Apple TV: Past, Present and Future

Rumors of Apple actually designing and building television sets of their own, wouldn't seem like a far fetched idea, when you consider that by hanging a 27" iMac on your wall and turning it into your own media center, is as close as it gets.  

First generation Apple TV

Apple TV First Generation

Even though we like the slimmed down version of the current model of the Apple TV, the first generation model still rocks. The included 40GB and later 160GB internal hard drive models, serves as an excellent backup external storage for our iTunes media. This first generation Apple TV also resembled the Airport Extreme routers. It worked right out of the box and the ease of downloading movies and music straight from iTunes was a breeze. Home network connectivity was simple and straight forward. Although typing your WiFi network password did seem to be a chore with the remote. Speaking of which, the remote which is the same as the kind included with Apple's laptops, is unfortunately too small and could easily get misplaced in any setting. If you downloaded media from iTunes from your either laptop or desktop, syncing that content to the Apple TV through a WiFi connection was tiresome as well. Unfortunately, you aren't able to watch content or completely utilize the Apple TV for say, YouTube or internet radio, while syncing.

Current generation Apple TV

Apple TV Second Generation

Apple later revamped the Apple TV with a smaller form factor and removed the internal storage completely. Connectivity was reduced to a HDMI connection and digital audio. AirPlay capabilities were included and you could stream content from your iPhone and iPad straight to the television or monitor, it was connected to. While we enjoy streaming from iPhones, iPads and laptops with the current Apple TV device, it should be noted that you will need a great (meaning: fast) broadband connection to do this. We have used DSL speeds around 3MB for this task and it can be network intensive, especially on a daily basis. Additionally, this can affect other users of the same household and stuttering playback will occur and ruin an otherwise fun time. 

Future Models

We hope to see perhaps some internal storage return to the Apple TV in it's next iteration. Maybe in the form of an SSD drive. As stated it can be a chore to sync media to the Apple TV. Given the choice, playback of content from a hard drive is still our favorite option rather than wirelessly. Rumors are circulating that Apple plans to market their own branded televisions from an OEM supplier, changing the game again, entirely.

UPDATE:
The current generation AppleTV can stream previously purchased content such as TV shows. Additionally, viewers can now access Wall Street Journal videos, the Vimeo video channel and even watch hockey games via a subscription. It will also be iTunes Match ready when the streaming music service is launched.