Apple TV (above) is a gadget that takes a movie or TV programme delivered via a broadband connection and iTunes, then plays it on your television (below).Apple has began shipping its new Apple TV box to New Zealand customers.The gadget allows you to watch
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Apple TV (above) is a gadget that takes a movie or TV programme delivered via a broadband connection and iTunes, then plays it on your television (below).
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Apple has began shipping its new Apple TV box to New Zealand customers.
The gadget allows you to watch on-demand movies and TV programmes downloaded on-demand, via a broadband connection.
READ ALSO: Everyone but Telecom: Sky TV names iSky partners
Unlike its predecessor, the new Apple TV lacks its own hard drive, instead streaming content via a PC or Mac.
On the plus side, at $169 it's only a third the price of the first-generation Apple TV; the steep discount seems a calculated bid to move internet content into the mainstream.
Read NBR’s Apple TV preview here.
Sony's Google TV
Meanwhile, Sony NZ technology communications manager Tim Barlow has told NBR that his company will consider releasing its Google TV in New Zealand.
Officially billed as the Sony TV, Powered by Google, the new flatscreen will feature built-in support for video search via Google or YouTube, and Google's Picasa photo sharing service - all of which will be browsable via the TV's remote.
Almost all modern flatscreens offer some degree of access to YouTube and/or similar services already.
Sony's Google TV will differentiate it itself by offering full-length, pay-per-view TV programmes and movies as well. US customers will be able to buy on-demand content from Amazon.com and Hulu.com; services for the rest of the world have yet to be announced.
Sony has already confirmed that the Google TV will be launched in Australia as part of its wider roll-out during 2011.
Google sees support for Google TV being built into a range of devices, including blu-ray disc players. It's three hardware partners are Sony, Intel and Logitech.
Sky TV's iSky
Another on-demand broadband option is also in the works, with Sky TV yesterday announcing that Kordia’s Orcon division would build the network for the pay TV broadcaster’s iSky product launching November 15.
Orcon will use use Alcatel-Lucent's Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform for the upgrade.
iSky is expected to be supported by multiple ISPs. Chief executive John Fellet has said he is willing to partner with any internet service provider that provides unmetered data (that is, does not count downloaded iSky content toward a customer’s monthly data cap, or offers a plan with no data cap).
TelstraClear T-box
The re-launched Sky TV service will compete against the Caspa download service that forms a component of TiVo (read Screwed by TiVo, saved by Apple TV).
And yet another potential on-demand download service has arrived in the form of TelstraClear's T-Box.
Available for those on the company's cable network in Wellington and Christchurch, the T-box offers a range of Sky TV broadcast channels and other content. It also has provision for on-demand broadband content, but at launch, this feature has not been enabled.
The plethora of contenders also includes the TV and download service affiliated with Microsoft's Xbox Live 360 service.
Apple TV, Xbox 360 and TiVo's Caspa all share the same limitation with their on-demand broadband content: Hollywood studios are relatively miserly, at this point, about what they will over for internet delivery, and when.
Sky TV, on the other hand, is believed to have bought up a swathe of online broadcast rights in preparation for its iSky relaunch (a previous iteration of the service was put on hold due to ISPs' failure to cough up unlimited data plans).
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