I was fortunate enough to get one of the first AppleTVs sold in West Palm Beach. Actually, it was the first out of Wellington Green Mall. I had pre-ordered one through Apple.com, but evidently my pre-order won't ship until April 4th? So I can get one through a store quicker than a pre-order. Uh, does anyone see something wrong with that?
Aside from my bitterness with Apple on that accord, this device is sweet. Hooking it up to your TV is simple, assuming you have a 3 cable "component" TV (RGB). If you've bought a TV in the past 2 years, you're probably okay.
Sound quality is awesome. I'm taking a digital feed. As I do this review, Family Force 5 is literally rattling my windows. Hopefully my new neighbors won't call the cops! The picture quality is decent. I am just doing the component feed (not worrying about HDMI... I don't even do HDTV through cable...)
Apple has built quite the system through iTunes. Initially iTunes just cataloged music (thus the Tunes in iTunes). For me, music is a huge part of the iTunes experience. As you can tell from my blogroll, Podcasting is a big part of my digerati. I blogged several moths ago that AppleTV will allow a direct pipeline from churches/organizations straight to people's TVs. Rather than rehash the possibilities, check out the blog.
One of the first things I did was watch sevenoseven's vidcast of one of their services. It was incredible. It fully met my expectations, allowing me to not only get teaching through the podcast but experience the worship service even though I am on the other side of the country.
One thing I have learned from watching Apple over the years: where they go, others will follow. I guarantee there are other companies now developing SIMPLE DEVICES (not Microsoft MEDIA PCs) to connect audio/video/podcasting from the Internet to TVs. And as more of these devices get developed, more and more people will have access to online content through the comfort of their living room!
This is an exciting time for Church Media guys. Create content online suitable for the living room! Make your worship experience move online. Think of your content beyond geographical borders!
Thank you, Apple, for creating THE MOST EXCITING device to come out in recent memory.
Great summary and thoughts jeff...it'll be exciting to see how this ministry option develops over time. We're working on some training podcasts for small group leaders here. Maybe eventually ... if we can do it well ... we'll move to some video options too!
Posted by: Jon Sampson | 2007.03.25 at 07:12 PM