Posted on March 19, 2012 by Mitosh Mora // Apple

The Apple TV 3 was launched along with new iPad on 7^th March in San Francisco. Looking at the new Apple TV it has the same box with same looks that was seen in the previous generation Apple TV.

The new Apple TV comes with some minor changes like A5 chipset, iCloud video support and 1080p support. According to me the Apple TV 3 is the best for people who own iOS device and have much spent much of their cash in Apple’s online movie. It still has features such as iCloud backup of the TV, iTunes Match, Photo Stream, etc.

Despite its looks, the new Apple TV brings in brand new interface that looks like a big iPad – something we expect to see in the actual Apple TV. It brings the 1080p video output and with the new Mountain Lion OS arriving, the full-screen AirPlay is going to be more exciting than ever.

The Design:

The design of the new Apple TV is as same as the Apple TV 2, but that is not the issue as it is one best looking TV box around.

The remote is once again as simple it was, it still has the same navigation circle on the top, a menu button on center that also acts as a Back button and of course the Play and Pause button.

With the Apple TV 3, now you can stream content instead of downloading it wherein you can access all of your already purchased movies and favorite TV shows. Apart from content available on iTunes the new Apple TV is still limited to other streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB.TV, NBA, etc. and this is the biggest drawback that this Apple TV has. If you don’t miss other streaming services then Apple TV is your best companion. Other drawback of this TV is limitation in playing digital media files. It will run files that are available on iTunes leaving other files such as DivX and MKV of no use.

What is AirPlay?

AirPlay is the best and most innovative feature of Apple TV 3. If you own other iOS device like iPad, iPhone or iPod touch then you will love this features the concept of this killer feature in streaming videos, music and photos form other iDevice directly to Apple TV and includes third-party apps too. So next time you want view content that is available on Apple TV but is available on iDevice, you watch it directly on Apple TV instead of your small iDevice. In a way you can also watch Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB.TV, NBA on you new Apple TV.

You can even stream your personal music to Apple TV from iDevice, this means you can push any music that is present in your iDevice, making it very convenient to listen to music sitting in your living room. That’s not it friends, AirPlay can do more than you think, it even comes up with mirroring. With this you can display on the Apple TV that is seen on the iDevice. But there is catch to it — you can only use iDevices such as new iPad, iPad 2 and iPhone 4S for mirroring. And now that the new Mountain Lion OS is coming you can watch almost everything on Apple TV that is played on the new OS. The 1080p support is also favorable to AirPlay feature.

iTunes Match:

iTunes Match will simplify most of the brain-taxing things by allowing to store copy of your music to its cloud sever and allowing to directly stream to Apple TV other devices with iTunes.

New Interface:

The new interface of Apple TV 3 is quite different from the previous one. The list of menus are replaced by art on the top big square icons for TV shows, Movies, etc. If you go ahead there will be grid of other icons supported for Apple TV. Altogether it looks quite similar to interface iOS. Even the selection of TV shows or movies gets you all the updated iTunes interface and the menu board on the top helps you jump to features such as: purchased content, content added to wish list. Below that you will see the promoted content by Apple.

iTunes Store:

If you are ready to donate your hard earned money to iTunes then this is the best place to be for content. You can watch TV shows for $3 for HD content, rented movies are for $5 in HD and if you want to purchase it then its around $10 to $20. The price of the new Apple TV is $99.

Pros:  

The best in Apple TV 3 is AirPlay and the ability to watch almost everything from it. You can even watch movies at 1080p and the UI is still the best.

Cons:

It is nothing without the iTunes and iTunes is costly in comparison to Roku’s LT that is available half the price of new Apple TV.

Final Word:

If you own any of the iDevice or a Mac PC and going to install the new OS, then buying the new Apple TV makes sense. Otherwise the Roku’s LT is a far better choice.

Also Read How To Access iTunes Movies In The Cloud From Your iPhone, iPad And Apple TV.

Share and Enjoy

Related posts:

Related posts: