bring it

YEs please!

yes please!

I received one for my birthday too. I would not have purchased it on my own however. I always felt it was a bit lacking PRIOR to owning...

BUT this probably made it a perfect gift b/c now that I have one, I enjoy it quite a bit. I do not have cable and use terrestrial HD, which probably ups the enjoyment factor for me personally (ie I actually watch the HD podcasts--there is some decent amature content on there...)

My favorite surprise about the box is iPhoto and iTunes integration. I can easily push all of my photos and music onto my TV/home theatre and this is a pretty entertaining way to listen to music while my photos cascade across the screen. Also, during parties and such this gives an interesting way to keep people entertained b/c you can load different photo libraries via itunes.

The GUI is good and all, and the streaming is the way to go. If iTunes is on a computer in your WAP and it is active, you can stream anything in iTunes to the ATV. Eliminates the need for the big HD IMO. Also, the movie function allows you to stream content , here my experience with PS3 HD content is you have to DL it in its entirety before beginning (anyone else?) The iPhone as a remote is an enhancement, but you still need the controller to operate (apple needs to make it able to fully control).

My wife uses it a great deal, which she has and will not do when I have my laptop hooked up to the TV or even my ps3. I think that kind of thing intimidates non-techy types, so the Atv is 100% accessible IMO.

Finally, as I believe mr Murph put it a while back, "getting Boxee on your apple TV improves it by a factor of 10," which I agree with. Again, for a non-cable person its nice to be able to watch TV via hulu or CBS and not have to worry about downloading a torrent. I haven't explored it much, but the streaming media piece seems much more open than itunes (ie no handbrake required to make the file "right")

There are quirks indeed--the system runs very hot, the 24 hr rental is LAME and the new releases are staggered, expensive and unavailible for rental for a couple of weeks after release. A revision is probably due, but I am very certain Apple and the BDA have made nice so a mac mini with Bluray and aTV functionality is likely a revision coming soon. Also, they should mess around with the system and give it an app store. Who knows--somebody could write that killer app everyone is waiting for and make .99 each time we downloaded...

blurays are coming to macs...

Should make a cool mini update, but the rest of the show will be meh.

It WILL have BluRay.

WIll it beat a PS3 as a TV entertainment hub? I think so....

What's the price point gonna be?

You heard it here first: the bag of hurt is over--Apple is down with Blu

BRing it!

pls let me fly

AWESOME HAPPY B_DAY!!

my boss wants to talk about my productivity to you...