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Now That’s Cool

Cool Products - by - February 12, 2008 - 22:01 Etc/GMT+5 - Be first to Comment!


First Days with Apple TV

Okay, I got a new toy. An Apple TV (www.apple.com/appletv). This little device connects to your HDTV (or any widescreen tv) and your home wireless network. After a few very simple setup steps you can start watch. Now here is where it gets cool – I can access anything on my iTunes on any of the computers in the house. What’s more, the AppleTV has a built in hard-drive, so you can sync media to it from you computer and watch it later, even when you computer is not turned on. You can also watch stuff online, from YouTube or iTunes movie rentals. So why is this so cool you might ask? Let’s look at a couple examples.

Video Podcast (VodCast) – I subscribe to several vodcast, including the sermon feed from High Pointe (www.hpbcglobal.org) and from Mars Hill (www.marshillchurch.org). iTunes downloads these sermon videos when they are published each week automatically in the background. Then they are automatically sync’ed with my AppleTV and available to sit down and watch anytime. I use to sync them to my iPod, then plug my iPod into the TV to watch, now it is ready at the touch of a button.

Movies – No more letting the children touch the dvds! I am working to convert my dvds into mp4 video files, which will reside on the harddisk in the AppleTV. Now when the little children want to watch a movie it is a simple matter of browsing to the right movie from the menu and clicking play. And speaking of movies, I can keep my movies on my computer, yet easily watch them in the living-room without hooking up the TV and computer or using some other intermediary device.

Music – yes, you can play your iTunes music library also, so if your TV (or AppleTV) is hooked up to your home stereo system, you can easily listen to your tunes in the living-room, on you iPod and with your computer, keeping them all sync’ed and up to date!

So am I recommending everyone go buy one of these? Not really, but if you are looking for a way to integrate your computer based and living-room digital entertainment, these boxes are a cool solution. And what about the ministry opportunities?

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