Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew Muscovy AK from C net and we are taking another look at the Apple TV the latest version of Apple's 100 dollar streaming box actually came out back in March of 2012 but since then it's had quite a few updates that have added some functionality the physical hardware is still the same it's a very minimalist black box which is good since it doesn't call attention to itself in your TV cabinet around back you'll get HDMI optical audio output and Ethernet plus there's a micro USB port but that's for service only inside there's also dual band Wi-Fi so you don't need an Ethernet cable in the living room to get it online the included remote is as simple as it gets there's a navigation circle a place / pause button and a menu button which doubles as a back button it's an easy remote to use although it doesn't quite compare to the Roku threes clicker which operates using Wi-Fi direct and has a built-in headphone jack the user interface was overhauled a while back and now it has a more app centric design that kind of makes your TV look like a giant iPad you can rearrange the apps however you'd like and the layout for Apple's iTunes services is particularly nice offering up lots of useful info including Rotten Tomatoes ratings the traditional knock against the Apple TV is that it's short on apps but that's not really fair anymore Apple has added a lot of services to its box and most of the major ones are covered like Netflix HBO Go Hulu Plus YouTube MLB TV and watch ESPN there are still some notable exceptions particularly Amazon Instant what I think most buyers will be perfectly satisfied with Apple TV's current Sleater services the Apple TV is noticeably light when it comes to streaming music apps as there's no dedicated support for popular services like Spotify RDO Amazon Cloud Player and Pandora however you can access those services using airplay which is really the Apple TV's killer feature the basic idea with airplay is it lets you stream any music video or photo from your iPhone or iPad straight to your TV it works with nearly every third party so you can load up Spotify on your iPhone hit the airplay button and it will stream straight to your Apple TV the Apple TV can also be used with airplay mirroring which works with newer Macs and it lets you broadcast exactly what's on your screen including flash video and free Hulu content right to your TV however in my testing while airplay mirroring does tend to be a lot more reliable than Google chromecast mirroring you should note that it still doesn't look nearly as good as HD video straight from Netflix or HBO GO the big question is how the Apple TV stacks up to other streaming boxes and even with the recent upgrades the Roku 3 is still my favorite streaming box as it has more channels excellent cross-platform search and that neat remote with the headphone jack there's also Google's $35 chromecast to consider which is irresistible price where at the moment it only supports Netflix and Hulu and it's screen mirroring feature doesn't work all that great with standard hardware so overall the Apple TV is an undeniably polished and excellent streaming box and if you're heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem with a lot of iTunes content and iOS devices it's well worth the $100 price but if you're not heavy into Apple gadgets the Roku 3 is still the better buy although the two boxes are awfully close to these days I'm Matthew Muscovy ACK and this is the Apple TV