Digital Home Thoughts: Chuck Toporek: Why I Won't Buy an Apple iTV

"Okay, everyone knows I’m a fan of Apple. I love all the stuff that they do, and was waiting with bated breath for yesterday’s announcements from the “Showtime” event....So, the main reason why I won’t buy an iTV (or whatever Apple decides to call it later) is simple: It doesn’t record. Will someone please tell me why I should get jazzed about this device, because maybe the lobotomy didn’t work the first time around. I need an iTV like I need another hole in my head. If it doesn’t record television, it’s a useless interface to me. And you know why it won’t record? Well, you see the model Apple’s going after, don’t you? Don’t you?! Right. Good. They want you to purchase TV shows from the iTunes Store."

I wonder, do you think this is really Apple's long-term play? I somehow don't think so, and here's why: the iTV seems to be a "last mile" device who's sole purpose is to bridge the gap between your computer and your TV. And, truth be told, given the utterly incompetent products I've seen from many vendors that try to solve this problem, there's definitely room for another player. In fact, the Xbox 360 is the only product I've ever used and kept to perform this purpose. Much remains to be known about the iTV; will it only work with content indexed by iTunes? Will it be able to see UPnP NAS drives? What audio and video codecs does it support? Still, in my view the iTV looks to be a very promising solution - as long as it's not shackled by Apple's "our way or no way at all" view of the world.