... but it doesn't quite do it for me. It's a nice media extender with a lovely interface, but there are already media extenders galore, and I was holding out for a way of ditching cable (we have lousy broadcast reception) with one small box.
Simply adding hulu in the US (and alternatives such as iPlayer overseas) would do it for me; ad-supported TV I'm fine with. It's not that I'm against a payment model. Without advertising, someone's got to pay somewhere. Apple's 99c for episodes at higher quality and no adverts is a fair price, and fine "as an option", but I can't see why they didn't allow for cloud-based purchasing as it would increase revenues even more, surely? Having apple TV for cloud-based rental, and computers with iTunes and downloads for purchase just seems crazy; why not let purchased items be viewed from the cloud too? I don't want to have to run a computer AND apple TV to watch purchased shows; might as well just plug the computer straight in. I can't help but think that they rushed this just to beat Google TV there, and in doing so have provided something that is just waiting to be blasted out of the water.
Agreed with others that, at $99, it's not a surprise that it falls short of expectations. Still, I'd have paid double that had it offered full Hulu+Netflix+iTunes capability. If they could sort out the purchase model and somehow bring CBS onboard plus some of the cable channels too (Showtime & HBO rentals for anyone?), that would just be the icing on the cake.
Disappointment from me, and the hope that at least hulu will be added to save an otherwise lovely little piece of hardware.
-k