New AppleTV Ships (Thanks, but no thanks)

I'm actually surprised at the small number of folks bragging and tweeting about their AppleTV's arriving late this week.

It has started shipping and folks have started unwrapping them, but the most exciting news seems to be that you can backup the Apple SHSH with TinyUmbrella (the tool that allows you to revert back to an older iOS firmware after Apple stops officially allowing you to do so).  This probably means the device will eventually be jailbroken, and at that point, it may have some interesting and useful purpose to me.

Why "Thanks, but no thanks"?  For starters, the closed ecosystem of the device.  You can stream your local content to it, however, the only other source of content is Netflix and the iTunes store (for $0.99 per show or $3.99 per movie).

Sure, $99 is cheap, but it I had to pay a buck every time my kids watched a SpongeBob episode I'd be broke!  Why would I do that, when the content I want to stream is already available for free (as advertiser supported content) over at Hulu and other similar sites.  No streaming of NHL GameCenter Live + no MBL.com + no Hulu = no thanks (for me).

Maybe as a jailbroken device it will have a better justification for a place in my entertainment system.

Let us know what you think:

Can AppleTV do anything that we can't already do?
Does it do any of it better?

PlayON iPhone App in the App Store

PlayON.tv now has their app available in the Apple iPhone App Store! (app store link) (itunes link)

Starting today iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can download the free PlayON Mobile app to their device.  This allows you to have nearly any streaming web content available in the palm of your hand from sources such as Hulu, MLB, NHL, Netflix, Amazon VOD, CBS, Comedy Central, TV.com, ESPN.com, ESPN3, CNN, PBS, PBS Kids, Fox News, SpikeTV, MTV and Vevo.  

Thats right, Hulu.com on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch without having to subscribe to HuluPlus.

The software requires the PlayON software for Windows running on a PC on your network (tdownload a free trial from PlayOn.tv -- after the trial users can subscribe to PlayON for $39 for the first year and $19 for each year thereafter).  Well worth it for giving us all this content on our iDevices, XBox360's, PS3's, Wii's, and any other DLNA compliant playback device.

So far the app looks good and is quite speedy (even compared to the previous HTML5 web interface on iDevices) and best of all, it works over WiFi or 3G.

Way to go PlayON!  Keep up the good work!

Streaming Video Anywhere with TVersity or PlayON

We've cut the cord on the cable/satellite and using Boxee on the main TV to watch Hulu, Netflix, MLB baseball games, NHL hockey games, and just about anything else available online, on the big-screen TV.  So what about the other 3 TV's?  Sure, free over-the-air HD is fine for network shows, but what if we want to watch Psych in the Den (there's no computer attached there but there is an XBox360).  What if the kids want to watch the newest Deadliest Catch on their iPod Touch?

In the near future, all the TV's in my house will have their own Boxee Box but until then how do we get more than 3-4 "local" networks?

There is a solution (actually a few, but, this article will focus on the option I chose to solve everything for multiple devices in my house).

How Will This Work?

It all hinges upon getting the content into your home from the internet either via Hulu, Netflix, or a download from uTorrent; then getting it to your PS3, XBox360 or iOS devices like iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.  So how does one accomplish this?

Boxee Box Pre-Orders

This Just In... (and first on my list of "What It Does" items from my welcome article)...

Pre-order the Boxee Box from Amazon.com!

At $199 this network based media playback device has great promise for the living room media portal.  And it even comes with a fantastic remote control with a built-in keyboard for easy searching of shows and movies!

Click here for the Amazon.com pre-order page: Boxee Box Pre-Order

Its got a great user interface for browsing  thousands of television episodes available for online viewing via Hulu, PBS, Discovery Channel, NHL Game Center, MLB, ESPN, and many more.  You're sure to find enough content for the entire family, and its super easy to search and navigate.  According to the Boxee staff,   they also plan to have Netflix integrated -- expect a press release on that soon!