Apple TV 2.0

The real question facing the next rev of Apple TV is whether or not Apple can join the 21st century of home theater and add an on-off button to the remote control. On the iPod, reducing the number of buttons to a bare minimum makes sense: you don't want to deal with a lot of buttons on the go. But while sitting in front of your TV, having to press the play/pause button for five seconds makes no sense, and, more importantly, makes it impossible to control the Apple TV with any programmable or universal remote. You'd think that noted genius Steve Jobs would have figured this out the first time.

Comments

[Crissa]

Bluetooth works differently than IR remotes.

The PS3 has the same doodad to power it up and down.

Umm, I think?

[Crissa]

What gets me, though, is that an Apple TV is both more powerful than my older G4 macs and less expensive than upgrading those with a new video card to support the same stuff.

[Nicholas Beaudrot]

The new Apple TV remote is bluetooth? Even worse. But the complaint is about the UI of the remote itself, and is in theory orthogonal to the protocol (though it's much more important if it's IR)

The PS3 is blue-tooth only, but you can buy an IR adapter, which will work for everything except on-off.

And yes, Moore's Law works in mysterious ways.