So not long ago for my birthday I was fortunate enough to receive an AppleTV or TV for those of you on a mac. This was an odd device to own in Australia due to Apple’s lack of iTunes video content in our continent, but nonetheless, I wanted one and quite happily got it. Then, the realisation that video podcasts were all I was ever going to watch dawned upon me.
Now I’m all for Good News Week and Diggnation, but there’s really only so much short form content you can watch and I found myself really wanting more. I looked into hacking the little thing, but all seemed too complex especially considering that I wanted a clean box for updates etc. when they come from Apple.
Then – then – the miracle happened, Australian TV shows on iTunes – this would be great, this would be marvellous, I could subscribe to season passes to all my favourite shows that we watch all the time (which admittedly isn’t many), so I crank open iTunes and look. But hang on, I’m not a 5 year old – why is 99% of this content Disney cartoon crap? Where’s the good shows? Where’s the good AMERICAN shows even? So TV shows = let down.
Fast forward a few months, this last week Apple decided to allow us poor Australians to have Movie purchase/rentals. Sceptically I looked at the list of movies – and quite frankly, they’re not that half bad. There’s nothing I’d purchase, but sure, I’d rent a bunch of them and surely this is easier than going to Blockbuster. And right I was, last night for the first time the Wife and I sat down, fired up the AppleTV and clicked our way to movie watching.
This AppleTV thing is going to catch on – and it’s going to be awesome. And even if it doesn’t catch on, stuff the rest of you, I love it.