Apple TV To Launch

Apple TV is launching this week in the US for $299, allowing users to wirelessly transfer downloaded video content to their TV from their PC.

Steve Jobs, Apple founder unveiled Apple TV in January, alongside the iPhone, a touch-screen handset that combines a mobile phone, internet access, and iPod music and video playback features (see Apple Launches Blackberry Rival).

Apple TV, which Jobs described as a “DVD player for the 21st century”, synchronises with video downloaded to Apple’s iTunes on a Mac or PC and had been originally slated for a February release.

Walt Mossberg, technology correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, said: “Like the iPod before it, Apple TV isn’t the first gadget in its category. Several other companies have made set-top boxes or even TV sets and game consoles that could link the TV to the digital content that people have on their computers.

“But none has found a mass audience for this functionality, mainly because they tend to be hard to set up and confusing to use. Apple is hoping that, just as the iPod trumped earlier, but geekier, rivals, Apple TV can do the same by making a complex task really simple.”

Apple: www.apple.com