[Macworld]

Post your comments for Driving iTunes Daffy here

[TeaEarleGreyHot]

Given that I don't own a television, the idea of buying an AppleTV or a Tivo is obviously distant in my mind. And now, hearing how unreliable, awkward, and difficult AppleTV is to use, I have no desire to change the status quo.
Truly, this is the 21st century, and there is just no excuse for household appliances to "crash". They need to just work. Flawlessly. Nobody would accept a coffeemaker that forces you to sit around 15 minutes while it re-boots, and nobody should accept an internet appliance having such flaws. I suppose it could be worse: my toaster could be asking me "are you sure you want a darker toasting?"

[kirkmc]

Well, if the iDisk had bandwidth that reminded me even of the 1990s, it might be worthwhile, but as it is, getting anything from an iDisk (let alone putting things there) is glacial at best.
And, at more than 1 GB per movie, you can't store a lot on your iDisk.

[itsmequinn]

Apple sees the good in allowing customers to re-download things that they've purchsed and since they are the only party involved in creating the terms of the App Store, that's the way the rules read. However, when RIAA, labels and studios get involved, Apple is only able to offer you the single instance of the file that you download from the iTunes store, NOT the liscense to the song or movie or TV show itself that you receive for DRM free tracks or CDs. Allowing you to re-download the file would break Apple's liscensing agreement with a third party.

[mattday]

There has to be a reason as to why no one can get it right.

They're complicated machines.



Toasters are easy! I would hazard a guess at one full sized circuit, maybe two...

Whereas a box which has to process millions of pixels a second, transfer them to a tv and be able to grab them from somewhere else(perhaps at the same time) must be quite difficult!

Especially when apple puts in a half hearted effort.

[Chris Breen]

Right, but we're not really talking about the real iDisk but rather a pointer within MobileMe ? a construct to make it easier for people to understand that This is Stuff That Takes Up Space And I Will Be Debited For It. What you're really getting is a direct connection to the iTunes servers.

As for storage, as it's not real storage you could just make it another "partition" of your MobileMe allowance and jump it up ? so 20GB for your real iDisk and Mail and then another 100GB for media "storage."

[sheilanolan]

This is why I like e-music, if I happen to lose my music or something screws up the download, I can re-download any music I've bought including albums that are also available in iTunes which only allows 1 download.

[docintherock]

Hey Chris,

I agree that AppleTV can be frustrating at times it is still a fun gadget to have in your house. My kids enjoy watching YouTube clips on it when our family computer is being used. I also have replaced my Blockbuster and NetFlix memberships with AppleTV.

Good article. I think the AppleTV has a little ways to go. They should let people download Pandora and some of the other Internet radio stations onto it. Open up the AppStore to the AppleTV that would be awesome.

[byronkim]

I like the general concept. The idea of access-anywhere content is pretty cool. But if the result is more monthly charges (which I would imagine would be the case if fully realized due the scale of storage and bandwidth use), I'm less into it...I'm really getting tired of escalating monthly fees on all fronts. I'd rather buy a larger hard drive.

Now if someone could figure out an easy way for remote access to data/media where I own the cloud...like some server at home that can be accessed by the iPhone or laptop...I think I'd buy into that.

[Adwiz]

Storage is certainly the biggest issue as digital video comes of age. Case in point: My 12,000 song library of (legally purchased) music weighs in at 47GB, but buying TV shows and movies and converting my DVDs has already consumed an additional 420GB of space on my dedicated 1TB iTunes hard drive. I'm not sure how long before that drive fills up, but I give it less than a year.
I'm not sure that a remote server will be the answer, though. With the price of storage coming down, it may not be long before a 1TB drive costs about the same as a year's subscription to MobileMe.

[pgillan]

If'n I had to guess, I'd say that apple allows you to re-download applications because they are updated. In iTunes, when I get an update, it always says "You've already downloaded this App, are you sure you want to download it again?" If they had a more integrated way of performing updates, I'm not sure they would allow you to download the App again. Since movies, TV and Music are static content, they don't have to allow additional downloads. That's just my guess, though.

[SirBrass]

I'd say that I cannot identify with the author of the article here.



I have an Apple TV myself (160GB), and I rent HD movies from it all the time. I have yet to have it choke on me like this. Even when I have several downloads going (one at a time, of course) on the Apple TV.

The author needs to make sure that everything is kosher on his network between the apple tv and his router. You'd be surprised how many "my device choked!" (where the device locks up) problems happen due to the network connection rather than due to anything wrong with the device's software itself.

[Chris Breen]

SirBrass said:

> The author needs to make sure that everything is kosher on his network between the apple tv and his router. You'd be surprised how many "my device choked!" (where the device locks up) problems happen due to the network connection rather than due to anything wrong with the device's software itself.

That's an excellent suggestion and it's something I've done -- stripped my network to make transfers as reliable as possible. That entails an AirPort Extreme Base Station downstairs distributing addresses, a Mac Pro downstairs that holds my iTunes library connected to the Base Station via Ethernet, and another Ethernet connection running upstairs from the Base Station to the Apple TV. Pretty basic. So no, it's not the network.