The streaming playing needs a little bit of patience to wait for it to start; after that, it continues without problems. This, of course, if the user has a “n” wireless connection or normal ethernet connection.

When synchronizing movies and videos already previously found on the PC, users will face a real problem. Nowadays, the usual standard is DivX and Xvid, but Apple TV is only compatible with the mp4 and H.264 formats. In order to play DivX, avi and Xvid movies, users will have to go through a long and boring conversion process, which make it completely impossible to convert everything in case the user has many gigabytes in movies. Apart the conversion time, the movies that are converted in H.264 are played in a flawless manner by Apple TV.

In a similar mode to the iPod, the Apple TV doesn’t shut down. It remains in standby, ready to be activated by the Apple Remote command.

The main menu indicates the multimedia sources that can be chosen: Films, TV shows, Music, Podcast and Pictures. The contents are those in local playing that were previously synchronized on the Apple TV or streaming from a computer. In the first case, the contents can be played even with a turned off Mac, in the second, it’s possible to connect up to 5 Macs or PC’s.

There’s little to say about the local playing: the selection is simple, the preview is fast, and it starts without problems, even when dealing with high definition content.

When setting iTunes up, the sensation of configuring an iPod comes back to mind: the options and the interface are almost identical. You choose if and what to synchronize and press confirm. The synchronization, due to the “g” wireless connection on the Apple TV, is definitely slow, but it’s probably likely that even with the “n” standard, it would not become faster. It’s slow, but it works, and once it’s synchronized, the device can start working.

The Apple TV’s interface, which Apple calls BackRow, seems to be a combination of iPod and FrontRow. The navigation is easy and intuitive and the options aren’t hidden under three thousand sub-menus, so it makes them easy to reach without much trouble. The Apple Remote is perfect for this task, however, it’s not possible to set the volume with the Remote Control, which is a downside. It shouldn’t be a hard implementation to make: most Satellite TV’s remote controls are able to set the TV volume with no problems.

The only control device that comes with the Apple TV is the famous Apple Remote, the 5 key remote-control that is already compatible with the iPod, iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro. The product is presented in a very simple and elegant pack, true to Apple’s style.

Installing the Apple TV is very simple. Just connect the device to the electricity and TV and it’s done. At the first start, it feels more like a bigger iPod than a Mac, and it is a sensation that will linger. The wireless network detection is rather fast, although the reception isn’t the best (in an open environment, it cannot connect to devices further than 10m from the base). Once connected, Apple TV supplies a code which is necessary to connect it to iTunes.

The specifications aren’t really that enticing, but it must be considered the fact that we’re not looking at a new, full Mac, but at a media hub to be connected to the TV and with very reduced size. And although the size is really small, it’s still surprising: one would expect something as small as the Mac Mini or Airport Base Station, but the Apple TV is slightly bigger.

As for the connections, the offer is quite complete. Only the users with very old TV’s that only have a Scart or RGB connection would complain: the Apple TV cannot be connected to those devices unless by using expensive adapters. However, the maximum performance of the Apple TV is obtained with a HD-Ready or, better yet, Full-HD TV.

Apple TV was developed to be a union between the computer and the TV. Even Steve Jobs has declared many times that a close connection between the two devices wasn’t exactly an easy thing to do; in fact, keyboard and mouse aren’t realy comfortable to use when sitting on a couch. And in fact, in that sense, the Apple Remote is a little better.

In any case, let’s first review the technical specifications on this product.

• Processor: Intel Pentium M (Crofton) 1 Ghz, BUS 350 Mhz, 2 Mb Cache L2
• Graphics: NVIDIA G72M, 64MB di DDR2 RAM
• RAM: 256 Mb, 400MHz DDR2
• HDD: 40 Gb 2,5″
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
• Connectors: USB2, Ethernet and HDMI, Component (YPbPr), optical audio and analogic stereo
• Power Supply: integrated 48W

Pros:

- Great LCD display
- Fine and Intuitive Design
- Supports video and pictures

Cons:

- Few accessories included
- Battery doesn’t last long if watching video

Conclusion:

The iPod photo allows users to listen to songs and audiobooks, watch videos and video podcasts, view pictures, store contacts, use the calendar, games and world time clock. It has a decent storage capacity (30 or 60 GB), and a very comfortable and intuitive control button. Definitely a good multimedia player, one of the best in the market, although Apple has already released new versions, of course.

With an optional cable, you can listen to your songs from the stereo, or with yet another cable, you can plug it to the TV, viewing the slideshow from iPod, all from the other side of the room, thanks to the iPod Universal Dock and the comfortable Apple remote control. Thanks to the dock, users can plug their players to the PC, recharge the battery or synchronize it through the USB cable that is inculded on the pack.

The iPod photo is a rather small product that supports many different files, such as JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PNG (for pictures), AAC, MP3, VBR, WAV, AIFF (for songs). It’s a pity that in the purchase pack there’s only the headphones and the USB cable. All the other components mentioned are optionals to be purchased separately.

The clickable central button allows the user to access the whole music, photo and video collection with a single movement. It also adjusts the volume and navigates through the menu by scrolling through its touch-sensitive surface.

Besides the music playing, the iPod Photo offers also a good number of entertainment options. Users can connect to iTunes and choose more than 1.5 million songs or 15.000 podcasts or synchronize their iPod with the PC. The synchronization is done automatically as soon as the iPod is connected to the computer, and everything that was added to the player since its last synchronization is visualized: songs, audiobooks, podcasts and everything else.

This iPod model used to be the top of Apple’s line back in 2004, and although newer models are available now, it doesn’t mean this old model is completely outdated, much on the contrary. The iPod Photo features 20 hours of battery autonomy and two versions: a 20GB version and a 60GB version (which happens to be slimmer than the 20GB one).

There’s much to be done with this player, besides music playing. There’s the possibility of viewing pictures, video podcasts. Using the internal agenda, consulting a world clock and using its chronometer.