they can even watch part of a movie in their living room, and watch the rest later on their iPod."

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.* Apple TV is easy to connect to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort® 802.11** wireless networking, Apple TV can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to your TV without any wires.***

The seamless integration of Apple TV and iTunes lets users choose from over 250 feature-length movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality; four million songs, 5,000 music videos, 100,000 podcasts and 20,000 audiobooks. Users can enjoy their favorite music on a home entertainment system and view slideshows of their photo albums on a widescreen TV. Apple TV makes it easy for users to explore their entire media collection with an easy to use and intuitive new interface. With the Apple Remote, consumers can easily browse through their favorite movies, TV shows, music and photos from up to 30 feet away.

Pricing & Availability

Apple TV, which includes the Apple Remote, will be shipping in February through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US).

Apple TV requires iTunes 7 or later running on a Mac with Mac OS® X version 10.3.9 or later, or a Windows PC with Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2). An 802.11b/g/n wireless network using AirPort, AirPort Extreme® or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking required. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended. Apple TV requires an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TV. iPod® games will not play on Apple TV. iTunes is available in the US and select countries.

* Video playback based on 640x480 iTunes video content. Music capacity based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding. Photo capacity based on Apple TV viewable photos transferred from iTunes. Actual capacity varies by content.

** Compatible with 802.11b/g/n. Based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification.

*** Wireless video streaming requires an 802.11g/n network.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online store.

Press Contacts

Teresa Brewer Apple (408) 974-6851 tbrewer@apple.com

Lynn Fox
Apple
(408) 974-4300
lfox@apple.com

Sphere: Related Content

Posted by Shane Sturgeon, January 10, 2007 9:02 AM

Reader Commentary

See Forum Topic: Apple HDTV Coming to Your Living Room (4 replies)
Jan 11, 6:34am
While I'm always intrigued by new technology releases from Apple--they seem to get things right so much more than their competitors--I must admit that I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that this thing only offers 720p. A quick scan of the articles and
Jan 11, 12:09pm
I have to actively support Apple in this. Let me beat old horses: Rome wasn't built in a day; There is no such thing as a free lunch; and project managers have to kill the engineers to ship a product. (Read as: they got this out in time for the show.)
Jan 11, 12:56pm
I agree with your recognition of this progress. I need to do more reading/research to learn exactly what Apple is doing to push the envelope over platforms like the Xbox 360 and various PC (wireless) streaming platforms. As far as the 480i limitation,
Jan 11, 2:21pm
This is not a hardware limitation or engineering decision, it is based on the content. Since the iTunes store was built from the bottom-up to support the iPod, high definition was not initially in the plans. They have since added it, but the content is li
Showing only excerpts from 4 out of 5, Read More

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About Shane Sturgeon

Shane Sturgeon is the Co-Publisher and Chief Technologist of HDTV Magazine, an industry publication with HDTV roots going back to 1984, when Dale Cripps founded The HDTV Newsletter. Today, HDTV Magazine is a leading online resource for HDTV news and information and captures the eyes and imaginations of over 3 million visitors annually. Mr. Sturgeon has a background in information technology and has served in various consulting capacities for Fortune 500 companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Verizon Communications, Proctor & Gamble and Nationwide Insurance. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Wright State University.