Every Apple announcement brings with it a lot of buzz, and yesterday’s focused on the new Apple TV set-top box and the top-end iPod Touch. Despite comparisons with Google’s planned device, the Apple TV is clearly aimed at the Roku player. Here we analyze and compare.
Apple TV: understanding the spec sheet, comparing to Roku
The best way to understand Apple’s new set-top box is as a cloud-based media server. With no local storage, any content it delivers is on an active Internet connection—and if you want the video to truly be the 720p Apple promises source content will be—a fairly robust connection to boot. Not counting back-end server upgrades, based on my personal experience with existing streams like Netflix’s service, consumers should expect to have a 10Mbit+ internet connection to get the full benefit, something few but the most tech savvy current have today.
Apple TV storage capacity and its battle with Google TV
Inside the box, we’ve already seen there’s no storage capacity. What else can it do? Priced at $99, Apple packs in an impressive amount of hardware. It reportedly includes Bluetooth functionality (presumably for the remote) and—more importantly—dual-band WiFi. With 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5GHz, users who have 5Ghz capable routers will prevent their numerous wireless devices from interfering with each other (because almost everything operates at 2.4GHz right now).
Personally, though, I’ll stick with a hard Ethernet connection—which Apple smartly does not abandon. While WiFi is nice for computers, the last thing a streaming device needs is another source of latency in the connection. 802.11n is fast, but nothing (yet) compares to the peak transfer speeds offered by your humble cat5e cables. Other specs aren’t surprising—HDMI, optical audio out, and a few USB slots to boot.
Because the device is based off of a variant of iTunes, users will also likely be able to hook up memory sticks or external HDDs so they don’t have to stream content they already own. Apple hasn’t officially announced that functionality, but the inclusion of USB ports makes it likely. Also unconfirmed but likely (compared to other heavily multi-media platforms like the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360) is the ability to stream directly off of a user’s computer. This requires a fair amount of networking setup, but Windows 7 and the latest Mac OS X make setting up a media server easier than ever.
The next Apple TV’s $99 price tag puts it against Roku’s top-end Roku HD-XR (two cheaper alternatives are offered by Roku for as low as $59). Comparing the two device’s feature list reveals a lot of similarity—with only two key differences. The Apple TV box has Bluetooth functionality, presumably for peripherals like remotes (the PS3 has a Bluetooth remote, which is nice because you no longer have to point it at the device to control your media) and also high-end wireless speakers that are now entering the marketplace. The HD-XR will include the ability to stream 1080p content as part of a free firmware upgrade planned later this year—assuming your connection can actually handle it--whereas the Apple TV will only support 720p streaming for now.
The Roku is closely associated with Netflix, but offers a lot more content than the familiar video service—including Amazon's Video on Demand (which implies also Amazon's planned streaming service) and the Pandora music service. The full content list for the Apple TV is not yet official, but it mirrors the Roku—offering Netflix streaming as well as Apple’s own TV and movie rental service, with tiered pricing from $0.99 for most TV episodes to $4.99 (akin to Google’s planned pay-per-view YouTube expansion) for new release movie rentals. It will be interesting, though, to see if Apple limits music content to paid MP3’s through the iTunes catalog or will also offer popular free Internet ‘radio services like Pandora or Last.fm.
Stay tuned as more details emerge—the launch is four weeks away!
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